The Pool Saga Continues

Just as the weather has turned too cool to swim (coincident with me being able to swim, as my back boil wound has closed up), we've got yet another problem with our pool: the pressure is down about 30 to 40%, and we don't know why. The only two possible reasons that make any sense to me are that the pump is under-performing (wearing out; about to give up the ghost), or there's a partial blockage of some sort in the line between the skimmer hole and the pump. The main argument for it being the former is that it's hard to imagine what might plug up the line enough to reduce the pressure by that amount (more or less would be easier to picture) and the pump's old (it was here when we moved in back in 1998); what makes me think it's the latter is that, when we turn the pump off, open the valve leading to the pump, and remove the pump cover, the water that pours out of the pump and onto the floor of the pool room doesn't seem to either of us to be up to the usual volume. So now we're left to figure out what to do next. The pressure's high enough to keep the water circulating, so that we don't have to worry about it going stagnant. But the automatic vacuum isn't circulating at that low pressure, which means the pool's starting to get a bit dirty on the bottom.

I'm tempted to just close the pool early (like, soon) but of course if the line is plugged then we may not be able to get all of the water out of it, leaving us open to the possibility of it rupturing over the winter when the water freezes and expands.

I'm really tired of 2010...