Panic

I feel like summer is almost over and I haven't accomplished a tenth of the things I wanted to before school starts again.

Last year carpal tunnel gave me a good excuse to do nothing, but I actually got a lot done because I was too dumb to realize my wrists had a problem. This summer I could feel my wrists regaining strength as I heaved rocks into new landscape and hauled railroad ties out of the way.

I think that I was too ambitious this summer. Re-landscaping the backyard and adding a stream and pond and stripping furniture and either walking or biking with friends daily and leaving town for three weeks and trying to survive endless hot days with no air conditioning and trying to revamp the irrigation system and make new curtains for the family room might have been more of a challenge than I was up for.

I've lowered my sights. So today I managed to plant one rose bush. Yep, one whole rose! It meant working in the heat and taking hose showers to stay cool; it meant removing old used-up soil and mixing the new humus with the compost; it meant finding roots that had to be cut out before the rose went in. But it got done. It's the first thing I've planted since the fence went back up!

Tomorrow's sights are set on maneuvering two more railroad ties back in place and moving some good soil in the raised bed. I've got a few other holes in process; they need to be deeper and root-free, but they're started. I have a feeling that the men in my life might be doing some grunt work for me this weekend.