Sorry for the lack of post this week. My Bro-In-Law is visiting. So far we’ve been to a Trash Pandas baseball game, a hot air balloon festival, and played a shit ton of games. So many games. It’s a cold snap so lame that we can’t use the pool.
I’m gonna need a vacation after this long vacation weekend. I need more zone-out time!
And my whole family is coming up for Memorial Day on Monday! So much stuff I gotta get done today!
Look at how perfect this is! I have an umbrella anchored in the middle of my pool and now it has a table on it! No bugs crawling on our drinks. No moving the drinks and tables to keep them in the shade — they’re always in the shade now! And it’s huge! It even holds my 32oz insulated thermos!
Five out of five stars. I am thrilled with this product! It even came with a completely unnecessary but high quality carrying bag. Let me tell you, this is PERFECT for the pool. I might buy more for my other pool umbrellas. It’s perfect for having coffee on the tanning ledge. It’s perfect for parking your cold water or wine while you drift on a float. Throw some extra sunscreen on there so you don’t burn. You never have to get out of the pool now! It’s perfect.
I’m even going to amp it up to 11. I got out my dremel to add drainage slots to the snack trays and am spray painting it lime green to match my pool furniture.
I’m so happy with this purchase (Amazon link — clicky clicky)! I was afraid it wouldn’t hold my favorite beverage containers, but everything fits great! It’s wonderful. Did I mention perfect for the pool? All the stars.
1) I painted my pool chairs “Key Lime.” It was like living in a Rust-Oleum commercial! Look at this before and after. The chairs were originally bright green when I bought them. However, five summers have faded them to nothing. Note the small green area on the unpainted chair. That’s because they always have pillows in them so the sun didn’t bleach there. It took two coats — so three and a half cans of paint = approximately $20.00. It’s nice to have revived the old ones rather than buy new ones. Even if they are dirt cheap, it’s still nice to have put in a little effort to revive something I already had. They REALLY pop against the dark fence too! K and I will be sitting in them on the tanning ledge soon.
2) I counted ninety three (93!) bats leaving the bat house on Saturday. Ninety Three! My little bat army. Go forth and murder all the mosquitos! Muah ha ha ha…
3) Mr C and I got our second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine Friday! I couldn’t sleep and had a headache. Poor Mr C had a fever and felt like absolute shit. But here’s to having pool days with our fellow vaccinated friends this summer! *cheers*
1) A family friend posted a devotional on the Facebook page (she does daily). It started with how sometimes you have friends you have to kick out of your life. I can relate to that. I’ve had to kick friends out of my life. Mostly people who I thought were true friends. Then circumstances revealed it was really a one way friendship with nothing coming back. So yeah, fuck those people. They’re users. They only contact you when they need something or it’s convenient for them. Or maybe they somehow think they are really your friend and somehow justify that you’re too fat to be in their wedding but you’re still their best friend! Yeah fuck you.
Then the further in the devotional it turned out the friends were worry, doubt, and fear – not actual people. My bad. Sometimes people gotta go too though.
2) There’s this guy at work who has a weird accent “problem.” He’s from England but I think both of his parents were American. So he sounds normal American English, but every once in a while he throws in proper British English accented word. Sometimes he’ll say the exact same word a way an American would, but sometimes it falls out in more of a British pronunciation. Accents are usually nice – but not this. This is jarring. He sounds like he’s faking being fancy. Especially when he’s talking to you. Because it’s only a few random words it sounds like he’s trying to correct you on their pronunciation. It’s just really weird. He’s married too and I bet his wife loves it. But every time I hear him slip in a weirdly accented word, I cringe. I know in my brain that he’s not doing it on purpose but in my heart I feel like he’s faking and being pretentious.
I can only compare it to bilingual people. When they’re running along in perfect English but encounter a word in their native language and pronounce it correctly. Like Giatta (Food Network) talking about food and then really going hard on words like “mozzarella.” Or my Puerto Rican friend who has a dad from Wisconsin – so he sounds American but pronounces Puerto Rican or Latina dishes in their authentic way. These cases do not bother me. I find them nice, actually. Like I could learn from them.
But this guy flipping between two different English accents is really annoying. I want to CORRECT him. Like dude, no one says “task” like that. You’re killing me. It’s usually his “A” sounds. He’ll say it hard when it should be soft or soft when it should be hard. SAY IT RIGHT, THOMAS.
3) The pool is OPEN! It’s freezing cold though. Like below 70 degrees. So I haven’t been in yet. Just stood on the tanning ledge and let my feet go numb.
I mentioned in my last post that we upgraded the privacy fence around the pool. Well, it’s the same fence but new paint, details, and hardware. I’m especially excited about the new gate latches. Our old ones were so confusing and weird. Plus why were the hung so high? So kids couldn’t reach them? We don’t even have kids. And the pull handles were at a 45 degree angle — it was just a mess. So having some nice hardware I chose is *muah* very nice.
The only problem was, one of the gates didn’t quite have enough clearance for the new hardware. You had to slam that baby closed and it still scratched the metal. Easy fix, just countersink the hardware. I watched a youtube video, I can do this. So I borrowed some chisels from K‘s boyfriend and went to work.
Look at that beautifully sunk piece of metal. It’s perfect. Well, a little paint touch ups and it’ll be perfect. It was not, however, as easy as that fucker on youtube made it look. But the hardware works perfectly now. Go me! And it was only a $20 copay to get a tetanus shot after I stabbed my finger with the chisel. Score!
Our pool fence just got a major glow up. It’s just a plain six-foot privacy fence. Natural wood, five years old. We had someone come stain it this weekend. Not just that, but we added post caps and all new hardware too. It looks so good! The old hardware was confusing and ugly. And the post caps give it a nice finished detail that makes it look all expensive and fancy.
I am pumped. Specifically, pumped for the pool to open up! I’m so excited that I ordered a new pool float for the occassion. The pool is usually pretty cool in May, so I ordered a lounge float that you don’t get wet on (clicky). With this, I can float in the pool without freezing. We have the mesh eggplant (clicky) for mid-summer pool temps.
I’m not sure when it will be open, but I contacted my pool guy and he knows I want it open by Memorial Day. He’s super busy, so I have to work with when he is available. I sure as fuck can’t get that heavy ass pool cover off by myself! It’s expensive and extremely heavy. Plus pool guy cleans the pool and balances the chemicals for me to get it going. Then I take over from there until time to close and put the cover back on.
The only thing is, I’m insanely excited because I’m a pool girl all the way. (Obviously, or I wouldn’t have installed one). But this year I’m afraid to be excited. You see, the pools pretty boring by yourself. I can spend all day out there with a friend having a ball. But when it’s just you, it gets boring fast. Well, mom knew this so she’d come up as much as possible in the summer to spend pool days with me. Don’t worry, it wasn’t just for me. Mom was a water spirit herself. I’d wake up to find her out by the pool listening to the bubblers. She’d happily stay out there by herself. Mom loved to be outside.
So I guess I’m just afraid that without mom… the pool will just be really… sad. Empty. Lonely. So I didn’t want to let myself get excited but I can’t help it. I’m excited now. I just hope it doesn’t lead to heart break. Not NEW heartbreak, but just a reminder of that huge hole mom left behind.
As you know, my precious cat has kidney disease. I’m losing my beloved little familiar. So now he has a special diet, lots of medicine, and regular vet checkups. However my amazing cat does not like his expensive fancy cat carrier. He never has. He pretty much just screams the whole time he’s in there. If you recall: my cat talks, screams, and wails a lot. It’s his thing. He was named Screamer before I adopted him. Hes got a good set of pipes on him. He has songs he needs to express. The vet is 20 minutes away. Add in the vet time and 20 minutes for the return and both of us are at the end of our perspective ropes. It’s such a stressful experience for both of us! So I decided to try something new.
I decided to go sans carrier. I decided to get him a harness and leash. Sure, I took the carrier with my just in case, but I figured maybe it could at least ease the stress on me.
I did not expect him to take this well. However, since he’s getting older and on all that pain medicine, he’s more chill than ever. So a few hours before the vet, I harnessed the cat. He had to hold his front legs further apart, but he didn’t really act too bothered by it. In fact, he was kinda adorable in it. So adorable that I added a bow tie and took a picture. Oh don’t worry, I didn’t make him wear the bow tie to the vet.
I dare say it went well. It turned the whole thing into more of an adventure than a torture session. He was freakishly alert while driving in the car. He insisted on sitting in my lap and observing everything through the window. He didn’t whine a bit. It was just pure curiosity. It was actually kinda fun driving with my cat. And it didn’t stress him out at all! Score!
Then we got to the vet. Since covid, you can’t wait inside with your pet. You wait in your car and they call you when they’re ready and tell you what room to take your pet to. So there was no passing other animals to worry about. I just carried him in straight to room 3. It was great. The only downside, I think, was for him. He didn’t have a hole to crawl into after the mean lady took his blood. He had to settle for sitting under the bench I was sitting on. Then he eventually progressed to my lap where he proceeded to hide his face in my arm when the mean lady returned. So he didn’t have that protective factor while in the office.
Checking out was simple enough. I just held onto his leash while he sniffed the floor. Then I carried him out to the car. He was much less thrilled on our way home. He was much more subdued and a little pissy about it. BUT — there was no wailing. He just sat in the passenger seat and stewed over what a horrible person I am. He could have sat in his carrier which was in the floor board, but he chose the passenger seat. So success again!
He’s a harness cat now. I will still continue to take his carrier along as a backup, but this leash thing is solid. I was so much less stressed out by the whole ordeal. I think it went great. I’d love to take him out on the leash, but I don’t want him to start begging to go outside all the time. But yeah. I recommend using a leash instead of a cat carrier. It’s great.
Our house attracts a lot of frogs. We live in a swamp that has been heavily developed. A lot of my idiot neighbors like to forget it’s a swamp and bitch about the natural inhabitants on Nextdoor. However, the fact remains that we live in a swamp. We also live next to some apartments with a nice pond with fountains next door. And lets not forget my own pool with a pair of lovely babbling (I love the sound) bubblers.
I even enjoy having frogs on the windows at night. They park it on the windows and eat the bugs that fly up towards the light. My cat enjoys pawing at the intruders to his kingdom. I enjoy watching them stalk bugs and taking photos of them. Note that they are bright green tree frogs, so good to look at. Not gross brown icky frogs.
The problem is this. During the day, these tree frogs favor my pool umbrellas over the trees. Perhaps they’re closer to the house so more convenient. Maybe the frogs don’t like a long commute. Or maybe they’re fancy frogs and dig the urban setting. Whatever the reason, they park it in my umbrellas. This is a problem.
Why, you ask, is this a problem? Well, because I use those umbrellas. So when I open them, there’s frogs. I have to stick my head under the fabric and basically close myself in with these slimy bastards. Then slowly crank the umbrella open. Why slowly? Because I need the frogs to inch up the pole to allow the mechanism to rise — but not so much as to cause the frogs to jump. Dear GOD don’t let those frogs jump on me especially my entrapped head and face!. Ick! It’s terrifying! Then when you close them, it’s the same thing just in reverse.
I wonder if I could put petroleum jelly on the poles to keep them away? Any suggestions?
I’ve been doing a lot of gardening and weed assassination the past two weeks. It started because I want to get the pool area ready for staining the fence next weekend. Well, that includes before and after pictures and the weeds back there were a bee and dragonfly haven. Good for the bugs, but man it looked bad. So last weekend I did roundup all over the rocks. This weekend I took a weed-eater to knock down all the weeds.
They did not go quietly into that good night. Not only did the round-up not kill them off, but they didn’t like my weed-eater. The battery died halfway through the area. So I had to wait for it to charge up again. Then when I got going a second time, it ran out of string/line. I finished the job but inhaled so much solid pollen that I couldn’t sleep for the stopped up nose that evening. Fucking weeds. Don’t surround your pool with rocks for easy upkeep. It is the EXACT opposite. It would be so much easier to just mow some grass.
I also weeded my front flower beds because in for a penny, in for a pound. I purchased my new pool hat early so I could garden in it. It’s for sun protection, after all. I had Mr C come down and take a picture of me all gardening and being housewify. I posted it to Facebook because it made me feel so mature. Not mature in a “I can do what I want” way but more of a “I have special outfits, gloves, and hats just to garden in now — I AM the old lady from Steel Magnolias now” kinda way.
My sister commented with a matching pictures of my sweet momma in the same get up gardening in her yard. (Thats me on the right in the hat).
Mom was usually the one to weed my flowerbeds. She couldn’t sit still and got antsy, so she pretty much weeded everything every day. I mean, realistically, thats how you stay on top of it. You have to constantly be on those bastards. Sadly, this year it’s just me. Miss you, momma. But I’m super proud of my flower bed. Look at those Candy Corn Spireas! I just adore them. (See, middle age. Men buy cars and electronics, women nest).
Also I treated the bats to some new life under the bat pole. I got them some additional day lilies (they already had yellow, now they have red too) and some purple summer plant the guy at the nursery recommended. Holy shit there’s a lot of bat guano under that pole. First night I counted 37 bats leaving. There has to be more than that in there now judging by the piles of guano. I need to scope it out one night this week and see how many we’re up to. I really hope I didn’t scare them too much today by gardening under their house. I didn’t hear them screeching at me and I tried to be fast.