Gramma's Corner: A Penny For Your Thoughts

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

A Penny For Your Thoughts

I got tired of being an adult today. I'd much rather sit around and knit.

Actually I was tired of being an adult about 11 am this morning after I had cleaned up the breakfast dishes, went to the dentist, paid a bunch of bills, made one difficult phone call and a bunch of others not quite so difficult. I don't really like making phone calls. I had garden stuff waiting to take care of and errands to fun. It didn't look like I was going to have time for any fun.

The last phone call was to a fellow knitter that we hadn't heard from since she had a big skin cancer removed from her arm. She was so good to call when I had all those ear surgeries last year that I was ashamed I hadn't called her earlier.

Others were trying to check on her and it looked like she had gone into hiding.

She answered my phone call, and talked like she hasn't had anyone to listen for weeks. She told me how so many other things had gone wrong with her body and she could hardly walk for back pain. She was in hiding, Partly from physical difficulty, partly from mental.

One thing she told me that I can't forget because I've been there,

"It's just one thing after another going wrong. I want to be like I used to be."

She can't do the things she used to right now.

She can't do much of anything. She reminded herself that so many are worse off than she is. I used that line, too. But, when you are used to a way of life, anything that makes that life harder means adjustment and adjustment very seldom comes easily.

We have finished our flower garden reconstruction. Saturday, Jim and I finished it. I weeded while he dug a trench for new edging, and lowered the extra space for sod. Then Jim cut sod from the place where we will put the sand box while I rolled it. It takes far more sod that I realized to fill in bare spots. Jim would measure and we would still come up short.

I thought I had a nice photo of the 'before' view of the garden so we could see the difference. This first photo is most of the garden and shows some of the biggest changes. The fence in back is gone and the middle garden now includes the tree. It was taken in 2014 before the pond was done.

2014--Pond area finished.

This view is close to the first. No fence, no arch, more grass, the tree is enclosed.

2016

This is a slightly different view which shows more of the grassy area that used to be covered in this last few years with more weeds than flowers.

2016

These would be better photos if I hadn't quickly done them tonight to put on the blog. The pond is still there but in shadow so it is hard to see.

We did more corn this week and that is the end, thank goodness. It goes a lot easier with Lorene and family helping. There are boys underfoot and I make supper, so I always looked forward to those corn days with dread. Looking back, I did just fine those days. The boys were not a problem, the supper was simple and I did not get overtired. I'm rather impressed about how well I did. I think I worry about too many things that never come to pass.

Zane would rather help me in the kitchen than just play around. Probably because I let him do things like chop a watermelon with a really big knife. But, all that comes to a screeching halt when Papa comes by with 4-wheeler.

We were early finishing up corn that day and while enjoying the outside, found a sunken spot in our brick path. Jim was just going to get a little dirt to fill in under those bricks. When he pulled them up we found a big hole under there with a tunnel! Jim stuck his shovel handle in until the tunnel curved. We are assuming something dug up there, couldn't get through the plastic and the brick and that was the end of it. I have no idea what sort of animal it was. Jim filled the hole with a lot more dirt that we expected and it's done.

Very strange. And a little unnerving since we know snakes live under that green stuff by the

air conditioner. It seemed too big for snakes, though.