NAILED HER!!!!!

 You know how some days you should just stay in bed?  This was that day.  It turned into something I don't ever want to repeat again.

So here I was ... repairing sprinklers yet again.  I dug out the one that wasn't working, pulled the sprinkler and watched water come out of the pipe.  No dirt, no plug.  I took the sprinkler completely apart to be sure there was nothing inside.  I kept having to run back and forth to this spot to turn the water on at the valve.  

After three tries ....... nothing.  I replaced the little top piece and NOTHING yet again.  Good grief ... this is crazy.  After scrounging around in the garage for quite some time, I finally laid my hands on one lone sprinkler replacement.  I installed it and headed for the valves once again.

AT LAST .... it works!!!  One down, two to go!!  After a celebratory drink of Arizona tea, I went back outside to replace the black cover over the valves.  I bought those tubs to keep the sun off the valves so I wouldn't have to replace them twice a year.

Here's that picture again.  Notice how close the bird house is to the valves behind the weird iron Christmas tree.

Oops ... I hit my head on the birdhouse.  I steadied it with one hand as I reached for the cover, and out of the corner of my eye .... I saw it.  Yessiree ... a big nasty wasp.

I ducked and my brain said ....... RUN!!!  I ran like the wind, or at least as fast as I could, almost falling over the concrete mower edge.  TOO LATE!  I could hear him yelling back to his buddies ....... NAILED HER!!

It felt like knives stabbing me in my arm.  After that last incident in Arizona, I knew I was allergic, so I ran straight for the Benadryl.  I grabbed an ice pack out of the fridge and sat down to try and remain calm.  No such luck.  In 30 minutes it looked like this.  The Benadryl isn't working one little bit.

KARMA comes in a big can.  I went back outside and sprayed the heck out of that bird house.  This stuff isn't very strong because even after two big blasts, they kept coming out and flying away, not dying.  I kept spraying.  

Those wasps now have an indoor swimming pool in their little house.  As they flew out, I noticed they were heading to the eave of MY house where once before I found a nest.  I sprayed that until the can was empty.

Back on the couch and an hour later, I was getting concerned.  There was a baseball sized lump on the back of my arm.  It got worse and worse until it was as big as a softball.  Good grief!!  The pain and ache was extraordinarily bad.  Oh BUCK UP Nancy ... it's just a little wasp sting.

It ached so badly I couldn't do anything, so I sat on the couch for the rest of the day.  No kidding ... the redness now surrounds my arm and it's on fire!!  The twinges and feeling of stabbing knives continued for two hours before finally subsiding.

Luckily I had leftover taco material from the last food box, or I would not have eaten at all.  

There would be little to no sleeping all night long, in spite of another Benadryl, topped off with aspirin.  The ache and pain in my elbow is terrible and I can barely bend my arm this morning, it's so swollen.  The itching has only gotten worse, even after a dose of Benadryl cream.  

And so I expect there won't be much going on today other than holding the couch down.  The little birdhouse will be going in the garbage can.  I can't take the chance of getting stung again.  I'm breathing just fine ... so I think I'm ahead of the game.  Here's hoping it doesn't get any worse!!