Here it is, October, and I can now walk without a 'walker'. People, including doctors, told me that the pain from broken ribs takes six weeks or more to fade away. I'm getting close to that number and the pain is very manageable now. If I stand for a period of ten minutes or more, the pain returns with a vengeance. But if I'm walking it is very easy to ignore. I see the doctor next week and I'm looking for good news.
Trump...what can I say about him that hasn't been said? I send him nasty tweets every few weeks but that's just to make me feel better. I'm sure he never sees them.
Las Vegas...it's the same as above. What could I possibly say that hasn't been said about this tragedy?
On a different note, our landscaping is complete. Although the landscaping consists of all native plants, the incredible heat we experienced early on this summer damaged a number of the plants. Newly planted, they didn't have enough root structure to withstand the heat. And the heat continued through the summer and now into fall as well. We are seeing low 90's and high 80's this past week with some relief in sight about two weeks from now. The outlook was positive enough to remove and replant the damaged plants. While the crew was here, we added some rocks and some more lighting. Now, when we look out the kitchen/dining area windows, it's all flowers and beautiful plants.
I have to walk twice a day as part of my recovery therapy and so I get a close look at the neighborhood yards. This is a middle class neighborhood as is most of the city. And lawns seem to be the preferred landscaping material. I have to admit that I hate lawns. As a young boy, I had to push the family mower across the lawn as part of my chores. If I didn't mow the lawn I didn't get the .50 cent allowance. That started my hatred of lawns. Then, strangely enough, when I was 11, I decided to advertise my services for mowing lawns. .50 cents for the back lawn and .25 cents for the front lawn. Edging was included. Pretty soon I had half a dozen jobs and a partner. After one summer season of lawn mowing I had close to $10 and I made a vow to never mow a lawn again (unless I needed my allowance). I kept that vow all through my time in the Navy and then our early years as a married couple. We lived in apartments until we had our first child. That's when we rented a house and it had lawns, front and back. For a few years I was unable to keep my vow. Then we bought a new house and we had to have a lawn like all the rest of the new homeowners. We decided on a dichondra lawn for the small front yard and for the enormous back yard I decided on benign neglect. Dichondra was perfect as it only needed mowing once or twice a year. In our subsequent moves, we had large houses with very small lawns and I was okay with that. Then, 1977, we moved to our house in the woods, in Lassen County. With 8 acres of second growth pine we had a lovely carpet of pine needles with no hint of lawns. It was heaven! But all good things come to an end
and 11 years later we had to move to Roseville, suburbia. Where we tore out the lawns and put in native plants and concrete and sold the lawn mower. We were there for 16 years. Eventually we ended up in the far northern end of the San Joaquin valley. Here, I hired someone to mow the small lawn we had while we planned on this landscaping project that I love so much.
I know that landscaping is something very personal. It's the image that you want to project to the community. And as I walk, I pass one perfect lawn after another. All mown and edged beautifully. On any day of the week, there are mowers and blowers creating an angry buzz on more than one lawn as the 'Mow & Blow' contractors make their rounds. Oddly enough, we have never seen a child playing on this perfect grass? With the chemicals that are applied to these lawns, I don't think I would want to let my child play on it.
