One of the weird things that I’ve noticed is that whenever I dig a hole or a trench in the yard, when it comes time to fill it, there is always less dirt than when I started.  I don’t get it. I dig out the dirt, do whatever I need to do, then replace the dirt, and 100% of the time, the area I was working on is an inch or two lower than when I started.  Where did all the damn dirt go?  Anyway, after installing the coax last year, I filled in the trench, topped it off with three bags of topsoil, and let it go for the winter.  Now that it’s spring and the snow is gone, it’s clear I didn’t use enough dirt, which is why I put in more topsoil.  I’m guessing it still won’t be enough, and I’ll be heading back to Lowe’s yet again.

But that’s not what today’s post is about.  I just wanted to start out by showing that I did some heavy lifting and had little problem tossing forty-pound bags of mulch, manure, and topsoil into the car.  Which brings me to Saturday.  On Saturday, I decided there were several garden beds I wanted to edge.  My wife is the main gardener at the house, taking care of most of the ornamental plants, while I have a small vegetable garden and do all the lawn mowing.  Over the years, lawn mowing has been a problem because I don’t want to get too close to the garden beds, or my wife will complain that I’ve run over the flowers, so I actually stay a few inches away.  As a result, a small area never gets mowed, leading to tall grass encroaching into the garden.  This year, I figured I’d fix that by edging the beds.

The edging started easily enough.  I opened the garage, navigated through the piles of stuff that get tossed in for the winter, and located the edging tool.  I grabbed it, walked over to the first bed, decided where the edge would lie, stuck the tool into the ground, and lifted my foot about three inches off the ground.  When I placed my foot on the edging tool, a sharp pain shot through my left hip, and it felt like I had just been hit in the hip with a baseball bat.  All of that just by stepping on the edging tool.

I suspect it was just a pinched nerve, since I didn’t do anything that would have brought it on, but the pain persisted throughout the weekend and prevented me from working outside or doing my usual exercise routine.  Today, while I still have some pain, I thought things had improved enough to resume exercising.  I went into the cellar to do a weight workout, got through my bench press sets with no problem, and then attempted squats.  The first squat I attempted was also the last, since it once again caused sharp hip pain.  I think I’m now back where I was at the time of the original injury.

To make things even tougher.  Since I take blood thinners, the only pain medication I’m allowed to take is Tylenol.  This worked well for years, but in the last year, I seem to have developed an allergy to it.  When I take it, within minutes my skin gets really itchy, and after about four hours, I end up with red welts all over my body.  If that were the extent of the reaction, I would have no problem, but there are all sorts of warnings (and graphic pictures) on the Internet about how severe Tylenol reactions can be, and that if you have any symptoms, you should stop taking it immediately.  So I guess I’m out of luck.  I seldom take any type of medication unless I really need it, but now I have no real options for pain, so I guess I’ll just have to live through it.

Anyway, no exercise, no gardening, and I just ended up paying our outrageous tax bill, so I’m really grumpy.  

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

My office is pretty utilitarian, I have multiple computers, keyboards, a desk, lots of bookcases and books but zero in the way of decorations. Perhaps I could give a home to the little guy and while I was at it, make my office a bit more presentable. I picked it up to see if there was a price on it and found that it was only going to cost me three dollars. That seemed pretty reasonable so the deal was sealed.

I took my new little friend home and set it up in a nice location on my desk in a position where I could watch it as I worked and make my day just a little bit brighter. It was my little ‘rescue’ plant. I had given it a nice home and could now brag to everyone how virtuous I was for taking care of this poor, abandoned plant.

The plant, some sort of succulent, didn’t seem like it would need a lot of water, so once a week I would give it just enough to get the soil wet but not enough that it would spill out onto my desk. This seemed to work. The plant was green, healthy and looked to be in great shape. Success! Gardening was easy.

A year or so went by and one morning my wife, the gardener in the family, came in to talk to me about something and as part of the conversation, I mentioned how good the plant was looking and how I had been diligent about watering it every week.

She looked at me with that look that wives sometimes give husbands that says, ‘What are you some sort of idiot?’

‘I think it’s plastic,’ she said.

‘Huh. No, it can’t be, just look at it, it’s obviously real.’

She picked it up and pulled on one of the leaves. It didn’t break. She pulled harder. It still didn’t break.

‘Plastic,’ she deadpanned.

Could it be? It sure seemed real. We continued the discussion/argument for a bit and then she moved on to do other things.

It’s been about five years now, I haven’t watered it since that day and it’s still thriving. I guess it is plastic.

(Note: The image at the top of the post is the actual plant and I don’t care what anyone says, it looks pretty real to me)