Hosed etymology and other funny(?) things

Swimming has been rather all-encompassing this past month. Andrew remarked (quite humorously, in my opinion): "I had no idea swim team would involve so much swimming!" 

And it's true. There has been a lot of swimming. And a lot of driving kids to the pool (which, honestly, if they didn't have to cross 18 lanes of traffic between two very gnarly intersections, I'd let them ride their bikes to the pool...it's only 3 miles away...but unfortunately they'd have to cross eighteen lanes of traffic to do so. And, yes, there are traffic signals but I'm still just not sure how much I trust the traffic).

Anyway, tomorrow is our last meet (before county, which I doubt we'll qualify for) and the kids are very excited. They went to morning practice today, and then we stayed after to swim, and then we went to afternoon practice as well and Phoebe and I swam while they were practicing because they only use half the pool for the afternoon practice. 

Amazingly we've only had a couple of storms this entire month. It's been so dry. Humid. But dry. 

That's a thing, right?

We haven't had to cancel any swim practices or swim meets due to bad weather (knock on wood because it's supposed to storm a bit tomorrow), which feels...unusual for June. But we did have a good storm the other night when we decided we'd encourage Phoebe to stay in her own bed using a sticker chart.

9:00 PM

Me: …so if you stay in your bed all night, you can choose a sticker to put on your chart! Doesn’t that sound like fun?
Phoebe: Yes! I want a sticker!
Me: How do you get a sticker? Do you remember?
Phoebe: Stay in mine own bed!

1:30 AM

Phoebe: *tip-toes down hallway, knocks on door*
Andrew: What’s up, Phoebe?
Phoebe: I need help staying in my bed! I want a sticker!
Andrew: *tucks Phoebe back in, turns on some lullabies, sits with her until she falls asleep*

4:30 AM

Mother Nature: ⛈️⛈️⛈️
Phoebe: *runs down hall, busts through bedroom door*
Phoebe: THAT WAS THUNDER! I don’t want a sticker! I want you!
Mother Nature: ⛈️
Electricity: *goes out*
Phoebe: IT’S SO DARK!

Obviously mother nature was not on our side. And then she came in bed with us last night, too, claiming she could still hear the thunder from the previous night's storm. We'll see how tonight goes.

Anyway...no rain...plus a lot of kids swimming means that the water level in the pool has gone down a bit. Often rain will fill it up quite nicely. But today they had the hose on, filling the pool back up to the level it needs to be for the skimmer baskets and things to work properly. 

Phoebe thought the hose was great! It was about 98°F today and the pool was lukewarm, but the hose water was freezing (or felt comparatively so). She loved playing with it.

She stood around asking everyone who walked by, "Wanna get hosed?"

Thing I just learned: "hosed" does not necessarily mean "drunk" in American English??

Evidently in American English "hosed" is a synonym of...bamboozled...hoodwinked...swindled...flimflammed...ripped off.

Hosed doesn't even register as a synonym for drunk, of which there are plenty: pickled, soused, sozzled, juiced, sloshed, tipsy, loaded.

But I know for sure and certain that "hosed" means "drunk" in Canadian English, as in "he was completely hosed!" I've heard people say that, though I admit that I rarely use the word myself. I don't have much occasion to talk about drunkenness, really. But when I moved to the States, a lot of people used the word "hoser" to make fun of my accent (thanks to the popularity of the movie Strange Brew) and I had to tell those people that, like, people don't usually go around calling each other "hoser" in real life...at least...my friends didn't...and that it was actually rather a rude thing to say.

Be that as it may, I was amused by Phoebe asking everyone whether or not they wanted to get hosed. 

I suppose no one was in on the joke but me...but that's okay. 

Mostly Phoebe just hosed herself (hosed as in "sprayed with a hose"), but both Alexander and Benjamin were up for a good hose down when they weren't busy swimming laps (their age groups swim at different times). Zoë wasn't as keen on the idea of being sprayed with cold water (and I was on her side). 

Anyway, Phoebe would hold the hose on her head for as long as she could stand and then would jump into the pool to warm back up.

She's getting to be a pretty good little swimmer. She'll even float on her back by herself (though she can't quite get to the surface yet so she's completely submerged and can't understand why I think this is an important skill to master because it is not helping her breathe).

This blue bathing suit is cute, but it is not very visible under the water, is it?

Anyway, Andrew's been pretty good at helping me see humorous things in our every day life lately. Mostly I'm just stressing out about how we're going to make the transition to me going to school full time in the fall. I'm sure it will be fine. 

He posted online about how the kids have all been singing "walking pneumonia" to the tune of "Waltzing Matilda" the last few days. And that really is quite funny, so I thought I should mention it here. 

Alexander seems to be feeling better. His fever has been absent and he's much more chipper these days, his appetite is back...but, boy, is his cough something else! Hopefully he'll continue to feel better.

Last up in my list of things that need to be recorded here is this lovely balloon-child that Zoë made:

Her name was Cassandra and she floated around the house for days and days and never terrified anyone when they saw her sitting on the couch in the dark. She has, unfortunately, gone the way of all balloons, but she was nice to have around while she lasted.