We feel sorry for goldfish because they only have that small area to swim back and forth in with their little bowls, then we do the same thing in our pools. Back and forth. That's it.

Put big clear Lucite tubes that extend out of the pool and around the house, all over the property then come back to the pool. Make swimming laps a lot more interesting.

Or if clear plastic tubes look to goofy, just have a pool that has a series of canals all over the property that you can swim in. Get the pumps flowing the water through them so you can either swim laps or just float along on a raft sipping a cocktail, wearing sunglasses and looking excellent.
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008

marine_20life_20double_20glazing See [gnormal]'s annotations to this idea. I think he actually built what you're talking about. [hippo, Jan 10 2008]

Play this link after reading xenzag's comment http://www.audiospa...fm/sound_iid.242697
"dat-da-dat - crash!" [doctorremulac3, Jan 11 2008]

Orbital Guppies orbital_20guppies
One of TwoFries' finest [gnomethang, Jan 11 2008]

Throw in a couple of waterslides, and Bob is your father's sister's mother's son's other brother.

Safety may be a real issue, though.
-- RayfordSteele, Jan 09 2008


[doctor...] One presumes you reside in reasonable proximity, both geographically and demographically to [Maxwell...]. Your proposition is widely known to exist in the major resorts and theme parks (where large acreage is a given) that people of lesser means frequent. However, the notion of private theme park, a la "NeverNeverland", although baked, is not widely known to exist. I wish you well in your endeavour, and presume the large pool/channel cleaning staff won't dent the dowry, as did [Maxwell...]'s Mole Eradicator... you know for croquet lawns.
-- 4whom, Jan 09 2008


I don't like the tubes, not just for the looks, but because unlike a fish, I need air. I like the canals if only because it doubles as a moat and if the current is kept reasonable, kids would love it and on holidays you could make little rides.
-- MisterQED, Jan 09 2008


LOL. I'd pictured the tubes being halfway filled with water as opposed to completely full. Yea, that would be pretty scary trying to make it to the next pocket of air holding your breath.

But, yea, loose the tubes. I'm picturing more of a meandering garden path only made out of flowing water. Aqua ducts go over where the ground dips, canals cut through hills etc. I guess it would be like one of those Disney rides where you float along and see stuff only you wouldn't be in a boat, you'd just swim.

Granted, maybe I should have titled it: "Personal water-park without the hillbillys and trailer trash" but I'd still want one. Of course you'd need a pretty big estate for it to not look ridiculous.

I'm picturing it landscaped like a Japanese garden so it would be real pretty as well.

By the way, I've never wanted to go to a water park because I look at any enclosed body of water with hundreds of kids swimming in it as one big toilet and I know the kids do as well.
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 09 2008


Dude, if I had a eleventy million dollars I'd have my own chlorinated canal system in my back yard. And I'd swim around and the kids would punt their little boats along. And they would have a Venetian kind of tree house along the way, and then it would turn into a Japanese garden. And there would be pretty german peasant girls with big hand who would give massages on the veranda, and an outside fireplace with a pizza oven and a gas cook top with two wok jets. And a very discreet kegerator with Harp and Bass on tap and a full bar with attached wine cellar cut into the side of a small hill. And a little winged pony that is invisible to everyone but me that I could ride to the store for ice cream.

+++
-- nomocrow, Jan 09 2008


//One presumes you reside in reasonable proximity.... to [Maxwell...]//

Only if he's bloody trespassing.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 09 2008


Hey, if you've got eleventy million dollars, why not fill the tubes with that oxygenated fluorocarbon stuff we've all heard about. You know, the liquid you can safely breathe.

Apparently the biggest issue is scrubbing the entrained CO2 back out, so there would have to be a constant reticulation system to refresh the liquid.

Otherwise you could slope/undulate the tubes and include many air pockets so that if you ever got in trouble you just float up and slide to the nearest air pocket/airlock.
-- Custardguts, Jan 09 2008


...once again. //Add sharks//

gr. "Add sharks with fricken lasers"... so you swim faster.
-- Custardguts, Jan 09 2008


This idea could revolutionize the above ground pool market if it could ever get past safety regulation. Not so fantasmological when one considers an L shaped or Uturn pool in and beside a house, or whatever configuration( ie.Swim out into the garden) An enclosed tube outside(with air space and somehow accessible for safety) could have a solar heating effect for the water temp for swimming and heating or cooling the house, prevent leaves blowing in, and thus greatly reduce cleaning. How about a wall width underwater pipe (same as a water pipe under a bridge over an open irrigation channel just shorter) with an underwater door you have to dive thru connecting the outside to the inside so as to keep out the water rats and the crooks in wetsuit balaclavas aftr the eleventy mill. With a doggie door for your pet retriever.
-- yikes!!!, Jan 10 2008


I attended a charity dinner at the home of a millionare who had a pool with a chlorinated canal wrapped around most of the house.

They were about five feet wide and as deep, and were spanned by lovely foot-bridges. Water flowed "downhill" from either side of the house into the main pool, which was L shaped. At the crook of the L was a bungalow with a hot tub inside (TV & minibar included) and a water slide on top.

It was a pretty impressive display of wealth, especially considering the owner probably only spent two weeks a year living there.
-- Condiment, Jan 10 2008


Or you could just liven up your swimming pool by putting a big plastic castle in it.
-- hidden truths, Jan 10 2008


See link - I seem to remember [gnormal] actually built a plastic tubing fish tank.
-- hippo, Jan 10 2008


"Constant reticulation system," wouldn't be a doohickey that sprayed stripes on your back?

Just sayin', is all I'm sayin'.
-- elhigh, Jan 10 2008


//It was a pretty impressive display of wealth, especially considering the owner probably only spent two weeks a year living there. Condiment, Jan 10 2008//

I've noticed that. The people with the nicest houses (the really, really rich) use them the least. They're always traveling.
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 10 2008


This already exists.
-- DanDaMan, Jan 11 2008


Can you provide a link [DanDaMan]?
-- skinflaps, Jan 11 2008


If the tubes in the pool formed the letters of a set of words that when read from some aerial perspective, questioned one of the fundamental principles of a well known religion, would this be known as a Poolemic?
-- xenzag, Jan 11 2008


//would this be known as a Poolemic?//

See link. (I laughed.) :)
-- doctorremulac3, Jan 11 2008


Down from my ceiling
Drips great noise
It drips on my head through a hole in the roof

Behind these two hills here
There's a pool

And when I'm swimming in
Through a tunnel
I shut my eyes

Inside the cabin I make sounds
In through the tubes I send this noise

Behind these two hills here
Fall asleep
And when I float in green grass of tunnel
It flows back

Down from my ceiling
Drips great noise

It drips on my head through a hole in the roof

Behind these two hills here
There's a pool
And when I'm swimming in
Through a tunnel....

I shut my eyes.
-- zen_tom, Jan 11 2008


Orbital Guppies
-- gnomethang, Jan 11 2008


Okee dokie,
-- skinflaps, Jan 11 2008



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