Dear Neighbor,

I understand. Shade is a rare commodity at the F-15 pool. I understand that you packed up your towels and sunscreen and snacks at the crack of dawn in order to get a good spot at one of the umbrella tables. I understand that you promised your neighbor and her kids that you'd save her a spot. I understand that it must be irritating to get out of the pool at the whistle to discover me, with my double-stroller draped with towels, parked in a small square of your shade, but underneath one of those blankets is my newborn, asleep and needing to be in the shade. You probably didn't realize it, and just thought I was taking up the shade with my double-wide stroller.

I know -- I'm one of those irritating people who show up way too late to get a spot, or even a chair, and I know it's presumptuous of me to just park my baby there, but really, you couldn't spare even a few inches of shade? Your neighbors weren't there yet, and when they did show up I would have moved... and you sat in the sun, anyway, parking your own empty stroller in the shady spot so I couldn't move him back when you got back in the pool. And anyway, he's a newborn, we were only there for an hour.

Let's be on the same team. Let's write a letter to the Stapleton MCA or whoever it is that manages the pools and demand that they install more shade structures. The beach umbrellas just don't cut it.

Sincerely, your neighbor