"You cut down the grasses!"

Sunday November 21, 2010

My fifteen minute run had gone well two days earlier and I hadn’t had any soreness in my foot since. Time to bump it up…but not go crazy. I felt fit enough to be running an hour, but knew that what I needed was a gradual increase in minutes every other day for a couple of weeks. I selected a course with a couple of hills and one I figured I could complete in around 25 minutes. I couldn’t help but think with each step this could be the one that sends a sharp pain shooting up my leg. It never came and I did complete the run in 25 minutes…so…I’m starting to feel more confident that I’ve dodged another bullet.

I continued my pattern of trying to do something all day long as opposed to sitting down for TV time. I decided that I’d take one more trip on the roof to pull leaves from the gutters. I prefer getting on the roof and scooting along the edge, reaching into the gutters as I go and pulling out the leaves to working from a ladder that I need to move eight feet at a time. The down side is, I’m dangling over 20 feet in the air and if I should fall, don’t bounce nearly as well as I did thirty years ago. Oh well…I could fall off the ladder, too.

I also decided it was time to cut down all the ornamental grasses growing in the front yard. Holly and I had discussed this plan and we’d agreed that I wouldn’t do it until after Thanksgiving because she wanted to use some of it for decorations. We’ve had it for years and it grows like crazy. I’ve dug it up and transplanted it all over the neighborhood and once I’ve cut it down and bundled it, I have enough to fill the living room to the ceiling. In my mind…a scary place…I figured since I’d left the grasses in the back yard standing…enough to fill the family room…it was okay to cut the stuff in the front yard without first consulting with Holly. I wasn’t even close to right…

“What are you doing?!!! Didn’t we agree that you weren’t going to cut the grasses down?”

She was pretty upset…I could figure that out for sure and knew that the words I was about to utter could be my last…or save my life. “I thought…” I started to say…

“NO YOU DIDN’T. IF YOU’D HAVE THOUGHT… I WOULDN’T BE LOOKING AT ALL MY GRASSES CUT DOWN AND IN A PILE!!” she said.

Kinda got me there, but figured I should say nothing at this point. I’ve been married 35 years to this wonderful lady and every now and again, I actually know when to shut up. I gave it a couple of minutes then mumbled that I hadn’t cut the grasses in the back yard down and was planning to leave them alone for her decorations. She went back inside…I was thinking to grab a weapon…but when she came back out, said that the ones in the back would do. Some years ago, she would have said something like “don’t be so stupid in the future and check with me first” but experience had taught her I would continue to be that stupid and age wasn’t going to make it better.

We finally got Ash’s car out to see Dan. He took it for a drive around the block and came back with the bad news. “Even a used transmission would be about $1,500. Other than that…it’s a pretty good car,” he concluded, with a grin.

Okay…so the search for decent, inexpensive transportation continues. I finished the evening in the workshop with Jason making a frame for an art project he was working on for school. The shop is amazingly clean and I’m going to keep it that way. Makes me want to work out there more and Holly wants me to make her a new work center for her office, which should be challenging, but fun. It will give me a chance to brush up on my profanity before the start of the next Indians baseball season.

Run duration: 25 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 140 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 450.