Of Bees and Things

Today was my first day back at work after this period of nastiness. It has been a very busy day. First thing I had to deal with this morning was the fact that my IBM e-mail file was past its space limit. With our e-mail system when your e-mail file gets too large you can’t send any e-mail. So before it was even 6:30AM I was busy reading, deleting and archiving, reading, deleting and archiving. After a bit I got back my functionality so that I could at least send e-mail again. IBM uses e-mail limits on its employees as a way to manage disk space usage. If it were up to me I doubt that I would ever delete one e-mail. You never know when you are going to need that e-mail trail. I got Zack to school at 7:20AM for Kids Ink and so that I could go to my doctors appointment at 8:00AM. Everything at the doctors went well. He told me that I should expect to feel not so great for the rest of the week just because of all the antibiotics I am on. He also said that I have healed pretty well considering the shape I was in on Wednesday. When something this drastic happens to you health-wise you start to wonder if there is something seriously wrong with you. However, what the doctor told me today put that notion to rest. He said that after looking at the CT film of me and then opening up my neck on Wednesday, he didn’t have a clue how I had kept going. When he sees an infection with that much drainage and pus the person is normally not able to function and is feeling so bad that they are in the hospital. He was surprise that I had the capability and strength to continue on last week given all the crap that was going on with my tooth and neck. Though I never like being seriously ill, I feel good that I had the ability to muster through and not really miss a beat. Hell – I even drove myself to the hospital. I don’t feel great that his happened to me, but I do feel convinced in my own internal strength. The rest of my day has been work, work, work and BEES! Yes – Bees! Last summer I discovered that we have a bee hive in the side of the house. I put off dealing with it because I was hoping to get a beekeeper to come in and remove them without killing them. Despite looking around, I have not been able to find anyone interesting in doing so. The bees became inactive in the early fall as the weather turned colder so it became a non-issue. Now as the weather has turned warmer here in Denver these last several weeks the bees have become active already. So today I had to get 5 different bees out of the house. The time has come for me to deal with my bee problem. I hate killing anything and I will be quite sad to kill a whole hive of bees, but I really feel that I don’t have a choice. I can’t have them getting so established in the walls of the house that they start producing honey and ruining the house. Additionally, I don’t want Zack, Nancy, me or the dogs to be stung. Last year Zack got stung on the foot by a bee and I don’t want him to have to go through that again this year. So – the bees have to go! Besides getting rid of my bees, I have a lot of projects lined up for the house. The first project that will be undertaken this spring is replacing the irrigation system. The last two summers have been disastrous for my yard. I want to get it in good shape this summer and so I really need to replace the irrigation system as it very old and has so many leaks and quirks to it that it just needs to go. After the irrigation system I have 2 other big projects planned for the house for the spring/summer. I should say two other projects which I am going to contract out as I have many projects planned that I will do. These two projects are – redoing the landscaping in the front yard in addition to replacing the concrete on the front porch/patio and replacing the garage doors. These projects will be my part to “re-stimulate” the economy – just joking. But I am sure they will be pricey. Hopefully with any luck I will manage to get the plans drawn up and approved by the Willow Creek HOA so that I can get the work complete by June. (No this is NOT the plan for my house!) There are many projects I have planned to do around the house this spring myself. The first major one that I am going to tackle is a major clean up of all the landscaping in the back yard. I really haven’t done any major work in the back yard for the last 3 years and it really needs to be done. I hope in 2010 to undertake a major project to rebuild the back deck off of my house and not just re-landscape but totally redo the entire concept of my back yard. I want to turn the back yard into much more of a “living space” as opposed to just a yard. To do this I am planning a series of gardens that will each have a different character and purpose. Yes - if anyone is wondering I do read Sunset Magazine! This stuff is just a start but it needs to be done. I have been giving serious thought as to what I am going to do with my house. One of the ideas I have kicked around is once the market recovers – selling it and moving on. But I don’t think that is what I am going to do. I think I am going to stick it out but transform the place. Except for the kitchen the place is very nice. However, it needs to change. I want to change the style – I want to change the layout. I want to make it more energy efficient. I don’t exactly know all that I want yet – but I know I want change and I want change within the next year or two. Anyway – those are the things that are on my mind today. The rest of our day has been about getting Zack from school, Sylvan, homework and dinner. I am not much in the mood to cook yet so I took Zack out to dinner at Claim Jumper. The place was not busy that is for sure. I hope we don’t lose this restaurant to the current economic hardships. Zack is on his way upstairs to get a bath and I am contemplating our schedule for the rest of the week. It is going to be a busy schedule as almost every hour is spoken for by something. But Spring Break is only 9 work days away. Though we won’t be heading to France or out of the country for that matter we are planning some fun. I’ll be making our reservations in the next couple of days - so I will clue everyone in then. Thanks and peace to all!