2020 Life Logs, Day 125: Mother’s Day Gift a Few Days Early
Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 57 degrees, Low 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
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Today was not as warm as yesterday, but it was a totally delightful day with plenty of sunshine and not too much wind. It was a perfect day to get the raised beds ready for planting, but I could not do the work without help. So, I offered to hire the Goldpebbles for an hour. What I got was two Goldpebbles and Jed. The ‘paid workers’ put in their hour and then Jed continued until more than I had expected was done. I felt like it was Christmas, but then I remembered Mother’s Day is coming up. Jed, Jonah, and Ollie just gave me the best Mother’s Day present a person could ask for. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Jonah took charge of completing the transplanting of the raspberries and Ollie took charge of spreading composted manure and new garden soil in the raised beds. Before they arrived, I had removed the chicken wire fencing so we could rake the leaves and remove the grass growing right next to the beds. Jed assisted with raspberry planting, removed the grass, moved the heavy bags of garden soil, and when we were all done, he put the fencing back up. I had expected to do that myself, but I am delighted that he did it. I kept trying to do things to help and Jed must have reminded me at least 25 times this afternoon to give orders and do nothing so that my back can heal. I am just not good at doing nothing, but I really appreciated how hard he tried to control my misguided deeds! Tonight my back tells me I did do too much, but I’m hoping that icing and a good night’s rest will put things right.
Early this morning I took Shadow to Melissa Berryman’s kennel so he could spend the day there. Melissa wanted to observe his behaviors. When I went to pick him up, it was Melissa’s husband who gave me the report from the day. And it was glowing, of course. Shadow is a really nice dog, got along well with the other dogs, went on a long walk with Melissa and did everything expected of him. While Shadow was doing all of that, I was here at home missing him very much. It just seemed so weird not to have him by my side. So, basically Melissa is saying that he’s a great little puppy. I just need to find some magical way of getting him to stop jumping on people and nipping at them in excitement. So, I will go spend an hour with Melissa and Shadow on Saturday to get another people training class. I have to figure this out because after being without him today I know that I really can’t give up my little Shadow. He is family and life is so much brighter with him.
Now that I have been given my Mother’s Day present, we are all going to focus on a special Mother’s Day for Heather. She has not been feeling good for more than a week and she is not getting better. I tend to think she is just totally mentally and physically exhausted, but she is going to call her doctor to see if tests are in order. She doesn’t have a fever and has only mild respiratory symptoms, but something is just not right. By 4 pm each day, she barely has the energy to keep moving forward. She has been working full-time at home, overseeing the homeschooling of the three boys, and moving all at the same time. Who wouldn’t be exhausted?! It exhausts me to just think about it. I just hope that Heather’s issue is exhaustion and not Covid-related or a tick-borne disease.
I’m going to sign off and call my sister in Tennessee before I go to bed. She lives just to the east of Nashville and they have had horrendous weather for weeks. Just before the shutdown there were tornadoes that tore apart a great deal of the town she lives in. This past Sunday there were storms with high winds and she ended up with no power overnight. She has basically been alone in her house since mid-March with almost no face-to-face communication. It is terribly lonely for her and the weather adds an additional scary aspect. She wasn’t as prepared for the power outage as she would have liked. She is fine now, but am calling her every night, just to check on how things are going. Tough world we live in these days. We have be prepared for food shortages caused by Covid-related issues as well as extreme weather happenings. I’ve always thought about these things, but I’ve never really taken action . . . until now. The new world we live in gets more interesting with each day.
