Saturday, July 20, 2024

Saturday, July 20, 2024

   I planned to mow the lawn two days ago, but something came up. I needed to get it down before 10 a.m. when the sun crested the roof of the house. Working in this tropical sun during the summer is nuts. I got it done, and it looked much better.

   I took a break from the yard work and wrote updates. After that break, I headed out to take on another project I’d been putting off. I marched down to the lower end of the property with a bucket in hand, containing a drill with a half-inch bit and two small squeeze bottles full of Round-Up. 

   I tried this once before and got nowhere. The drill never penetrated the wood. I figured it was that dense. I asked Lutz to show me how to do it. He turned on the drill and said, “Oh. It’s turning counterclockwise.” A switch allows you to choose the direction of the spin. Clockwise, it’s drilling into the wood; counterclockwise, the drill exits the hole. Ah!  I still had some trouble but got holes in each stump and added a minimal amount of Round-Up.

   Then I took on some haole koas at the edge of the driveway under the mock orange shrub.  I sat on the edge of the pavement and reached under the branches. The area looked better with the tall weeds cut back. Hopefully, the Round-Up will work on the haole koas.  

   Getting up was a challenge. I had visions of me sitting there till B came home and found me in the driveway. I inched my butt over to the orange bucket. I knew I could use it to get myself up.  Then, I remembered I’d achieved getting up from the floor on my own as part of my morning yoga routine. I did it. Not quite easy-peasy, but pretty darn good.

   I was filthy, covered with a fine layer of dust from mowing the lawn and sweat from the climbing and drilling I did on the Scheffleras. The Schefflera is called the octopus tree because it puts out shoots from the ground that become massive trunks. A single tree can have ten trunks right next to each other. I showered and was ready when Dean and Nina arrived to play Sorry. I wasn’t in quite the mood I had been last week. I was exhausted from all the yard work, and my upper back was killing me.  It tends to be a problem from all the typing I do and all the FreeCell I play.  It was particularly bad now. I had strained those muscles, pushing the drill into the dense Schefflera wood.  The second game went on forever. I wasn’t up for it. Too bad. I love having them over and playing a game or two.

   When they left, I lay on the living room floor and worked to release those upper back muscles. I tried rolling on a roller, but that didn’t do much. I used a tennis ball on my back and finally on the left side of my jaw, but that did it. The release point for aching muscles isn’t always where the greatest pain is. My jaw hurt when I pressed on it, but it was overshadowed by my back pain.

    Went out to take on the spider plants. The spider plant, like the Schefflera, Ficus, and rubber plant, is a potted plant on the East Coast. Here, those plants are the bane of gardeners. They are downright aggressive and will take over your yard and kill everything in sight, including your house, as they move your foundation out of their way. The spider plant isn’t quite up to taking on my foundation, but it comes close. It sends out shoots with new plants on it. When they embed in the soil, they get a firm grip. I could pull up some. by the roots. Most, I had to chop off the leaves and add a drop of Round-Up to the open wounds.  Let’s see how this goes.   

  Elsa’s skin lesions didn’t look better; if anything, they looked worse.  Damn!  I bathed her. I feel so bad for her. Her skin was completely healed before the oral surgery, removing ten teeth, and the change in her diet from the food I knew was good for her to a substitute. I got the proper food when I realized the substitute was not working. Hopefully, getting her back on the food that worked will work again.

   Call the Midwife was back on Netflix. Yay! What a lovely show!