Behind Yardwork

I find it harder to do yardwork these days.  Bad knees, bad back, muscle cramps from gripping tools tightly...  I think I have pushed my body too long doing too many things it really takes 2 people to do.  I sure wish I had a cloned Me to help out.  I may have to hire one.

Today, I got up and (because it was going to be 40F and windy) put on thermal underwear to prepare to move the last of the topsoil from the trailer to the front island bed (to start to plant bulbs I ordered last Spring) etc, it was past 4 pm.  It gets dark before 5 now.  Not much time to do anything useful!

Shorter days and Standard Time really mess up my life November to March...  I am not an early-riser these days.  

So by the time I made lunch, fed The Mews, started some laundry, cleaned the litterboxes, got the mail and newspaper, put out trash for pickup, cleaned up the kitchen pans and plates for the dishwasher, the light was about gone.

I just can't seem to get out of bed after only 8 hours these days.   8 hours in bed doesn't mean 8 hours of sleep for me.  I need 10-12 hours in bed to get 8 hours of sleep these days.  Getting old is bad enough, but needing that much bedtime for 8 hours of sleep is worse.  My awake time is getting less.  

I resist taking sleeping pills, but I've seen ads about"non-addictive" ones.  I will add that to the list of things to discuss with my Dr.

When I retired in 2006 after 35 years of getting up every day at 5 am (and returning home at 6 pm) I swore I would never get up that early again.  I might have to start forcing myself to get up earlier.

I have the front island almost covered with paper (to smother the grass) and soil covering most of it (to hold the paper down and fertilize the tree and future bulbs).

But I need to finish the soil covering and plant the bulbs.  😓

The odd part is that planting the bulbs will be the easy part.  The drill auger makes creating 6" holes in good soil easy.  Putting the bulbs in the ground is easy.  Raking the loose soil to cover the bulbs is easy.  

It is shoveling soil from the trailer into buckets and dumping the buckets onto the paper that is the hard part.  But any project has a hard part, and I have to get at that part before I can to the rest!

Food

Typical lunch:  A ham or turkey sandwich with lettuce and onions (actually usually just a half sandwich), surrounded with some crunchy veggies and tomatoes, green tea and half a Coke.  Usually a mug of chocolate milk too, but I had cheese on the sandwich.

Typical dinner:  3-4 oz of meat, a green veggie, a yellow/orange/red veggie, a tossed salad, 2 small glasses of wine.  I only make shrimp rolls about once a week though.  Pic is from last year, but the best one I could find.  And assorted fresh fruit for dessert.

I seldom make breakfast.  When I do, it is usually 2 fried eggs on a pancake with maple sausage.  I have the pancake down to a science.  3 spoonfuls of commercial mix, stirred with enough milk to leave it thick but pourable.  Small non-stick pan, heated to 375F (I have an infrared thermometer, sprayed with extra-virgin olive oil).  Pancake mix poured in immediately.  Two minutes on each side.

Turning the pancake can be tricky.  I can't just flip it up and have it come down centered in the pan, but I have a very thin flexible spatula that helps.  Another brief olive oil spray and both eggs go in.  The instant the egg whites are set, I turn off the heat, flip them, and count to 10.  I like a slighty runny yolk, but I can't stand runny whites.

I have both maple and country link sausage.  Maple goes with the pancakes and eggs.  On the rare occasions when I just make pancakes with maple syrup (the real stuff), I use the country links or bacon.  I pre-cook and freeze them, so it is just a matter of thawing them out.

Probably more than you ever wanted to know about my diet, but I had the first picture and wanted to use it.  And all the rest just naturally followed.  😁