After wanting a pool my whole adulthood, we finally took the plunge; I know a shameless pun. I’ve never wanted to spend the money, well, on anything for myself that I thought was frivolous, but at 55, I am not getting any younger. What am I waiting for?
Before the pool was installed, we decided to plant some evergreen trees to create a natural privacy fence. We chose twelve trees in three different sizes to create the look we wanted. The new trees give the yard’s actual landscaping a professional look.
Whenever we do a project, there are always hurdles to jump over; it’s the Irion way. In this case, the hurdle before planting the trees was ground bees. Marty got stung on Monday night when we started to prep the new pool and trees area.
Marty is allergic to bees, and it’s always frightening whenever he gets stung; he’s had to make a few trips to the ER in the past. This time I quickly gave him some Benadryl and made a paste of basil leaves, baking soda, and crushed ice to put on the bite. This takes away the burning and pain.
Marty texted Sam, a nurse, and told him he got stung; he immediately said to get Pepcid AC. This seemed weird, but the same drug that helps with acid reflux also helps with bee sting reactions. Who knew? Well, now we all do. I ran out to the store and gave it to Marty within 10 minutes. He was ok thank you, Jesus!
Back to the bees, we also knew we had ground bees under the outdoor kitchen deck; Sam got stung in the back of the head the week before. Luckily, he’s not allergic to bees. These aren’t the good kinds of bees; these are those angry fuckers that I hate.
I got in touch with an old friend of ours, Harvey, who owns a pest control business…Harvey’s Pest Control. As business owners, we always try to get back to people as soon as possible. If we say we will do something for a customer, we make sure we follow through. Harvey has the same work ethic as us.
Even before the pandemic, we found it was getting harder and harder to find a business that would return your call, let alone show up for an appointment. It can’t be blamed on the worker shortage our country is facing right now; it’s like they don’t want our business or our money. Remember the appliance store that dragged its ass fixing our dishwasher? I dragged my ass for the same amount of time before I wrote them a check to pay for the repair.
Harvey showed up exactly at what time he said he would. Within a few minutes, he was in his bee suit and got to work dusting the nests. He explained exactly what he was doing and what to expect.
We also talked with him about the mice issue we had last year when the mice chewed a hole in our dishwasher hose. He will be coming back quarterly to take care of those guys, too, an issue we won’t need to care for ourselves anymore.
With the bee problem taken care of, we got to planting our new trees. We read up on how to plant them, the distance between them for privacy and care. Basically, they take care of themselves and won’t need any additional care in the future, like shaping or trimming them. We put in one of these trees many years ago right in the center of Marty’s garden railroad, which is now a beautiful backdrop behind the pool. The train layout will be rebuilt on a smaller, more manageable scale when Marty has spare time. 😂
We got out a tape measure and a can of spray paint marking where each tree would go. We usually wing things, but we did it the right way this time. The trees are still small but will grow 1-2 feet every year when they are young, topping out around 20 feet. The one we have already is easily 20 feet and looks great.
With the bees and the trees checked off our list, it was time to have the pool installed yesterday. Thank goodness we opted to have the professionals take care of this for us; it would have been a major ass-ache and would take us a long time if we did it ourselves. Time we don’t have right now. Plus, there is so much important leveling that we weren’t experienced in doing.
The guys took their time making sure the ground was dug out and precisely leveled, which took the brunt of the time they were there. I had to leave to make deliveries and go to dance class, so I didn’t get to see the pool until I got home last night. It turns out 15 feet is the perfect size for us and our yard. The great thing was that since it went where the old train layout was, we didn’t lose any more yard space.🙂
Today, we were on the road bright and early making deliveries; when we got home, Marty worked on the pool, getting the filter running, and starting to spread river rocks around the outside of the pool. Of course, we didn’t have enough rocks…we need double the rocks we bought, which will have to wait until we get home from Vegas next week. Another typical Irion project thing.
While I was doing things around the house this afternoon, Marty ran upstairs and changed into his bathing suit; are you coming in too? Um…isn’t it cold? I waited and watched him before I committed to changing and stopping what I was doing.
He got in quickly and said it wasn’t bad. The water and the air temperature were the same at 70 degrees. I decided I’ve waited long enough for a pool; I needed to suck it up and go in too.
He wasn’t bullshitting me! It wasn’t bad; I was amazed! Afterward, we put on the solar cover with the hopes of keeping out some leaves and warming it up next week while we are away. We have all winter to keep an eye out for a heater to start and extend our swimming season. We will also design the deck that we will build on the right side of the pool in the springtime. Maybe lumber prices will go down a bit by then.
While we were both in the pool, a black dragonfly kept circling the pool and swooping down near us, continuing to circle us numerous times. I told Marty this has a meaning; how could it not.
I looked up the meaning of a dragonfly and specifically black ones like the one that visited us.
From uniguide.com:
“Like the butterfly, the dragonfly only lives as an adult for a short period of time. Thus, they remind us to seize the day and live life to the fullest. Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.”
“The black dragonfly reminds you that some matters require discretion. In our culture of over-sharing and attention-seeking, the black dragonfly reminds you that you have the privilege and a right to your privacy. It’s ok to politely shut out anyone who invades your privacy in an unwanted way.”
Both of these meanings read so true with us, finally getting a pool and the trees we planted for privacy. There are no such things as coincidences in life; that dragonfly let us know that we did the right thing for ourselves at the right time.