Yesterday, I went to the Swimming Pool Operators class held at the Harms Technology Center here in Scottsbluff. The great news is that I did pass the class so, in a few weeks, I should get my license in the mail. They thing I did not like about the class is that it lasted from 6pm until almost 11pm and I got home very late. I am very much a homebody so I did not like spending Monday evening attending this class. At least now I have got it done and the license is good for two years.

As for the swimming pool itself, we finally managed to get most of it drained. When I first started work on the pump, it was a cold, wet day and I felt like that everyone in their townhouses was watching me trying to get the stupid thing to work. It took forever to get it working, but I did finally make it work. The one problem is that it spent all day Saturday pumping and got about a third of the way done when it ran out of gas (it is gas operated). We had to go to Menards to get a gas can and then fill it with gas and I had to go through all the problems of restarting the pump. I finally got it to work and got most of the water pumped out of the pool. Trouble was that the last foot or so of water would not pump out so the guy who I rented the pump from had to come out and sort the problem out.  After he came, it took less than an hour to finish the job. So the water is pumped out and now the pool is empty.

I have gone down to the bottom of the pool and removed the old drain cover. As I expected, the cover is not compliant with the new federal law, so we have ordered a new pool drain cover that meets the new federal regulations. I ordered the cover from the same store that rented me the water pump. I have to say that the pool supply store in question has been very helpful. It also helps that the people who own it are the parents of one of my 9th grade students.