Oh, yeah - exhausted.
In a few days, the service folks from my oil company are coming to do some work on the system so that I can have heat this winter. Never mind that the government says we're going to get a break on heating costs this year because prices are lower and demand will be less because they're expecting a warmer than freezing solstice. My woolly caterpillars told me the same thing with their uneven brown and black stripes and I don't believe them, either.
Anyway, I thought it would be nice if these heating service guys didn't have to find their way through the hay field which is my side yard, so I got out the lawn mower that's been vacationing on my front porch since August and proceeded to cut down various grasses, knotweed, boneset, and a few other dozen varieties of plant life in the experimental weed factory that I call my lawn.
Now, think about it. It was early August when I last knocked down the flora. Mix together plenty of rain, reasonable amount of sun and warmth and what do you get? Something that even a herd of goats might be intimidated by. However, a half an hour of mowing later and there's a sidewalk you can see, grass that's now about 4 inches high instead of 12+, a ton of raking that I'll likely ignore and, oh, yeah -- me exhausted.
It's not that I hate mowing. I love being outside buzz-cutting the green stuff on a nice day like today. However, as I get older, it's getting harder to maintain a hilly green carpet. Yes, the lawn is not flat. I love my house on the hill, but I envy my neighbors who have these wonderfully flat pieces of real estate to push or ride their cutting machines around. They get Kansas to mow, I get Colorado.
In younger days, it wasn't so bad working up a sweat with mowing exercise. Now over 50, physically deconditioned and with less than perfect, but eternally non-smoker lungs, I huff, puff and wheeze while I work up that same sweat. Sadly, keeping it mowed on a regular basis won't improve the wheezing portion of things. I'd get some kid to do it for me, but that enterprising spirit seems to have gone out of our local youth. I'd get an adult or landscaping service to do it for me, but most can't be bought for anything less than $50 and that's not in my budget this year.
But, the job is done for now. The boiler servicing will get done and the techs won't get lost on their way from the road to the basement in the jungle that was. I may mow one more time before I declare a moratorium on mowing and give the grass cutter another vacation on the porch. The woolly caterpillars need someplace to bed down under for the winter, after all. As for me, a cup of tea, some Motrin® and an hour or two of relaxing will do wonders to improve the hacking and coughing and, oh yeah exhaustion while I contemplate the next autumnal challenge.
Huff, puff, wheeze, huff, puff, wheeze, huff, puff, wheeze ......
