Motley Crew

How many men does it take to plaster a 16x28 ft. pool? Apparently about the same number as it took to frame this 2-story 3300 sq. ft. home! The crew of about 10 descended on our house this morning at 7:30. I could feign irritability at their early arrival, but since the princess had already been awake for an hour, it's all good. They were supposed to come yesterday, but the particular plaster material we ordered didn't come in on time, so I was actually pleasantly surprised to see them on a Saturday.

These are not the normal pool guys we've been dealing with up to this point. Our pool guy subs out two parts of the whole job, and plaster is one of them. This was a rather motley crew: about half of them were clean-cut Hispanics sporting bling around their necks. The other half looked like they dropped in from Woodstock: long hair in ponytails, long beards, bandanas. The boys had a few comments: "Daddy, that man is naked," commented one boy. He wasn't really naked, just shirtless, although he would have been a little easier on the eyes had he pulled his pants up a tad...and put on a shirt. Case in point: Boy #2 added, "And he has a baby in his belly." I'm guessing that if the man really does have a baby in his belly, the baby's name will be Budweiser.

We went out for awhile and came back to find the regular pool guys here completing the final acid wash. This is the last step before we get to the hard part: filling the pool. Yes, I said that filling the pool with water is the hard part. We're on a well, so we can't just run the hose for hours or we might: A) Break the well pump or B) Run the well dry. So...we're running the hose a couple of hours at a time, giving it a break, and then resuming Operation Fill the Pool. We are also having a water truck come in on Tuesday to give us a little help. Of course the water truck not only costs extra, but the guy is also worried about cracking our driveway. We've already had concrete trucks up here, though, so what damage can a water truck do? Anyway, we've promised the kids that they'll be able to splash in the overgrown puddle we will have accumulated by tomorrow after church.

Soon...very soon we can have some relief from this horrible Georgia humidity! Even our Motley Crew commented on the heat this morning, and they're used to working in it!