I Know Myself
I know myself well enough to know that when I become too preoccupied with a situation I cannot alter, as in the post of yesterday with the passing of a young relative, I need to get busy. I need to get very busy.
When I got up and checked the weather, it was going to be a day of comfortable humidity with not severe heat. A bowl of Cherrios was my choice of breakfast. By 8:30 I had my heavy full length blue jeans on and Dennis’ heavy chambray shirt buttoned to the wrists and to the neck. Coffee and Deep Woods Off were my equipment. Being sure to have my eye glasses parked far away I hit the spray button of the Off. I made sure the tops of my hands were well covered. As I rustled the leaves of the Hosta plants to get at the weeds, the gray swarm did ascend. Those buggers were huge. Everyone has commented on the plague of mosquitos and they were not joking. It was a toss up if I would end up with weary shoulders from hoeing or weary hands from pulling. I opted for the pulling of the weeds. The soil remains wet enough that I could get the entire root of each and everyone of those nasty weeds. Even the volunteer trees pulled easily.
By 10:30 my Off spray was beginning to wear off. I felt a few pricks right behind my ears. A bottle of green tea took the place of the empty coffee cup as I sought the spot on the patio that was catching the best breeze. Oh, there was a breeze but it would have taken a gail force wind to keep the mosquitoes at bay. I had just taken the twist off cap from the bottle of tea when Dennis came out of the house and headed for the garage. Yup . . . it was lawn mowing day.
Dennis did have a small medical issue earlier in the week but he was raring to go today. I couldn’t argue as it has been eight days since we had last mowed and it needed a trimming. I did a geriatric twirl so Dennis could give me a quick spray of Off before starting. I think I got by pretty good with only filling four bags of grass clipping with the area around the house and the front yard. It takes Dennis a good two hours for the remaining area of the acre. I surely couldn’t sit around while he was doing due diligence. There is an ancient lilac on the northwest corner of the house that needed some TLC from tell tale damage from the late winter heavy snow and ice. With various clippers and loppers it is tidied up. Lilac wood needs to be really dried out before it burns well. A new pile for the burning ring indicates homeowners are on top of taking care of their property . . . ya . . . right.
We had a late lunch at 1:30 and called it a good day. Dennis took a nap and I sat in my favorite chair and I do believe that I
checked my eyelids for cracks for a bit. It felt good. I did wander down to the sewing studio and check to see if elves had finished my baby blanket that I was working on. No such luck. Putting a binding on it will have to wait until my hands have recovered from today’s yard work. I can do everything I always have with my hands . . . but respecting that they have limits. I know myself well enough to temper the hand activity or I will have several days when they won’t cooperate. Tomorrow is another day.