It was a beautiful day.
At least for me anyways. It was in the 80s, a light breeze and barely a cloud in the sky.
Since it was so warm, I decided it would be a perfect day for my boys and I to try out the new inflatable 10-foot pool I purchased for us to use this summer.
We had already had the pool blown up and filled with water.
All we needed to do was remove the tarp we had placed over it to prevent it from getting too many bugs in it and we were all set.
The boys had already put their swimsuits on and I made sure to get sunscreen on them. They were ready. I carried the towels, sunscreen, water, my cell phone and a book to read down to our walkout basement deck area.
Once we removed the tarp, the boys took off their sandals and jumped into the water. They gasped.
“The water’s still cold,” John and Matthew said in unison.
I said, “It’s not a heated pool and I’m sure it’s warmer then when we filled it with water the other day.”
The kids splashed around in the pool for a while. They would get out and run around on the warm concrete. They then decided to lay their towels on the concrete to warm them up. When they were warm enough, they would once again jump into the pool and splash each other. It was hot enough that I didn’t even mind them splashing me every once in a while as I laid on my folding lounge chair, which I may have fallen off a couple of times when the metal folding parts folded in. This left my boys laughing at me and then asking if I was OK.
It was a great afternoon.
As I was laying on my stomach, watching the boys splashing each other in the pool. I felt a bite on my bum. My instincts kicked in and slapped whatever was biting me.
Big mistake.
I then felt another bite. I yelled for my oldest son, Matthew, to come see what was going on. I didn’t care if was my bum or not. I was in pain. I needed to know what it was that was biting me.
Matthew said, “What’s wrong Mom?”
I told him and instructed him to look at the bite marks. He looked and proceeded to say he saw something on one of the marks. He pulled it out and showed it to me. It was a stinger. I knew then It was either a wasp or a bee that stung me. As I quickly gathered up some items and instructed John and Matthew to get their sandals on, I saw a wasp fly away. John ran ahead of Matthew and I to tell my husband that I had been stung by a wasp.
My husband made a baking soda paste and placed it on the sting marks and then I sat on an ice pack for a while. All of it seemed to help, but it still hurt. A few days later, I still have marks where the stings were and some soreness, but it’s much improved. I was always told that bees won’t still you unless you make them mad, but I guess this doesn’t apply to wasps. Even though I was stung, that won’t prevent me or my boys from having a several more pools parties this summer.
I’ll just be more cautious.
Reader Comments(0)