Manual Labor

I have slowly begun doing more work around the house, though I still feel acutely anemic. Over the past year, my nephew has taken up the slack for me on the mowing, but now I'm taking it back, whether I want it or not! Twice over the past weeks I have mowed and trimmed the lawn, though each time was an ordeal and I only worked at it in half-hour increments (if that). It takes two days to do the job when you do it that way, assuming the weather permits me to work the second day.

Yesterday a giant rotten limb fell out of the oak tree close to the road. The limb, about 30 feet long, laid across a flower bed, a water-filled ditch, and nearly into the street. I trimmed it some and dragged it out away from the ditch to where I could work on it with the saw, etc. After many breaks I had cut it into sections and put it in the burning barrel.

By the end of the day it was gone. So, nearly, was I. Over the past year I've been so weak that just putting the laundry in the washer or removing it all from the dryer and hanging it up made me tired. The most candy-assed job imaginable, and I can barely handle it. So, it takes a violent act of will on my part to make myself try these other things. The lawnmower is heavy and so is the weed-eater! My feet (with neuropathy and aching ankles) are generally okay if I can stay on level ground, but woe is me if I try to work on an incline, such as a ditch.

I am inclined to be a sedentary Internet lobster, whether sick or not; I might say I enjoy it, if I had that much energy. Lord only knows how hard it'll be to mow the grass when the real heat of Texas summer begins! If I were rich, I believe I'd go north just to escape the worst of the heat. At present, it's still moderate, but it's coming, and it's no fun to anticipate.

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