Y’all have been reading all week about my outdoor/home improvement kick this week. It’s going great. Correction: it was going great. It was, as they say, all fun and games til someone got hurt. Me.
Today the clouds stayed around and the wind came back, making for a very chilly day. Not a good day for digging in wet dirt. But that’s not it.
So instead of actual yard work, Mom and I went to Lowe’s and I found a small bowl planter for the Lantana, and I had to get a 25-pound bag of rock for the bottom of the small planters. I had to lift the 25-pound bag of rock into the cart, and from the cart to my car, and from my car to my garage. But that’s not it.
I went back to Home Depot to buy a cactus for Dot and saw half-barrel planters. I love them. I tried to lift one. It was heavy. But that’s not it.
Mom gave me an early Easter present: she had bought me a Sweet Broom shrub tied up like a tree. I love it. I’d seen it last week and am so very happy to have it, already in a planter. So she brought it over and we hauled it out of her car and into my yard and positioned it. But that’s not it.
We positioned the plants and planters around the yard. I watered the new plants and checked on the ones already taken care of. Then we decided to sit and survey the colorful additions. I placed my plastic patio chair next to Mom’s and we sat for a few minutes and talked.
Then ~ in that stupid motion that’s slow enough to make you think a thousand ways to stop but fast enough that you can’t really do anything about it ~ the back leg of my chair began to sink into soft ground and I found myself tipping back. In one not-so-swift motion, I realized my wrist was about to break from the impending pressure. I had just enough time and space to shift my arm and landed smack-dab on my shoulder and upper arm, while the rest of my body tried to catch up.
You know that phrase, “head over heels”? That’s it.
And that was me.
And that’s about right. I’m pretty much that one in a million, but not in a good way.
So. After four hard days of digging, planting, transferring, growing, spreading, planning, reaching, pulling, tugging, and plotting… I’ve been done in by a two-inch square patch of soft sand.
Tonight I’m enjoying a hot apple cider after an Epsom Salt bath. And more than one ibuprofen.
And Frankly, My Dear… that’s all she wrote.