Tuesday was a bright sunny day that certainly helped to improve the state of my mental health. Plus, I had a very valuable session with Dr. Shoja. I talked almost the whole time, and better than I often do. I had a lot of stuff to unload from the dreadful week I had after the storm. I know she understands and there is no better medicine than being heard and understood! What a blessing she is for me!
Pete arrived to help clean my yard just as my session with Dr. S. began, so he did an hour’s worth of tidying my yard on his own while I Zoomed. And when my session was over, it was time for him to fetch Ali and take her home and have lunch with her. That gave me time to have lunch and to chain saw the largest branch that fell into burnable pieces. I also got a plank ramp set up at the back door of my car so that we could get the new generator out easily and safely.
Then I started raking. Bad shoulder and all, I got busy raking the tons and tons of shite that fell during the storm into piles. When Pete came back, we assembled the new generator and got it going, just to see how it all worked. And then as I went back to raking, Pete schlepped the crap I raked onto the wheelbarrow and then to the dump in the forest part of my yard.
And the miracles continue to happen. I took photos of my old generator, and then wrote a pitch to islanders on our Gabe Facebook page to go with the photos. I told people in the ad that it needed work and asked for a hundred bucks for it. Then I went out to get wood for the fire. And when I came back indoors less than a minute later, I had two offers for the generator. One was from a neighbour two doors over, and they took it. Their hundred bucks made my new generator even cheaper. Plus, I don’t have to figure out how to dispose of the old machine.
By 4:00, I was done. I could not keep going. My shoulder was at 8 on the pain scale, and I was heaving and taking steps one at a time. It had been a very taxing day with D. S. and then hours and hours of light physical labour. Oh, I was ready for the couch and television.
Pete continued until almost 5:00, and the yard is cleared of all the forest fall—my entire yard, front and back. I’d done a fair bit on my own, but we, and mostly Pete, did it all. Chaos is gone. The generator is in place and I have lots of gas, and the yard looks rough from all the raking, but it is free of more forest fall than I have ever seen before—by far! I took pain pills to be free of much of the shoulder pain, made a simple dinner, got on the chaise and opened my streaming menu. Heaven.
Today, I’ll forest walk with my peeps, and then I’ll chill with a book by the fire. Chaos is gone. I can relax.
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