"Good fences make good neighbors." Robert Frost

Being not the gorgeous thing that I used to be, well there was a small window with that… really! Periodically, I was something of a person who was not that hard on the eyes or so I was told, … and I did model for stores from the age of seven year’s old till I was twenty-one for Sterns, Ohrbach’s and Lord and Taylor’s, stopping only due to being married and expecting our first son, and then again was somewhat a spoke’s model in my early forties while working in promotion during bike week in Daytona, all decked out in my black leather mini skirt and jacket, and me a mother of teenagers by then… Any-who… I do understand what beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I also understand what is considered not quite so lovely to too many too, ya know?

UNFAIR!

Appearance means so darn much in life and sadly it determines people’s opinions of you, before they really know who you are, that is the inner you!

And so in these last several years as my body has grown enormous, even in spite of my efforts to change it, and really needing all the good exercise one should have… and us with our own pool in our own backyard.

Besides having to fight with the heat taking our swimming pools temperature to an unhealthy height for me with my MS heat sensitivity I was also threatened with exposure on the one side of our yard where we still have a chain link fence, albeit with Allamandas and Mexican Petunias, not to mention Cape honeysuckle and our grapevine jutting out into the yard from its arbor…but still…

You see, the other side of our yard has a white stockade six foot fence along the front and on the far side, although down to the water on the side still has the old chain link with Bougainvillea intertwined on it with other vegetation on its other side due to that being an empty lot on that side. The home that was there for decades was destroyed by Hurricane Charley and it was its roof that had gone through our guest-room window and caused all our damage.

And so no neighbors there.

We do have neighbors on the one with yellow Allamandas and purple Mexican Petunias, not to mention red Cape honeysuckle and our grapevine and I almost forgot the Plumbagos (bluish) too all on that chain link fence and of course the canal side has none at all.

We do have bamboo planted at the end of the pool flanked with white Mandevillas for more privacy.

And so I was paranoid in this shape and condition to utilize the pool and me a certified Aquacize instructor; shame on me!

But now with the cooling rains and the terrific privacy fence that Hubby has made to preserve my dignity until I am not such a BIG sight for sore eyes or is that eyesore? Now that gives that expression a whole new spin, hmm?

I may be able to try to stick my tootsies in by the weekend!

Pool needs a good cleaning due to the torrential rains and but the chlorine has been amped up as I speak/write here, and according to all weather reports it will be still very warm here and finally sunny too, but the pool water is rain cooled…and so perhaps… 

Here’s Hubby’s handy work from cedar scraps:

  

It is four feet tall, the side ones are six and this one should protect me from scrutiny, since I am only five foot one and will be lower than the fence anyway…rolling around...

If for any spectacular reason I grow smaller, width –wise that is than I suggested  that the sections could be used to replace the chain link sections, although, with all the vegetation growing around or through it, it could prove difficult to do… oh well…

On that note of why good fences make good neighbors, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square.

PS and yes, I will still be going to the gym/rehab on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays…too! The pool is for when I can have all the necessary components just in the right alignment…!