I’m back!
No, Husband #2 didn’t kill me and bury me in the backyard like some episode of Criminal Minds. I’ve just had to keep my head down for a while and concentrate on some losing battles close to home.
The thistles are the ones killing me. That’s a photo of dandelions, not thistles but a weed is a weed is a weed so you get my drift.
After what seemed to be a never-ending round of challenges in May, the weeds took over the garden. There just wasn’t enough of me to keep on top of the sprouts, which turned into stalks, which now look like trees. I’ve thrown in the towel on the flower beds this year. I just wish the joe pie weed had a prettier flower.
Ah, at least I planted my Mother’s Day day lilies.
The elliptical died, but I think I already mentioned that a while back. So I’ve used the push mower as my main form of exercise. Two hours a day, unless it’s raining.
And then the rain started. We’ll call that rainy day “June”. It seemed like a never ending series of afternoon showers would roll in and dump soaking amounts of moisture and humidity for the entire month.
So instead of mowing for exercise, I took up walking. I would return home hot, completely soaked and not much skinnier. Do you know that walking is a very inefficient exercise? You really don’t get a lot of bang for your buck with walking, not like the elliptical. But I’d walk 75 minutes each evening and call up friends to catch up and kill two birds with one stone. Exercise. Be social. Check. Check.
Then one day the rain stopped and the sun came out. Previously dormant grass blades sprang into action and the yard looked like I abandoned the house almost overnight. Back to my main form of workout! Until…
The lawn mower died.
I fiddled with everything I knew how to do and finally threw in a second towel. Off to the store to buy a new mower. Quick tip: make friends with someone who has a truck. Then offer to wash and vacuum the truck for delivery services rendered.
But the new mower was broken when I unpacked the box. Somehow during assembly no one noticed that the deck height adjustment lever rubbed against the rear wheel and no amount of tugging could get it out of its current setting. So I packed it into the back seat of my car and hauled it to the store for an exchange.
Now I have a new, shiny red lawn mower.
With a bagger attachment.
That I have used non-stop since I pulled the starter rip-cord the first time.
And as I have chewed my way around the 1.5 acres I call a lawn, I’ve emptied that bag 100 times right into the vegetable and flower beds. My theory is that I’ll pull, chop, hack, kill any weed and then smother it even further so that I don’t have wild forests sprouting up. And all that mulch will turn into compost for next year’s endeavors.
I hope.
My neighbor yells over that I need a lawn tractor. Well, I have one. Which I use in cases of extreme emergency. But riding on the tractor doesn’t give me a workout like pushing the lawn mower. And pushing the mower doesn’t give me a workout like huffing on the elliptical. But I haven’t replaced the elliptical yet. I plan to do so in the fall, when the lawn no longer needs trimmed and the weather gets too cold and dark for walking safely.
Which brings me to my point – all of those little stumbling blocks are the battles of life. There is always going to be something that isn’t perfect or easy or convenient popping up to be a thistle in the garden. Those little battles may be lost daily but the getting up, putting a smile on the face, and knowing that you can put this all behind you is the winning of the war.
Life. Fighting the strong urge to give up. Fighting the powerful force of inertia.
That’s the war to win.
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