In case anyone hasn’t been paying attention, I haven’t posted the last few Mondays. Well, I have a really good reason. I think I complained a bit in my last IWSG post that I’m afraid that I’ll wake up one day and realize that I’ve quit writing. I went on to talk a bit about how I have a single block of time to do everything I want to do. Well, I think I’ve spend a bit more time blogging than I have much of anything else. Ironic to those of you who must think I do a poor job at visiting others, responding to comments, or anything else. I’m going to plunge headfirst into the A-Z challenge in April, then scale back to maybe two posts a week after that. I’m thinking Monday/Thursday might be a good schedule – with, or course, other days still open if the need arises – and that should free up a least a bit more time.
Regardless, I haven’t posted on Monday’s the past couple of weeks because with the warmer weather, my oft neglected yard needs some attention from me. My wife and I still have the standing agreement that she will handle the yard work if I will handle the laundry. Something I felt guilty about last summer, but after A) she hired people to help do the yard work and B) expected me to continue doing laundry throughout the winter months I feel quite a bit less bad about it.
However, we had a host of storms to come through late this winter that have knocked off giant limbs and destroyed portions of our once lush paradise of a yard. So, I did drag my sorry butt outside on this 70 degree weekend and help clear off brush, collect wood and organize some items that the children have scattered about.
For example, the little ones (long term houseguests that are aged 3 and 6) decided to pull out a couple of cheap, plastic pools we’d stashed away last fall once the weather turned cool. After these were brought out and played with, children came in, and storms followed. Those pools were blown with the wind, travelling over our fenced in yard, and out into the fenced in yard of our neighbors – were the torrential rain filled those pools.
So, I had to find them, empty them, and drag them back to store them. The whole time, working only nine fingers due to the horrid t-shirt incident mentioned last Monday. I grabbed my son (hereafter to be referred to as junior, or jr) and made him and his friends come out to gather sticks, fallen trees, logs, assorted items, and pile them up in the corner so I can build a bonfire. Jr is not a big fan of work, even for brief moments of time. I sympathize, as I’m not that big a fan of it either, but he didn’t complain. In fact, we had gone out on Saturday and watched John Carter. Immediately after he had his headphones in and got this pouty look on his face. Like any good parent, I mocked him for being embarrassed until he agreed I am awesome. I tried to think of what it was like when I was 15 and I went places with my parents. I guess I hated it too then. I’m not sure how much longer I can strong arm him into doing things with me. I’ll be lost if my mockery ever stops working.
| Someone hand me my lighter so I can set this baby off |
Of course, one of the downsides to all those storms was that wood tends to get wet. So, the part of me that is aware of all the little things I do that contribute to harming the environment cringed as the smoke billowed. It took hours to really get the thing going, but once I did it was great. The gallons of torch fuel I required to get the fire really started convinced me that I had chosen my accelerant wisely. I ended up pulling up a chair and stoking that thing with glee. After it grew to a real blaze I put on headphones and enjoyed a beautiful weekend.
Where was I? Oh yes, trying to build a fire. I did not build it in the Texas A&M style of course, but the smaller, more responsible sized one. I happened to have an ax that I can swing like a superhero, and I managed to make the several tons worth of wood small enough to be thrown onto the fire to create a controlled burn. With my injured pinky, I imagine I was quite the striking figure out there. A hero from a bygone era, braving hardship and the elements to bring home enough wood to keep the fires burning just one more day.
What I didn’t do, was get on my computer, even once. That’s the second weekend in a row I’ve done that. I do kinda like it. I read a bunch while I was outside, and afterwards a friend came over and we watched the Game of Thrones on Blue Ray. Not the whole series, but several hours of it.
So, it was a good weekend, even if a repressive and backwards thinking government stole an hour away from me. Therefore making it one hour less awesome than it should be. In case anyone missed Grumpy’s post yesterday about his book cover for his upcoming release, I was supposed to have done some tweaks over the weekend to it which, again, I did not do.
