Sunday was a day of physical labor. I emptied the truck of fallen branches and then filled it up again with various piles I'd been making and then with those in the yard that hadn't been picked up yet. Then I cleaned the filter to the turtle pond which was totally gross and nasty as I hadn't cleaned it since early summer. After that I got the long handled nippers and went to the back of the property and proceeded to cut down rain trees from about 6” high to three or four feet. Unfortunately they'll all come back unless I had pulled them up so I'm just going to have to spray poison. Those things are more like weeds than trees. Then I pulled grapevine out of the cedar. Then I went and got the machete and started in on the big rain tree beside the dilapidated shed on the back corner by the wild space. It was about 3” in diameter. I kept thinking for a couple of years I would get the chainsaw and cut it down but I don't think the electrical cord is long enough so hence the machete. I was determined to take it down and hacked at that thing with two handed swings and eventually succeeded. Then I hacked away at one of the thick woody grape vines and got that done too. And then I was done in.
Monday I picked up the debris from cutting down all those rain trees and threw them in the wild space and then about all I accomplished the rest of the day was finishing the book I was reading.
I've been dealing with an ingrown toenail on my left big toe for a couple of years but the last several months it just got worse and worse. Sunday evening it started hurting and by bedtime it hurt so much I doused it with hydrogen peroxide, slathered it with antibiotic ointment and wrapped a bandaid around it. It hurt so bad, throbbing and shooting pains and just the touch of the sheet was intolerable, one of the reasons I stayed up late Sunday night reading because it hurt so bad I couldn't sleep anyway. It finally calmed down enough I got about 4 hours sleep and the next morning it seemed better but I washed it again with antibacterial soap, more antibiotic ointment and another bandaid and as long as I didn't bump it against anything it didn't really hurt very much. Then Monday night after another wash, etc. and I went to bed it was hurting just as bad as before. I finally googled ingrown toenail and following instructions I took some ibuprofen and then soaked it for about half an hour in very warm water, more antibiotic ointment and another bandaid and the pain subsided to let me sleep. Yesterday, soaking the foot in very warm water several times a day and trying to lift the nail corner from the skin (painful!) and of course antibiotic ointment. It's getting better and didn't bother me at all last night but is still tender in one spot. I think it must have gotten infected from my Sunday activities being barefoot or just wearing sandals.
Anyway, yesterday was mundane household activity day...ferrying Robin to and from work, grocery shopping, dishes, library, my night to fix dinner which didn't go as planned because it turned out the leftover sausage I planned to use had already been eaten.
I did make some decisions on Tuesday about mounting the trumpet flower pieces. The plan now is to glue them to a piece of finished birch plywood with about 1/2” showing all the way around and finishing the edges with some small trim which I may paint or stain but not sure of the color.
But I woke up this morning from a weird dream...I was going on a canoe trip with a group and it had been a long time since I had done that (and yes it has been a very long time) and I showed up without a PFD (personal flotation device aka life preserver) and they managed to outfit me and a couple of others with one and then it seems the food had been forgotten so we stopped at a place to get some and also a sleeping mat for a couple of the others which was when I had realized I had not brought my own sleeping mat or a sheet or a blanket or any other clothes for that matter and the trip leader was looking at me like he couldn't believe how stupid that was and then I woke up when I was trying to convince them to go by my house so I could get my stuff on our way out since it wasn't really much out of the way...and what the fuck was that all about? So I've been in a funky mood all day not feeling like doing any of the things I planned, just wanting to go back to bed and sleep which maybe I'll do after I pick Robin up from work.
