Too Much

I did waaay too much yesterday and will pay for it today. It began with banking and grocery shopping and hauling all the bags into the house then two beds were stripped of their sheets while I wrapped the final presents, which took almost two hours. With the presents now under the tree, I ironed two sets of sheets and remade two beds. Lunch break before gardening.

The garden: not too bad. A quick cutting of the grass, gathering of leaves and watering. Should not have been too much. Then I remembered that Michael mentioned the huge ferns, which just one day appeared along the side fence between the drunk neighbors and our house in a four-inch piece of dirt and I let get big. It would not be good for the drainage, if we ever see rain again. (We are in a drought!) I decided to tackle them.

After hand cutting handsfull of fern spears, I found that I could grab near the roots and pull as hard as I could and the entire root system would come out. Perfect. Well, it took a lot of cutting and pulling and hauling baskets full to the garden recycle before the job was finished. Even with my oxygen turned up, the motion of bending from the waist and pulling with all my strength caused me to be short of breath. I had to take breaks. It took just about an hour to get them all removed, the huge recycle bin filled to the brim and the area cleaned. An hour of heavy working.

I crawled into the house and just sat to recover. It took a bit before I was able to carry on. Michael arrived home, shocked that I was able to do everything. He thought I would do the ferns with him or just a bit at a time. I was so clearly finished that he went out and brought dinner home. There was no way I was going to be able to cook. I forced myself to stay awake until 8:00 then I climbed into a bed of freshly washed and ironed sheets and passed out. It felt marvelous.

Today is recovery day. There are candlesticks that need cleaning and poinsettias that need ice cubes for water but other than that, nothing today. Well, maybe Christmas movies on Hallmark and Lifetime or even a couple on DVDs. A quiet day.