Quote Originally Posted by CarlD View Post
For me, I cannot fathom allowing someone to open or close my pool. When I open, while I have lots of dirt on the bottom, the water is always clear, with no green.

Even more so, though, I cannot see why our denizens here should ever allow a "professional" to add any chems to their pool.

But to each his own, and I think if you choose to have a service open and close your pool, you should still handle all the testing and chemicals yourself. We TRY to make understanding pool chemistry easy for our fellow home-owners.
While I too prefer to do my own work on the pool, for many people it's just not worth it. There are many people who make salaries that equate to hourly wages of well over 100 dollars; saving a couple hundred bucks for a few hours work just doesn't make sense for them. Even if they're getting a fairly raw deal. Likewise, spending even 5 or 10 minutes per day on maintenance. I'm not in that boat (yet), but I understand the mentality.

I certainly don't get the coffee thing in this country; the last time I was in Italy (2005) a stand-up cappucino was about 0.80 euros and, at every single bar I went to, the coffee was sublime.

Dunkin' Donuts dark roast isn't too bad, but that fake cream they use is truly an abomination.

Starbucks coffee is 1.80 plus tax here. I can't imagine paying $6.00. Must be those same people who are hiring pool services.