But a lot of stuff migrated to the backyard during the process. I hate taking people back to look at the chicken coop because they have to walk through our backyard dump to get there. Here's how the back yard looks:
Also, we haven't planted any annuals in our garden yet, so the front yard has a collection of planters with healthy crops of weeds. Here's a prototypical example:
Actually, the weeds in the planter don't look too bad in that picture! Of course, they're nicely framed by Liz's garden spider.
I thought I'd start with the deck. We'd left a large ceramic vase out there for the winter, and shockingly, it broke. I wonder if we can get out money back. Ever since the snow melted, it's been out there looking like an eyesore--fragments of vase everywhere along with dirt and, lately, a huge weed that had taken up residence. I tosses the vase in the garbage, the weed and big dirt clump out into the forest, and swept the deck. That's where I went wrong. I can bike for 40 miles and my back is fine, thanks to my recumbent seat, but sweeping and raking kill my back. I know that if someone--say god if you believe in one--came up to me and said, "I'm giving you a choice-- you can either cycle or rake and sweep. Which is it?" Easy choice. So I got the right end of that stick.
But really, who wants to give up anything. I started feeling really bad about not contributing my share to the household upkeep. I look around and all I see are things that need to be done. What are my choices? I can do them and hurt my back. So far, that just causes pain that goes away when I sit in my favorite chair, which is where I am now. My fear is breaking another vertabrae or causing long-lasting pain. I can ask Liz to do it--but she has a long list of things that need doing. Or I can accept that everything is not going to be the way I want it. I'm trying for that latter, but vary in my success at it, and generally just end up feeling depressed that I can't do what I want to do.
I decided this morning to look for things that are Liz's job that I can do, so she has time to do other things. I started with the dishes. The way we split up kitchen stuff is that I plan the meals, do most of the grocery shopping, and cook, and Liz does the dishes and puts them away. I've done dishes maybe a half-dozen times in the 27 years we've been together. So I emptied the dishwasher, rinsed the dishes, loaded the dishwasher, and started it. Not a hard task, but not good on my back. That standing, leaning slightly forward stance puts pressure on my spine right in the place that hurts. I keep forgetting that. When I think about why I don't cook the way I used to, I think that it's because I'm lazy or not into cooking the way I used to be, and then I remember, oh yeah, it's because it hurts my back. It's that same standing, bending slightly forward thing.
Actually, writing in my blog is really helping me to feel less bummed about the whole thing. I'm doing small tasks, like watering the plants and cleaning the litter box, and then taking a break. Then, just to keep things interesting, I tried strategy 2 above and nagged Liz about the crap in the backyard, with predictable results. What, she doesn't like it when I'm nagging? I'm back to bummed. Bummed on a beautiful day. I wish it was raining--much better to be bummed when it's raining and to be sitting inside knowing I can't do any gardening than sitting here looking at a beautiful day.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Time to hire some help. How about a house cleaner? Or a nice young person who wants to help you with the garden every week? Seems like time to get some little elves to help.
ReplyDelete