It was inevitable. As soon as summer began, our towels started disappearing.
This began to happen even before we opened the pool.
That's because my kids' friends had already opened their pools. My kids would be invited over there to swim, and they'd take a towel that would never come back.
I'm quite sure that the two towels still missing are labeled with our last name, which is so unique that we're the only ones in our entire area code who have it. But by this time, I despair of those towels ever coming back.
And now we've got visiting kids who expect to swim but don't bring their own towels or goggles. Apparently they (and their parents) think that since we've got more than enough water to go around, we must have enough towels too. Sometimes (like when I'm on my third load of towels for the day) I wish I could install one of those systems like stores have, where a tag is tacked into the item and it can't go past a certain point without an alarm going off.
I have made one rule, and I'm sticking to it: if you live on this block and you are invited to swim in my pool, you need to bring your own towel and goggles. If you forget to do that, you live close enough to go home and get them.
Meanwhile, I'm picking up beach towels wherever I see a good sale, because these things disappear faster than ice cubes in the hot July sun.
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