I woke up before the alarm and got started on my exercises for the day. Then, in a break from routine brought on by hunger, I ate breakfast before I took my shower. I think doing three mowing sessions yesterday sharpened my appetite.
I’ve been sad today. Thinking a lot about Ambrose. Talking to him a lot. I wrote a bit of a song this morning about him.
No mail in the box when I checked it at lunch. I’ve added checking in on Candy-O (my new tree) as part of the lunch route. I say hello and admire how she’s growing. Then I circle to my big trees and give one of them a hug before making my way to my lilac bush and then back to the house.
I started my beans cooking in the morning before work and set a timer to check on them. I didn’t have a lot of morning meetings, so I was able to get them cooked up. I made rice in the rice cooker and made a veggie medley of green onions, red peppers, and jalapenos to go with the beans for dinner. The resulting meals are nice and bulky, and I think they’ll work well to keep me fueled this week.
After dinner, I went out to mow. I filled up the gas tank, and then dragged the mower to where I left off yesterday. I had also put on some new, longer, strings, cutting off lengths from the maroon spool Ambrose had bought. As soon as I depressed the handle to spin them, they all flew off. Just – poof! So I had to go back to the house and get different strings since apparently those would not work. I cut some blue ones to the longer length even though that left me with short halves that I probably won’t be able to use.
I was pretty sure the blue ones would work, but when I started the mower up again, I found that the belt that turns the head had gotten disconnected. Pushing the bar did nothing. I turned it off again and tried to fix it without taking it apart, but I couldn’t. I had to go back to the house again to get my rachet and a socket. I took the guard off, fixed the belt, put the guard back on, and finally was able to start mowing.
I ended up doing part of the driveway, and a tiny little rock got rocketed into my thigh hard enough that I knew it would leave a bruise. I was just glad that it wasn’t bleeding through my pants. I found that I had not filled in all the holes where rocks used to be, but at least there weren’t rocks. It was rough going, and I was glad of the hearty dinner.
I mowed until the tank emptied. Then I watered my new tree. Then inside to shower. I also had to get the dishwasher going with dinner prep dishes. I should have done that before I went outside, but I have been severely lacking in motivation lately, so I’m just happy I did it even if I didn’t do it right away. I’m trying to be gentle with myself, but there’s also just stuff I need to get done. Like I need to do laundry tomorrow so I can have a clean sun hoodie to wear for mowing after work.
The clouds were beautiful today. I got a few pictures, but they never really capture the full extent of what I see.
