pool – Ahuva’s Blog

THIS is why, Ann

july 26 dinner 2 — Ready for the guests to arrive

More than 30 years ago my husband and I went before the town planning board to get permission to put an extension on our house and build an attached deck. The addition was in place of the tiny back porch and little pantry, and part of where the driveway widened for the 2-car garage. The deck was approximately 32 ft by 15.5 feet and replaced most of our backyard. To get the necessary permits, you have to send notices to all the neighbors, and go before either the zoning board or planning board for permission and any variances. Even if our deck were to be smaller, we’d have needed variances because our old house was built before the ordinances were created and we had existing variances. (I don’t know why that should make us have to go if the new work wouldn’t be in variance, but it does.) I believe there were 5 people on the board, one of them, Ann, a mother of a classmate of mine. During the days leading up to our hearing, I saw various strangers stroll down my driveway and into my backyard – board members checking out the property. We got to the hearing and Ann reproved us, asking “WHY do you NEED such a LARGE deck?” Before we could even start to reply to this unexpected question, another board member spoke up. “Did you SEE their property, Ann? (aside: no – she never came to look.) It’s shady, it slopes, no grass because of the shade. The deck will be a huge improvement.” Well, yes, he was right. Not only would the deck give us a usable attractive backyard, it would function as a large entertainment room as well. Needless to say, our application was approved, the addition added, and we got our deck (which my structural engineer husband designed to withstand nuclear attack and about which the builders complained bitterly).

getting ready — Preparing the deck for little 1-year old feet!

There have been various pictures on this blog that show the deck – in snow, in summer, in fall with the red tail hawk feasting on the squirrel. Over the years the furnishings on the deck have changed from sandboxes and plastic slides and play houses and shade from the cherry tree branches to market umbrellas and wood furnishings to umbrellas and led-lit palm trees and propane-tank fire pits with big comfy chairs. The hot tub has been a constant in the one corner, although it is now the 3rd tub.

the clan on the deck — The clan on the deck enjoying lunch

My niece and her husband and ~~their~~ our one-year old summer solstice baby came to visit July 4th weekend. It was supposed to be in the 90s and humid all day. How to keep everyone happy and safe? The deck has one oscillating fan and 3 umbrellas. Thinking of little soft feet that had only just learned to walk on their own a few short weeks earlier, I went out and bought a large outdoor ‘carpet’ for the deck. I put up a square 10’x10′ pop-up awning. I brought 3 more fans out from the house and aimed them at the play area under the awning. I bought LOTS of toys for ‘my’ baby. I NEEDED a pool. There were no small kiddie pools to be had in time for love or money. What to do???? /me sings “ShopRite has the answer!” There it was – right as you walk into the store. Pool toys. Including an inflatable raft with sides. The PERFECT size and shape for a pool!!!! All for the exorbitant price of $8. As you can see in the pictures, we had plenty of shade, the fans gave us a breeze, and some of us enjoyed the water. 🙂 Yes, it WAS humid but the fans do help somewhat. It was good, but I knew I could do better.

ladies of the family (2) — The ladies of my family are beautiful but I must protect them from the paparazzi!

This past weekend we had friends coming for dinner on the deck. It would be the 6 of us, and it was again going to be in the high 90s and humid. 4 of us belonged to one ‘pod’ but the other 2 are just in the process of venturing out to be socially distanced, maskless, from non-pod people. Not only that, but I knew I had to do better about the heat and humidity. I upped the number of fans to 5, including buying 2 with larger diameter than the ones from the house that I’d used before. 🙂 4 oscillating fans and one stationary fan. The day before I set up the pop-up tent and surrounded it with 4 umbrellas. I also made sure we had LOTS of ice – 30 pounds of ice. Yes – 20 would have sufficed. 🙂 But you KNOW I would have needed more if I’d only had 20. We did quite well – social distance was maintained, there was a constant gentle breeze, and a good time (and great food) was had by all.

july 26 dinner 1 — Socially distanced dinner for 6 -can you find the 5th fan?

Now I’m on vacation. I know that I’m “supposed” to going down the shore multiple times this week. BUT. Well. This is embarrassing to write but honestly – I know I’m getting old. It’s actually too hot for me to want to pack up everything and shlepp to the beach early enough to avoid the worst of the traffic. I made a list of everything I’d like to get done in the way of chores, and there are a LOT of things to be done. Why chores on vacation? Because I don’t have time to get some of these things done when I’m working and they are constant irritants whenever I see them or think about them. The solution? Spa Ahuva!!!!!

setting up Spa Ahuva — Setting up Spa Ahuva

Welcome to Spa Ahuva! It has ALL the amenities of the most luxurious spas. Easy to get to – no traffic. Secluded – exclusive membership. Shade. Comfortable chairs. Gentle breeze to keep guests cool and keep the bugs away. Hot tub, for those aching muscles. Rest facilities within an easy walk. And a POOL to cool off in should the need arise. Because I finally found a kiddie pool online that I could still get delivered. Although, Spa Ahuva doesn’t REALLY have all the amenities I need. There is no wait staff to come around and take my food and drink order, and deliver the order chair-side. I’ll have to work on that.

So Ann P – THIS is why we NEEDED such a LARGE deck. 🙂

Why I Stay

Whenever I think of leaving SL or think of packing up my house and pool, karma intervenes. I believe it was back when I was thinking of moving off the mainland that LOLpande came around. The last few months I’ve been in my skybox more often than not. I do go down to visit the ducks, but mostly I’m away. I’ve been toying with the idea of packing up the house and simply moving the pool up to the sky. Everytime I think I might do that it seems too much effort. And I love my house. Even if I’m not in it as much as I was. So there it sits while I relax in the sky.

Last week I logged in to the usual bunch of IMs and messages. I noticed an unfamiliar name in the IMs and looked a bit more closely.

Sky: hey I found ur place by accident
Sky: it is great
Sky: like the pool

/me smiles. For me, this is one of the great pleasures of SL. Even better than someone enjoying what I enjoy is the fact that Sky took the time to IM me to tell me that. So I sent off a reply.

Ahuva Heliosense: /me grins. so glad you enjoyed the pool! thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Ahuva Heliosense: feel free to use it often.

And I went on about my way, smiling. The next time I logged in, there was an IM from Sky, thanking me. About a week later, I was hanging about the skybox, relaxing, IM’ing with some folks, but mostly enjoying my morning coffee, when Sky IM’d me from my pool. *grin* I tp’d down right away. There was Sky, floating about in the pool. Apparently he’d figured out how to unhide all the pose balls. I settled down poolside and we chatted for a bit. I did offer him a bathing suit but he was quite content to float about fully dressed. *grin* Interesting that. Many of my other guests have ALSO declined bathing suits, but they floated about au natural. 🙂

I realized that if I were going to run a swim club, it needed not only a name but some towels. I mentioned these issues to Oura and Faust. Oura found the towels and Faust named the spa: Villa sub Heliosense. *grin* I may have to change the name of my land group and set up different classes of permissions to accommodate the spa guests. Maybe add a shade umbrella or two. I’ll have to ask the ducks if they would mind visitors down on the sand.

Villa sub Heliosense: the home of sybaritic pleasures.

Pool Time

Ha! I bet your first thought was that I was going to talk about the pool table I want scripted for my coworkers. Admit it – you think I’m obsessed. Well. You are right that I am obsessed. But this post isn’t about that. However since YOU mentioned the pool table…. I don’t say this often here, it’s not really something I like to say. I quit. They win. They beat me down and I surrender. There won’t be a pool table for my manager’s manager. 😦 I was offered a WONDERFUL deal on a pool table script. VERY inexpensive, done by one of my absolute favorite most-trusted scripters. I cannot convince anyone at my company to fund it. No one I know has the budget to pay for it. I KNOW that there is money out there, because I see people getting garbage all the time. I can’t get anyone to pay for this and I simply can’t afford it myself. So. If my manager’s manager ever really comes inworld to hold his all-staff meeting, there won’t be a pool table. Don’t blame me. If they want team-building – let them go kill each other. 🙂

This post is REALLY about my pool, however. I LOVE my pool. Now that it’s summer in RL for me, I find that I am hanging out at my pool all the time. I’ve been thinking I needed more animations for it. Then I went to see Calli’s new house yesterday and also visited her neighbors. Wow. Now Calli knows how to live the good life. *grin* Her house is gorgeous and the views are stupendous. Her neighbors also do it right. Calli showed me the recliners. I NEEEEEEEDED those recliners. Now. This instant. Instant craving. That had to wait, however, as I wanted to see Shenlei’s students practice their fashion show. See – I CAN control my emotional side on rare occasion. 🙂 I love watching Shen’s students. They are so excited and happy when they walk the runway. I was having problems with that laptop, however, so my shots are not very good. Also – I don’t want to spoil the surprise for their final show. So no pics today. /me smiles They are so CUTE because they are SO excited!! *grin* Thanks Shen – it was great to hangout last night.

Once the students were done practicing, I grabbed Oura and said we MUST find the recliners. LOL. I bought 2 recliners and we headed back home to redecorate. We had to decide on colors. I really wanted colors yet when all was said and done – white looked the best at my pool. We had to move furniture all about, take out some plants. I HATE having to count prims. Sigh. I need more land. This really stinks. I NEED more land. (I’ve begun craving my own sim……) Jonah showed up and had great ideas too. I’ve managed to add the recliners AND keep the deck chairs. I’m so excited. Now I need some more animations for the water. We tried out some party lights too, but that’s where I started getting prim-conscious. blech. I may have to do some serious pruning on the back lot to gain more prims. Because I NEEEEEEEEEEED pool lights. *grin*

C’mon by and visit! The water’s great!

My Friends, We’ve Got TROUBLE

Right here in River City!!! With a Capital “T”! That rhymes with “P”! And that stands for POOL!!!!

You may have noticed that I love my life in SL. I have a great time and I am always trying to encourage other friends to come live here too. *grin* Or at least visit. (Gwyneth LLewelyn, one of the most articulate and learned bloggers out there, has the most provocative post on this subject. I am still pondering what she wrote and while I’m not sure I’m exactly comfortable with this realization, I think she has me ‘pegged’.) I have been telling my coworker J for MONTHS that he needs to come inworld. I have answered him on blogs, IM’d him, chatted on the phone, always to the same point: he can have team meetings, work, be productive and bond with other coworkers in a virtual setting.

Hallelujah! J came back from a corporate indoctrination session. *grin* Hey, I like those courses too, but let’s be honest. J and 21 others were together for a week. He told me they bonded in “our” old-fashioned way (J and I used to meet when we all came together for the yearly corporate extravaganza.) I laughed and said “Beer?” J replied “And POOL!!! Never forget the POOL!!” I laughed. I will never forget Pool night at MacClaren’s. McClanahan’s? McGovern’s? Okay. I can’t remember the place, but I remember the fun. And the team building. And oh yes, the photos. I paid a LOT for those photos. *grin*

J has come around to my way of thinking. He wants to bring his classmates together monthly so they can continue to work together and build on what they accomplished this past week. See – indoctrination DOES work. 🙂 So J wants my help. Time to put your money where your mouth is, Ahuva.

I told J who to contact officially in the company, to get into the corporate vw systems. But. J kept saying “Pool. I want to play pool. We all played pool. We could build on that.” /me rolls eyes and sighs dramatically. I checked but I knew it before I checked – even our wonderful corporate game master has NOT created a pool table. No pool yet in the corporate world. Ah, Oura, what would I do without you??? I sent an agitated IM to Oura saying “Find me a sex-free, working pool table!!!” Being Oura, of course she found one. In less than 30 minutes. Perfect. FW Supplies at Celestial Game Tower. Calli tp’d in to give her opinion. Turns out she has used this table – another friend has it. She said it really does work. The sex animations are an additional purchase if you are interested. 🙂 I did buy the cue stick rack. I am still considering the overhead lights (“If you got the optional pool lamp, rezzing it will make it automatically jump in place over the pool table. The lamp is MOD allowed, in order to extend its support up to your ceiling.”).

The other night Oura, Jonah, DZ and I unpacked my pool table and gave it a try. First, I had to change the felt to green. I don’t play pool in RL (nor in SL) but I DO know that the table has to be green. Not blue. There are 3 sets of instructions: for the owner, the player, and basic 8-Ball rules. You wear a HUD to play. DZ and Oura racked up first, Jonah and I cheered them on. Although I have the table at home right now (*giggle* it’s on the same level as my pool) I intend to move it to my SL office. I’ll take out the sofa and chairs, add the pool table and cue rack. I’ll leave the big conference table for the pizza and beer.

There were realistic sound effects, you can add power and spin to your shots. I have been assured that yes, this really IS like playing pool. *grin* I am going shopping for the beer and pizza NOW. I hope J and his gang remember to clean up after themselves. *grin*

So…. taken from my notecards, and yes, this is probably copyrighted, etc.:

• Truly realistic gameplay using extensive random physics, including possible strike miss
• Realistic custom pool table sounds and balls behavior, nice balls triangle animation and particle effects
• Balls roll on table and falls down in pockets, then slowly slide down the ramp on each side
• Really intuitive and user-friendly HUD-driven game, NO painful keyboard control NOR required MouseLook mode
• Includes automatic player’s camera control for table top view or cue view
• Balls tracking security system with automatic kill upon table eject, to avoid buggy balls remaining around on your parcel
• Owner can set table for pay-required games and choose felt’s color at will
• 8 Balls pool game rules strictly respected and handled by script

Player notes:
Player just needs to click on pool table frame to receive its Pool HUD, play instructions and pool rules. As soon as worn, the HUD searches for pool table around in a 20m range. If found, the player can then “Join Table”. Once table is joined by one or two players, the game can start by clicking on “Start Game” button. This brings the balls on table, then the triangle moves up and first player can strike (first player is always the one having started game).

8 Ball rules:
1. The game is played with one cue ball and 15 numbered object balls.
2. The balls are racked in a triangle at the foot of the table with the 8-ball in the center of the triangle, the first ball of the rack on the footspot, a stripe ball in one corner of the rack and a solid ball in the other corner, as the above illustration shows.
3. The object of the game is to make one group of numbered object balls, either stripes or solids, and then LEGALLY POCKET THE 8-BALL which then wins the game.