Oh, wait. I forgot.
There is that whole issue with lopping that needs to be discussed.
I lopped. Started with the wild hedge over in the stone planter bed, where also grows poison sumac, poison oak, and poison ivy. It is a testament to Divine Providence that I was somehow spared from getting this stuff all over me. Anyway, it sure is satisfying to use a new pair of loppers. SLICE! Did that, then went to work on the wisteria.
Catherine was very worried about the bird's nest that is up in the middle of all this, but I was much more concerned about getting snakebit. All those long green tendrils, you know. I told her the nest would stay, but we had to get down all the long vines because they were tearing up the arbor and were climbing up the tree.
"Oh. Can I help?"
Hmm. I don't know. She pulled one long runner out, and then decided to go bother the lizards over by the house. "DADDY! HERE'S ONE!" I had to go see, because she caught one the other day, and I am almost certain that if she catches another, she'll let it loose in the house. She left this one alone. I had a branch in my hand and we gently chased it across the side of the house, which she thought was quite a grand diversion. I went back to lopping the wisteria, and she came by after a while and asked if she could pull another limb. Sure.
I turned around and she had a giant branch holding it out to chase the lizard with. ::sigh:: I made her get one slightly less ridiculously large.
Finally finished off the wisteria, and was left with a pile of limbs the size of a Volkswagen. All that, off of one little arbor. Did some other minor trimming of the maple trees, and then Boy's pear tree (and managed to jamb one of the thorns deep into the side of my thumb--yes, it left a mark), then Rebecca's sycamore. Quite a pile, I must say.
THEN, MOWER TIME! YEA!
Just did the back yard, because after the mowing was over was time to get out the hole maker. I wasn't confident I could do the front and back and still have time to kill myself digging holes.
Mow, mow, mow.
See Dad mow.
Usually, it is during this time that I think of solutions to the world's ailments, and, in fact, have managed to solve most of them. At least in theory. But Saturday my mental meanderings were devoted to prioritizing things that needed to be checked into on the I'm A Moron Project. Odometer fix, windshield, a brisk cleansing, better looking wheels--stuff to keep me indebted for a long, LONG time. That is, IF I could ever get time to play with it--there being, after all, several other persons in the house who count on me to assist them in projects of their own. ::sigh::
Finally got the yard all neatly mowed, and decided that doggone it, I WOULD play with the car a little bit, under the pretext of cleaning the ugly mess off the van wheels.
Got out my cleaner junk and sprayed the wheels, rinse, wipe, rinse, spray, wipe. Say, now THAT looks nice! They never had such chemicals when I was a youngster. All we had was a scrub brush and cleanser.
[Heaven help me, I just got out of another meeting--an hour and a half of the most frustrating pile of garbage, and I really would like it right now if I could just say, "Hey, I quit," get my junk, and walk out the door. I'm going to go eat lunch right now, and I'll be back when I'm in a better mood.]
Posted by Terry Oglesby at May 16, 2005 11:26 AM