I Never Really Wanted A Swimming Pool Before...Until Now

This isn't a picture of Tuscany (of course, having never been to Tuscany, I have no idea what it looks like...). It's a picture from my mother-in-law's dinning room window at sunset. I thought it looked like a non-Utah place so I snapped a picture.

Her neighbors put in a pool a few years ago.

I've never really wanted a pool, but this summer...boy, it sure looks fun.

In all the places I've lived in my almost fifty-five years, I've never lived in a place that had a pool. Since I've lived in Utah most of my life, I always looked at pools like I've looked at boats--pretty impractical. It's only really hot about three months out of the year so the rest of the time, they're just a big hole in the ground, or above ground (pools, not boats--boats are a big hole in your wallet...).

But something about this summer. I see that pool from my in-law's window. There's also a new pool a few doors down from our house and we can hear kids and adults splashing and having a good time.

Pools are many things, but to me the've always been expensive. In our little town, in order to put in a pool, you've got to fully fence the area surrounding it. Fences, like pools, can be pricey. I'm sure there's other things you've got to do before you can have a pool, but I know about the fences.

I've often wondered if I had the means to put in a pool, would I? Even though they're expensive and impractical, boy would it be nice to have one, especially this summer.

I Just Wanted To Cool Down The Car...Not Kill A Bunch Of Wasps

Growing up, I lived across the street from where I now live. With my father passing away when I was young, my mother raised three kids on her own and sometimes we didn't have a lot of money when things needed to get fixed. For example, the A/C unit at home died and wasn't fixed for several years. We just camped out in a back room and used fans. We got by. The same thing happened to the cars we had. Many times, there was no A/C. Again, we got by.

What does this have to do with killing a bunch of wasps?

Good question.

This past week has been the warmest of the year so far. It usually gets warm in Utah in the summer--where we live it's not so warm you die if you're outside too long, but warm enough. And because it's so warm, I try and park my car in the shade, if possible. I guess it's holdover from when we didn't have any A/C at home or in our cars.

This week, because it was so hot, I decided to crack the car windows about half an inch to let the heat out so when I climbed in around 5pm, it didn't feel like the seventh level of Hades. Even though my car has pretty good A/C, for a couple of days it helped, but yesterday, when my daughter and I climbed in to go to rehearsal, I noticed a dead wasp on the back seat. First I made sure it was dead, then I tried to brush it off the seat and out of the car.

That's when I saw another dead wasp in the window.

I then saw two more dead insects at the base of the window.

I then saw several others dead on the floor.

Uh oh, I thought. I wondered if there was a wasp nest somewhere in the car. It's happened before when I've parked a car for a few months. But I've been driving this car everyday. There couldn't be a nest in the car. Then it hit--lowering the windows allowed the bugs to fly in and they couldn't get out. It was so hot they fried.

I have a general rule about bugs, especially those that bite and sting. I'll try not to bother them in their house (outside), if they stay out of my house (inside). I'm not sure how that applies to the situation with the bugs and my car, though. I know I don't want to fry any more wasps like that. I guess I'll just be a little more uncomfortable until the car cools down.