It was fifteen years ago today that I initially built the outdoor toybox which eventually became our pool toybox.
It was true; I overengineered it a lot because I fully expected toddlers to climb on it.
It was a year ago that I rebuilt it since it was rotting in a lot of places from years of water dripping on its bottom.
And…. It’s ultimately too small for proper sized floats. We’ve only had two this year: A large innertube shaped one that the oldest bought and a leaky mattress type that my beautiful wife bought for $2 on clearance at Walmart.
I’ve still gone out most days, or at least a couple of times per week. The wife likes to go out to the pool in the afternoons when she can. The boys have only been into the pool a couple of times, and one has had a couple of friends to swim once.
Our pool is an underutilized space for sure–and, as major systems have come overdue for replacement at Nogglestead coincidentally when our income is running on a lean mixture–we realized that the pool has been the only thing we’ve spent money maintaining in our time here at Nogglestead.
And the toybox? I shall probably deconstruct it sometime soon and turn it into additional record shelving or leave it in its component parts in my garage and/or shed for years.
But, briefly, it held plastic sports equipment, a giant bounce-on hopalong toy that I used more than my young children did, a plastic lawnmower, and whatnot. And then for longer it held a rotating collection of floats, including water wings and other toddler-sized floats, balls, and dive toys for longer. But nothing now.
To be honest, when I saw the Facebook memories, I thought I’d share the story of rebuilding it, but then I found I already had. Pardon the indulgence about musing about the same thing again one year later.
