why do I look forward to weekends, again?
May 12, 2014

I am bruised, scratched, tired, aching, and sunburned--Happy Monday!

Worked our tails off Saturday, kicking ass and taking names in the landscaping department. We got up and moving, stopped at McD's for a quick bite of fuel, and then headed to Menard's to pick up landscaping supplies, then we ran a few other necessary errands. Once we got home, we ripped out all the old edging, picked up all the dog poo, cut the grass (front and back), weed-whacked, swept, raked and blew, trimmed the shrubs, installed new edging and accent lights, put down new mulch, put out a couple of pots of marigolds, overseeded the front lawn, bagged up all the junk and trash, and put all the tools away.

No picnic, let me tell you. And the worst of it was Spouse's mood. Yard work brings out the worst in him, and he was trying my patience. He would have been furious with me if I hadn't been out there working, but at the same time, he wouldn't let me DO anything! He wouldn't assign me a task, and everything I tried to initiate on my own, he jumped in and took over. And as irritating as it all was, I really think it wouldn't have bothered me as much if he hadn't been acting exactly like my parents. He mellowed out after a while, though--mainly he was too tired to keep it up, I think. And by the time we got the new wooden edging up around the shrubbery, he was in a better mood.

I did remind him a couple of times that the doctor said he needed to take breaks, and drink water, and not bull his way straight through, and he cooperated. He let me spread the mulch (oh gee thanks!), and I managed to scratch the heck out of my arms, trying to get it under the bushes. Managed to get one heck of a sunburn on the back of my neck, too. OUCH.

And we are not done, by a long shot--but that was one hell of a beginning! We were as far as we could go by 1:30, so both of us hit the showers and took aspirin, and relaxed for a while. We'd decided that whatever was for dinner, it would be something we had on hand--neither of us was up to making a store run. So it was barbecued country-style ribs and baked potatoes on the grill, and a steamer-bag of sweet corn in the microwave. It would have been delicious even if we hadn't worked up a crazy appetite.

Even though we were both pretty whipped, we got the kitchen cleaned up and I decided to make a start on the laundry. I managed to get all the way through two loads, so I was pretty proud of myself. Spouse must have felt guilty that I was tackling more chores, because while I was downstairs with the wash, he was upstairs running the vacuum and cleaning the bathroom!

That was about it, though--he made it to about 7:30 before conking out, and I was dozing off in the middle of a game of Flipwords at 8:30, so I toddled off to Bedfordshire too.