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Quit yer whinin'!

As I write this post, I'm sitting at my Mac and I'm literally covered in dirt. The pool is up, it's filled with water, the pump & filter is installed... now all we need is electrical service run out to the pump. Digging the trench is my job and, I have to admit, I completely underestimated how much time and effort it would take to dig an 18-inch deep gully across a small patch of my back yard. The challenges are compounded by the fact that we live in an exceptionally rocky area so my afternoon and evenings have gone something like this:

• Shovel for a bit
• Swing mattock (the pick axe thingy, not Andy Griffith... he's "Matlock") for a bit 
• Stoop to pull boulder out of ground 
• Move up two inches 
• Repeat 

There are times when I'm in the middle of said project when I begin cursing, grunting and otherwise pissing and moaning about how miserable I am. Then tonight, just as I was beginning my second such rant for the evening, a thought occurred to me: I'm doing this work so my family can enjoy having a pretty sizable pool in the yard - something that I've always wanted as well - and that there's a means to an end. 

Then I realized that in the midst of one of the worst economic times in recent memory, I am blessed enough to have a job that I love and the means by which to have this pool installed. I'm healthy enough that I can do this digging and hauling on my own. And that my kids are thoughtful enough to periodically run outside to see how they can help or to bring me a cold drink. Then, to cap it all off, I feel incredibly selfish and childish for even complaining in the first place.

God has a wonderful way of reminding us of the blessings we have in our lives and I'm grateful of the very subtle and polite, but firm and unquestionable way of saying: "Okay, enough whining kid... get back to work."

Pool Construction Day #1: Big Pile o' Mess

Swimming pools. I'm convinced that there's a little something extra mixed-in with the chlorine to cause pools to be irresistible to children. On one hand it's endearing... I have wonderful memories of splashing around with friends and family. On the other hand, it can be frustrating... after spending thousands of dollars on a Disney vacation, all the kids want to do is hang out by the pool. We could be staying at the Holiday Inn or the Grand Floridian, it's all the same to the kiddos as long as there's a pool.

So as wifey and I began to make our vacation plans for the year - Disney in December, Cape Cod in August or maybe another visit to the Outer Banks - we, like most American's in 2009, sat around the kitchen table and took a hard look at costs & expenses. We wanted to get away but it just seemed a bit silly - almost wasteful - to spend all that money for one week of fun. That's when the idea of a pool entered into the equation.

We've always wanted a pool but, for one reason or another, never got around to it. So this year we decided to get serious about getting some quotes and seeing what it would take. After checking references, evaluating costs and doing some number-crunching, we came to the conclusion that this year's summer vacation would be spent in the back yard. Contractors were retained, permits were pulled and today the construction finally began. 

The first steps were to determine exactly where the pool is going to live, followed by determining how much leveling work was to be done, followed by a few agonizing hours of digging, driving and dumping across the lawn. (I must be getting old... I get chest pains when I see my carefully manicured lawn being disturbed.) 

The kids were completely enthralled by the process and the novelty of seeing heavy equipment tooling around the yard was deemed "cool" by my son. My daughter stated "Oooh, Daddy... they're WRECKING our lawn." (Thanks, hon... I didn't notice.) 

Seeing the pile of sand in the driveway disappear was a welcome sight. The kiddos also got a kick out of having their own, private, giant-sized sandbox for an afternoon.

Now it's off to knock-down some of the mountains of dirt that were excavated from the site of the pool and try to rake-up the dirt caked-in from the equipment treads. Tomorrow we should see a bit more activity as things begin to look... well... decidedly more pool-like. In the meantime, I see that Disney released a new "meal plan included" promotion for a Disney World vacation. Hope we made the right call.