Thursday, March 24, 2022

Schlepping, Day One

At least it wasn’t raining yesterday as I began my annual epic job of shlepping wood from my driveway into the shed. This time, for the first time, I laid wooden planks down onto which I laid down the bottom layer of chopped wood. The bottom layer is a tough one to get dry, so this year I am making every effort to stack the wood straight, to keep it up off the floor, and I’m leaving spaces between the individual pieces of the stack. I’ve learned from experience. This is my sixth massive schlep.

The first two cords are always the hardest because I am out of shape from a very, very relaxed Winter by the fire. So, I took things slowly and took breaks when I need to. And it was 13° so I was roasting and soon, therefore, I was working in just a t-shirt on top.

I quit at 10:30 to go back to the groomer’s and fetch Her Highness. She smelled so, so good and looked, of course, gorgeous. And then it was back to schlepping. By lunchtime, I had the planks covered with the bottom two layers of firewood along two long stacks. And then of course, after lunch, I was back at it.

By 1:30 I was ready for bed. A couple of times, I slid on the paving stones of my courtyard and spilled my load of wood. Those loads, therefore, were picked up twice. Sigh. I slowed down as the day progressed because my right arm had started to hurt every time that I picked up a piece of wood. 

At 2:00, the sun came out. That inspired me, but I did not want to do too much more if it meant my arm would be too sore to work today. This is the wettest and heaviest load of wood Dr. Rooks has delivered. I need cookies when I do this kind of work.

It was a lot nicer working in sunlight. By 3:00 I’d done 25 barrow loads. I quit stacking at 3:00 to take Her Highness for a walk. She looks so gorgeous, all white and perfectly coiffed, and it was really lovely to walk with her and to feel the sun on my skin. Oh, it felt good to not be schlepping. But when we got back, I went back to it until I had done the 30 loads I wanted to do.

It felt so, so good to slip into the spa when I quit just before 5:00. Oh, the joy! I believe I have less to do today than I did yesterday. Hoorah! After my spa, I did a little reading before dinner, and then crashed on the couch to watch anything at all before turning in early. Today, it starts again. Sigh.

Invitations! Yay! Eoin and François have invited me for dinner on Friday, and Kris and Steve have invited me to dinner on Sunday. It’s a lot more complicated being asked out now; I have offered to bring my own meal to E&F’s and Kris sent me an email of her whole meal so I know that I can eat onion and garlic free.

Those pillars of white privilege, Stepford Kate and William, are getting an earful in the Caribbean. Three cheers to the West Indies for telling the royals off and asking for reparations for slavery. I reckon there are going to be a lot of countries leaving the commonwealth once Queen Lizzie dies. I hope so.
















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