What is Too Crowded?

 Always open, somedays the Stress Pool is a little too crowded!

Let me explain.

True to its name, there is always something going on here. For example, let's look at last Tuesday. It should have been mostly quiet - the only thing we were expecting was a 10:00 a.m. visit from the project manager at Ireland Contracting so we could arrange to sign our lives away with a financing company (we need to replace the back porch before we hit the evening news with tumbling Kellys!), and I had to leave with Moink by 10:45 in order to get him to Wexford for an eye appointment. We might have been cutting it close, but I felt it was going to be a go.

9:30 a.m. I was finishing at the dresser when I noticed in the mirror that a pickup truck had pulled in front of the house. It didn't look like the project manager, and it wasn't. It was a landscaping company that was supposed to have been here in May. (Two months late, but who's counting?!) I knock on the bathroom door to get DH's attention. "The guys from Fujian Landscaping are here."

No answer.

"I'll just go out and...well, I don't know what to tell them." I go out with a smile to greet them, (they appear to have limited English) and tell them my husband would be out in a minute - that we didn't know they were coming. DH comes out, still in jammies, and explains that we had no idea they were coming, but this is what he wanted done - and proceeds to walk them around the house, pointing out what we were hoping to have done two months before. I went back in to finish getting ready.

9:40 a.m. Steve from Ireland Contracting arrives - yay, twenty minutes early, but I was thrilled! (He's really been a pleasure to work with.) We would definitely be able to leave for the eye doctor on time. We sign our lives away, chat a few minutes, and DH starts talking to him about windows. I give them permission to sign my name for upstairs windows.

10:45 a.m. Moink and I get in the car to leave, and notice the Gas Company is unloading large equipment nearby. I hightail it out of there! Moink had forgotten his ID, but before we had left the area. I turned around, he got his wallet, and away we went.

11:30 a.m. We get to the eye doctor, all goes well, and we get back on the highway. DH calls just about the time we have re-entered the South Hills and asks if we were picking up lunch. Well, of course, now we are! 

12:30 p.m. We go through the line at the Chik-fil-A, and heading back down our street, notice there is a flagger right by our house! When he changed the sign to 'SLOW', I pulled up and opened the window. "That's my house - the one with the truck in front of the driveway."

 The poor man seemed confused. "Oh, umm..."

"Can they move the truck? So I can get down my driveway?"

He hesitated, then yelled, "Hey! You gotta move the truck! She needs to get into her driveway!" Mission accomplished. A nice man moved the truck, and I pulled into my spot behind the house. Once inside, DH said, "Oh, by the way, the pool guys were here."

I looked out to the front of the house. Trucks, workers, diggers, landscapers...and I said, "I'm not leaving the house again, and we don't have what we need for dinner. Any suggestions?"

Moink came up with Chicken Parm - he can't have the parm, but he can have the chicken. We already had pasta, sauce, and cheese for the rest of us.  All was right with the world. I just had to let Ms. Business know what we were having - we had done pasta the night before, and figured she wouldn't be interested. And, by the way, there might be some kerfuffle going on when she got home from work, so be prepared. 

3:30 p.m. All is quiet. One would never know anything had gone on around the house today, except for the aroma of fresh manure...

So, new porch sometime in November; new windows upstairs sometime in October; new lens for Moink in a couple weeks; and a few more weeks to enjoy the pool, as long as the days and nights stay warm. Many of you are craving sweaters and pumpkin spice, but not I, not yet. I would like a little time to enjoy the actual pool, especially since I wasn't able to through radiation treatments. Just a couple more weeks, that's all I ask.

Ah, life at the Stress Pool, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Have a fabulous rest of the week, a safe and Happy Labor Day weekend, and remember, we are always open and ready to entertain your thoughts - as long as you don't mind it smelling a bit like a horse farm!