The lifeguards and I have worked at the pool almost daily this past week. The painting of the pool basin had me thrown off my game, but thankfully I recovered from the upset and could change direction without too much difficulty. I have a certain way of doing things, and when I am thrown a curve ball, it tends to mess me up completely. Thankfully the painting was completed on Thursday evening and the lifeguards and I painted the ladders, lines and depth markers on Saturday. We had most everything completed and I let the lifeguards go home while I finished up.
We have two metal plates in the pool to hold the rope at the shallow end of the pool that are painted red, and I was planning to touch those up. I didn’t think I would need help with that. Boy, was I wrong. I had taken a piece of cardboard into the pool with me to set the can of paint on just in case I dripped any. Well the wind blew the cardboard, which dumped the brand new quart of paint all over the place. I about cried. Thankfully I was wearing my watch and was able to text my daughter-in-law, Jessica from it. I asked her to come back. The majority of the paint was on the cardboard, and me, so while I waited for her, I used the brush to get the paint back in the can. She helped me get the mess cleaned up. After she left, I did my best to get the paint off of myself and finish touching up those plates.
By the time I got home I was a filthy, exhausted, wreck, and I looked like I had been in a bar fight! I sat down on the back patio with a gallon of mineral spirits and a pile of rags and went to work getting the red paint off of me. It was everywhere. I’m so thankful Jess was able to come back and help me, otherwise I am not sure how that would have turned out.
Sunday we attended the Follmer-Lowery family reunion at Oak. I had thought about not attending because on the way there, I was still removing paint from myself with some acetone nail polish remover, but I am glad we did. It was nice seeing my aunts and uncles and a few cousins and friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. I even met a few I didn’t know I had. There was just short of 80 of us in attendance.
Monday was a busy day with Memorial Day Services. Even though I have been to many over the years, it always tugs at the heartstrings. This year maybe just a little more. I belong to this private social media group for military mothers, and just a week ago, one of the moms lost her son. The group is full of seasoned military moms and new military moms. We encourage one another, pray for one another, and now, grieve with one another. I hope I never feel the loss of losing one of my babies. I can’t even begin to comprehend that pain. When I haven’t heard from my boys in a while, I text them, POL, which means, “proof of life,” and they text back a photo, which eases my mind. Every night I pray my boys come home to me in one piece, mind, body and soul. X’s & O’s.
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