Obscure as he's been this past season, I, too, thank Ben. I knew zero, I mean ZERO when five years ago I moved from almost 50 years of living in the frigid tundra known as Minnesota to the deep south in Alabama, and bought my sweet treehouse on a half acre with a pool (and a gazillion too many trees, at least in terms of having a pool -- but it's sure great for privacy). When I think back and how naive I was, oh gosh, what I learned after studiously reviewing this forum several hours a day for a month.

Yep, once upon a time I even used idiot strips; took the pool store's advice and used a nonchlorine shock and had a cloudy pool; used the pucks and had an outrageously high CYA; and generally bought everything the pool store advised at a cost, I think, of around $800 that first season. Now, it's a cup of acid once in a while and a few cups of good old nonscented 6% bleach from the grocery store each day. How simple, how economical, and the water's always clear.

And I also thank all the wonderful mods on this forum which, apparently, I'm still very attached to as I haven't yet registered with the one (or two) sister sites created in Ben's absence and concern of this forum one day being lost to the stars.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Elsie