What a day yesterday was! The weather was about as perfect as a spring day can get and I got to do my very favorite warm weather activity; that's right, I pulled on my floppy hat, plugged my ears with cotton and climbed on-board my spiffy green John Deere LA120 riding mower with its V-Twin engine (manufactured by Briggs & Stratton) and off I went. Oh, sigh, the sweet smell of the first cut of the season; has there ever been anything better? If you would like to know how I really feel about mowing grass you might want to check out my post here from last September http://thelonelyspot.blogspot.com/2007/09/wahoo-and-beep-beep.html.
After I finished mowing, I did a most un-Betty-like thing. I should qualify that by saying that at our house the Betty things are generally "woman things" like cleaning and cooking and laundry and so forth. When it comes to electronics, I can generally figure out how to do what we need to with the computers and Don is the Tech no Wiz with the BA TV and sound system. The Don things are generally the muscle or brawn things and also include anything that requires grace, agility or attaining a height of more than 2 or 3 inches off the ground. In short, the man is phenomenal, though I do make a mean pot-roast (remind me some time and I'll give you the recipe). Back to the startling fact that I, did a Don thing. Every winter we put plastic covered frames over our screened-in back porch. It keeps treacherous ice and snow off of a high use foot traffic area and it also helps keep the living room warmer. It is always difficult for Don to find the time to install the frames in the fall because coaching cross country consumes so much of his time and he invariably has to put them up weeks early, cheating us of our porch at the end of the season or weeks late which can be a miserable job if the snow is flying. Conversely, in the spring if he takes them down before track season gets into full swing, there is sure to be a blizzard or two before it warms up. Preferring not to use our porch as a skating rink we left the plastic covered frames up this year; and it was a good thing too, it didn't get truly warm here until last week. (Sorry about the ramble, my mind is scattered further than the four winds these days.) The job I did was taking down those frames all by myself!
The motivation; medication adjustments, bugs – you would not believe the number of lady bugs on that nice warm porch just waiting to come into my house at the first opportunity, a heady sense of empowerment due to my success in mowing the yard? Who can say why I did it, but I did indeed. I had to re-outfit myself for the job; this was a serious undertaking. I traded my floppy hat for an old mobcap I have, it's really kind of cute, and it's white with little pink roses and it has a little white bow. Actually, Don laughs every time I wear it but I think he likes my granny cap too. The purpose of the cap was of course to keep the killer lady bugs from getting in my hair. With my ear-buds, protecting my ears from the unthinkable and connected to my MP3 player, which was playing, surprisingly, some of my favorite music the head was… um covered. Next item: put on a shirt with nice snug sleeves; I didn't want any of those little critters sneaking down my shirt sleeve. I am too big a woman to be doing a strip dance on my back porch, never mind that there are no neighbors to see!
I gathered up a few tools and I was in business. I knew Don had the cordless drill/screwdriver charged, so I went to the basement and got that, and then I got the shop-vacuum (I really don't want to talk about using that) and a step ladder from the garage and set to on those frames. The exposed or outside walls of our porch are on the north, east side, the south wall of the porch is part of the garage wall, and the west wall is the living room wall. The plastic lined frames hang in two tiers, I discovered with the first set that it is best to remove the top tier first and it is definitely best to remove the bottom set of screws on those frames first rather than last. I discovered that I could climb as far as the third step on the ladder as long as I could lean against something solid on the way up and that as long as I didn't look down and I leaned into the ladder I could turn round and face the screw I needed to remove. Not bad, I say, and it only took me a couple of hours, well, about three or four but I had to do a lot of sweeping and cleaning while I was taking down the frames because there is no way I will sit on a floor covered with squished and….no it is just too gross. Note to Robyn: I too love lady bugs as long as they are outside and especially if they are hanging out round my hemlock trees which they are very good for and I did let a fair few of them fly away.
May I say that at the end of the day I was very proud of myself? Don said it should have taken about ten minutes and perhaps I could have done it in much less time but do you know; I don't believe I would have had the same sense of accomplishment.
I'm exhausted just thinking about it all again. None of that is really important. Dr. Tepper from Cleveland Clinic called me yesterday. She is working on getting the MRA scheduled. I hate to go this evening my friends, but Don is due home soon and I haven't done a thing since he left at 3:00!
There is always hope.
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