“Remoted - Hybrid” – Day 559 (Sunday)

Saturday’s Intro to Physical Education biking class had lingering effects. I expected there would be some soreness in the legs, but the leg soreness was overshadowed by tense shoulders and a sore neck and lower back all day today. This led to an acute awareness of every hip and shoulder movement in the first belly dance class of our fall season this morning.

On the way home from dance class, I stopped at a farm stand and bought an echinacea plant and then figured I better get it into the ground today. As long as my muscles were already screaming in pain, why not take on manual labor, right?  As long as I was already in the yard, it seemed logical to trim the unruly rose bush. As long as I would already be digging for the new plant, it seemed logical to thin the irises near the shed and transplant them to the front yard. This is how a ten minute planting becomes an entire afternoon of toil.

The on-the-fly gardening plan required ripping out nearly a barrel full of weeds, digging holes, and the most difficult part, digging out the crowded irises. It took three shifts of digging and lifting and using the three-pronged garden tool thingy and even still, the biggest problem clump of irises on one side of the shed is still firmly in the ground. There was no energy left to start on the cluster on the other side. Insect bites were becoming welts on my arm and neck.

For all the effort, just six scrawny plant clumps were relocated to the front yard. Once set into the ground and watered, bark mulch was spread around the plants. The edge of the new flower bed is ragged and the nearby ground cover of mostly weeds is overgrown. Mowing needs to happen soon. There is concern that Winston, with his lack of vision, will end up trampling the flower bed due to not sensing it’s there, so now flower bed fencing needs to be bought and installed. The yard chore list is long and never seems to be completed.

He loves to ignore me.

Winston was in the front yard with me, and when I headed to the back to dig out irises it wasn't long before I heard his gentle barking out front. Maybe he wanted to go inside, or was taking attendance. I came around the house and let him inside. As I continued the self-imposed hard labor, physical education program, the barking from inside was audible. 

He has levels of barking which include the polite “oof” used at night to gently awaken me when he needs to go outside and the gentle-ish bark that I have decided is the taking attendance bark. The funny thing is, when I’m in the house with him, Winston goes upstairs or lays in his living room bed and ignores me, which is frighteningly like two different marriages I was once party to.