Tuesday morning I woke up with a
stinging sensation on my left arm as though it has been used as a
pincushion. Why all the pain? I must have encountered a plant that doesn't
like me (most plants don't) or heat rash perhaps? My arm doesn't appear to have a rash
visually, but from the inside, the prickly feeling was driving me bonkers.
Jenna and I had gone to the
library. It wasn't until after I
returned that I felt what must have been small cuts on my index finger (just
under the knuckle). Must be from dry
skin. Yesterday I realized it was a
sliver of some kind - probably wood. My
left index finger was turning pink. I think I might have gotten it out when I
soaked myself and opened up my pores.
In addition to our house trim in
need of painting, our Juniper jungle is in need of sprucing up. I am the wrong person to do it. I butcher plants beyond recognition. I was out there with hedge clippers for what
felt like days - but I don't even think it was an hour. I had to stop. I didn't want to get heat stroke.
I was just going to take a shower,
but decided on a bath instead. That way
I could soak my arm and finger and hopefully lose the pain. My entire finger isn't pink anymore. Still a tender area, but I think I got the
sliver out with a final soak (just my finger) in peroxide.
Finally we have cooler temperatures
that have invited neighbors to come outside to spruce their own yards or walk
their dogs or what have you.
Roland was on the ladder last
night. I admire his strength. He is older than me - though he looks 10 - 20
years younger than he really is. He
doesn't appear to be in the greatest physical shape, but he is strong. The latter's got to weigh fifty pounds at
least. He moves it with ease. I can't even budge it.
Roland can climb the latter while
holding on to the bucket of paint and paintbrush. I can't even climb stairs with things in my
hand. I can't look up or else I get
dizzy. What a weenie.
Jenna shimmies up the hill in our
back yard as quickly as a snake. Roland
is not quite as fast, but manages to get up there without getting out of
breath. I will be panting somewhere near
the bottom - angry at myself for letting myself go.
I used to squat all the time before
Jenna was born. Ever since that time I
leak quite badly every time I just think of squatting. And now my right knee usually cries in pain
whenever I try. Or I will have succeeded
in squatting but require assistance to get back up.
This morning I was out in the jungle
with the clippers, trying to trim in down.
I got a lot of it, but there are bushes in the middle that I just can't
reach.
The weather is nice. It's not raining in the valley - but there is
definitely moisture in the hills as they are hidden from view. It is pretty cool to look around knowing the
hills are there but not seeing for the moisture - the moisture that wasn't
there just a few days ago - when the temperature both inside and outside were
hot and unbearable.
Today is Jenna's last day of school
for this school year. She'll start the
7th grade in September. She's one of the
few kids who isn't excited about summer and being out of school. When we went to the library on Tuesday, she
checked out eight books. Yesterday I
returned them as she had read them all - except for one that she really
couldn't get into.
This summer I plan to teach her a
bit of geography and American history. I
think children shouldn't be ignorant of that - and yet many of them are. There's adults in their 20s and 30s who are
clueless to some of the names of cities and historical or political
figures. I think that's wrong.
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