lanced

I lanced the boil this day.
Ok, I sucked out most of the water. I put a hose up there and sucked
as hard as I could on the end of it. In an attempt to create a
syphon. Alas, I must play more hockey and racket ball and maybe
install a small vacuum motor in my chest. My second attempt came from
the idea of the neighbor, Mark. He suggested submerging the hose
completely and then plugging the end I pulled out which would prime
the pump as it were. I stood in the sun wrestling with the hose in
the 38 degree temperatures, twisting and tugging trying to get it to
coil so I could feed it into the water. It was stubborn and
untrained. I gave up. Back down the ladder to the side walk, in and
out of the house 2 or 3 times, a dry to wet-vac conversion, and some
duct tape later the hose was attached to the vacuum. Wee! It sucked
it right down the hose. As the tape decided to stick very well to the
joint I unplugged the vacuum from the body and watched it drain into
the alley. It took an hour to drain what this method could do. I then
poked a hole in the very bottom and drained the rest into a 5 gallon
bucket perched on the little giant. Finally, from abve I cut with the
very sharp blade of the leatherman, the part of the rubber that was
once the boil.
I finished the layer of insulation in the warm room and moved some
things into the house.

what is it.

Many people have emailed me from near and far to ask me just what is
this poolhouse thing. One guy even wondered if he should bring his
arm that is on fire. I was not clear about this. The pool house is a
place. It is in the near end of a dead end ally in south minneapolis.
It once was a garage. To put cars. It was built a long time ago. The
property was developed in 1890. The garage I am guessing was not
added until sometime later. Maybe after the invention of the car. Or
at least after the practical application and wide spread
distribution. At some point between then and now the garage was added
to. The addion was to become known as the cadillac extension. It was
an expansion of the original garage to accommodate the larger cars,
like the cadillac. As the first one was made in 1902 it would have
have to have come after this date. My grandfather wanted one. He died
with a toyota tercel 4 door and a cutlass seirra. Both a shade of
blue. Either would have fit in the original garage. Structurally, the
garage was in need of being torn down and rebuilt completely.
I knew this when I bought the place in 2003.
This summer I had the time and need to create a place to, and this is
a secret, live. No one would think to look for someone doing that in
the garage, garages are for cars and stuff. I began by tearing down
the roof. Not sure how it was still standing, or even stood in the
first place. They must have had different weather back then. The off
came the roll up doors. and the ally side. This left the cadillac
extension and the two side walls. Swimming around in my head was the
idea that I would rebuild the ally side and install a temporary pool
inside, with the roof off and it open to the sky. The actual day I
began this was the day that was 105 here. I had planned to get the
roof off and the pool up all by myself that day..... 2 days later
after recovering from heat stroke I decided to put the pool on the
metal disk in the backyard and not in the garage.
Since then the project has gone in some new directions. There is a
warm section and right now a section which has a 10 foot wide circle
built intentionally into the flat roof. Which is presently covered
with the rubber for the roof. I have not cut out the hole. I have put
water in the opening from above, causing it to droop down into the
cold part of the poolhouse.
In the future I hope to use the space as a performance space. For
Puppets, music and video as well as art shows and the lectures.
The first shows will begin to happen in the spring. The rubber will
be cut off by then.

It holds water!

It holds water!
Originally uploaded by poolhouse1919.

had to do it

The EPA came took the yard away. Said we had too much arsenic in the
soil from a pesticide plan some blocks away from here. They moved the
disk and replaced it spending an inordinate time leveling the ground
underneath it. Should do something to the shape of the pool in the
summer when it returns.
Progress has gone documented but unreported for the last spell of
time. Many other things have diverted time. The Pacific has brought
interesting fluctuations to the internal landscape. I got to help
with the Barebones production this year. And the hockey stick is back
in my hands. It had been 20 years since I had played.... oh my.....
my mind was way ahead of my body. Which made for some very funny
situations. I spend a bunch of time on the ice, on my belly..... last
night was better. First real games next week.