Facetime and Fire

 The rain has been here for three days. The pain has been here for three days. I have "rested" far too much and now I am bored with all of this. This means I am feeling better! Still have joint pain, but I am used to that. It was the incessant indigestion and vertigo that had me in the bed.

I hate Facetime. It is so intrusive. I only answer it when one of my children call, nobody else needs to look at my self when I am unadorned! Kind of like having a surprise visit when your home is in utter disarray. You suddenly see it through the visitor's eyes. With Facetime, you get to look at your image while your child laughs at your hair standing on end from your fingers massaging your scalp! Then she invites other family members to join in! Good thing I love her. Of course she was fully made up and dressed while I was still in my night gown, trying to gather up enough energy to take a shower! Not to toot my own horn, but I was also making fun of my appearance!

I did take that shower and got dressed, figuring I could pretend I felt okay. It didn't work. I went back to bed. I lay there looking out my window at the mountain, after the dizziness fled. Eddie and Cujo tucked by me side, giving me comfort. Bo and Toni stayed up with HeWho likes to sleep in his recliner with the TV on.

It all started with the fire. It was overcast, and just a breeze now and again. HeWho was playing with a post driver and the dog fence. I am surprised the temporary fence I put up in December lasted this long. They found an opening and were all loosed upon the mountain side! I was on a stepstool doing something in the kitchen (since forgotten) when I happened to look out the window and see all four of my canine buddies cavorting in the side yard acting as if they were supposed to be there! 

But, I digress. Back to the fire. Since I determined that conditions were good for some burning of leaves, I set fire to rather large pile in a clearing on the embankment. It caught fast and burned hot. I was doing okay with the garden rake and I had raked a good area around the pile ..... then the wind picked up and it was too hot to get close to the fire. I remained calm and yelled at HeWho was pounding away and asked if he might be s kind as To toss me the hose and turn the water on .....

He called back, "Give me a minute." and returned to his task. I yelled back, "Hose NOW, FIRE!" He reluctantly left his fence and headed to the hose, grumbling that he had told me NOT to start a fire. Then he wanted to know how I expected him to get a hose "up there". I was close to the edge of the embankment closest to the house, and we have 100 feet of hose!

I patiently (not) instructed the man to toss the end of the hose with the nozzle up to me and then uncoil the hose, as he was standing down below and shooting water at the fire. I did not want to extinguish the fire, just contain it. I made a nice wet fire "road" around my main fire and continued to feed dead leaves to it. 

I admit that I thought HeWho loves to play in a fire would hike up to my location and join me. He didn't. He returned to his fencing endeavors, and I was not going to take him from his task! But I really wanted to be done with all the clearing, so I could be ready to plant. When the fire was under control, I cut down some small trees and underbrush, widening my path to the future steps.

Before lunch on the fire day, I had employed the shovel and a level to put some steps up the embankment closer to my shed up the driveway. I did not want "help" from my mate. His idea of steps and mine are far apart. The steps he attempted were not working, with just an 8" platform to step on and tilted down. Just to say, I was already a little tired.

No longer hearing the efforts of my fence man, I kept working, knowing I couldn't leave any sparks of that fire unattended. I was determined not to ask for help. It hit me all at once, I was so exhausted I couldn't even think of walking down my driveway. I completely doused the fire and was sitting on the steps of my shed trying to talk myself into walking home. My text alert sounded and HeWho loves me was telling me it was time for me to quit for the day.

I texted back that I was sitting, trying to muster up enough energy to come down the hill. I had tucked my rake, shovel and clippers under the shed, but I was going to have to carry my chainsaw. HeWho is my hero appeared with the golfcart to take me home. It was all I could do to stand up and get on the cart!

That was four days ago. I have done nothing since! I am so angry at my old body, letting me down like that.