"Is Your Pool Open Yet?"

It's that time of the ________ again .... Yeah, not my favorite time at all. No, it's not what you're thinking. GASP! I'm talkin about Pool Season. Seems like only yesterday when I was confessing my hatred of opening our community's swimming pool and here it is time to re-open.

This year the pool was painted, a new rockscape installed, new latch installed, tables prepped and painted and all areas deemed to be accessible by anyone larger than a hamster reinforced. Based on the number of phone calls from Residents asking when we were opening the pool, I was pretty sure Opening Day would be successful. However, I was completely surprised by this phone conversation.

The phone rings and I answer it late in the afternoon, expecting the caller to be a Prospect looking for info or a Resident with a work order.

"Is your pool open yet?"

Now, I am such a smart ass (in my head at least.) So many possibile replies volleyed back and forth in my head in all of a split second. But I successfulle repressed the urge to utter something totally irresponsible. "Well, I will be happy to talk to you. With whom I am speaking?" Yeah, I actually can be pretty formal.

"I just want to know if your pool is open?"

"Okay, I understand that. Are you one of our Residents?"

"What difference does THAT make? Look, it's a simple question, Lady."

"Yes, and I have a simple answer. If you're a Resident, I can tell you this information." A long pause.
"I'm calling for someone else who lives there. They're at work and want to know if they can use the pool when they get off work. So, is your pool open or not? Why won't you just tell me?"

So, I told him we don't have a public pool and I can only discuss property questions like this with a Resident. "Just have them call the office or send me an email," I said. "And the reason I can't discuss this with you is one, you will not even identify yourself, so how do I know who you are? And two, there are a lot of differences between public pools and private pools. Our pool is private and it is only for our Residents."

He was really persistent. "So, are you going to tell me or not?" When I didn't answer right away he hung up and truthfully I was relieved. Why on earth would a complete stranger, whom I do not know (or at least I don't think I do) talk so rudely? Okay, so maybe it isn't that I don't like Pool Season as much as I just don't like Rude People.

How Norman Rockwell Can You Get?

My, how time flies, whether or not you are having fun. Some days go by so quickly and others seem to drag. Now that graduations are being commenced and pools are opening and all the reality TV shows are wrapping up another season of stupidity, we are forging once again into a hot, summer time. I treasure those days when the temps are nice - you know - high 70s - breeze blowing just enough to cool and no one really NEEDS any air conditioning.

The other day was a particularly slow leasing day. Hardly any traffic coming through the door and I was happy when someone finally showed up late in the day. It was a great meeting, she was pleasant, seemed happy and excited about the prospect of her first "grown-up" apartment. That's when she asked me, "So, what makes this place so special?"

Funny. I think this is the first time anyone actually outright asked me that. My first response was (and always is tucked somewhere in my "presentation"): "Me. No one cares more about this community than I do." Then it hit me like a ton of bricks and I added, "Well, me AND our Residents."

She kind of smiled and asked what I meant. So, I told her that I thought it was rare that people feel so comfortable here that they decide they WANT to be here. Year after year and not just for one or two people but more and more Residents choose to stay here for five or more years, even when they could buy a house. Of course, she may have thought I was just saying that to make Ashton Glen look inviting, but it is the truth. Just at that moment (and you know the gods don't align like this often), I pointed out the sliding glass door window to the little boy running with his kite across the large green space and I said, "Where else do you see a sight like that? Is there anything more Norman Rockwell than that?"

There are two military families that are shipping out and two more that have already shipped out, I told her. Even though they left or are leaving to attend to duties overseas or in other parts of the United States, two of these families are returning here when they come "home." Home to them means not just the United States, but also this apartment community. Wow. And one of these families is actually paying rent on their apartment while absent. This says it all.