I know you’re all on pins and needles waiting for the latest bee update, so here it is.

Over the past few days there has been zero – and I do mean zero bee activity around the pool. Zero, that is, until around 5 PM when a single bee would come lolling around. This bee, who would come to “bee” known as the “rogue bee” was the very Free Dictionary definition of lolling:

v. lolled, loll·ing, lolls
v.intr.
1. To move, stand, or recline in an indolent or relaxed manner.
2. To hang or droop laxly: a pennant lolling from the mast.

On Saturday I squirted him with dishwashing liquid. He flew past my face, thumbing his bee wings in a defiant manner. And yes, I suppose you could also say it was indolent of him. He was definitely relaxed, to “bee” sure.

On Saturday he came around again and I gave him another squirt. But he was an elusive bee and never let himself get the full brunt of the spray. Once again, not allowing himself to “bee” defined as a dead bee, he took his normal rounds and flew off, seemingly without a care in the world.

On Monday he was back, around the very same time, hanging around the very same area. I noticed he wasn’t moving as deftly as he had been the past couple of days, so I waited for my chance and dropped a cardboard box filled with empty chlorine bottles on top of him. His handle on earthy existence “became” severely compromised as a part of him thrashed around helplessly on the plastic. I hated to kill him – I really did – but in war it’s either kill or be killed, so one smash of an empty chlorine bottle put him out of his misery.

There were no other bees that came by the rest of the day.

We’ve got one more shot at monsoon thunderstorms and rain today before the rest of the week turns brutally hot – they’re talking 115 – and I’m hoping the rain misses us. To have a lake sitting on top of plastic is no fun to try and get rid of – I learned that on Saturday. What did I do? Simply cover the lake water with even more plastic. It doesn’t look pretty, I can tell you that.

At this point the plan is to remove all plastic on Saturday. That would be over two weeks since the first plastic was applied. I took a look at the water today, and even though the water is hot – hot tub hot – the heavy chlorine I put in it seems to have kept it clear, at least for now.