Plans

The best laid plans o' mice and men/ gang aft a-gley. ~Robert Burns.
From the poem: To a Mouse

These words came to me Friday for so many reasons. I decided to look up the 'quote' and read the poem. The words were used by John Steinbeck, but he took them from the poem written in 1785. 

We humans look forward and back while the mouse only lives in the present. 

My plans took a turn and I was really not happy about it. But then I decided to not walk around the house and be a Grumpy Grouch. I made use of my time by getting appointments [for myself and the 'Ru] done and so much more.

Things worked out just fine and our day was enjoyable. I even got to go out for a bit to hunt slime molds and strange fungi.

I know my time was limited because the forecast is for dry weather coming up. Find the slime mold before it dries up!

Red Raspberry Slime Mold!

Kisses with a Slug

Rich mowed Friday like the dickens and I did the hillside slowly. I think it would have been worse if I let Rich do it and tip the mower. As it was, when he started it up on Saturday he had a melt down. There was a puddle of 'something' under where he parked it.

After an investigation I showed him that he'd obviously run over something he shouldn't have with the mower and busted up the filter for the hyrostatic...something or another. He got upset and angry and blamed it on the shop. I walked around the yard and found the protective cover to the filter and showed him wear he had backed up into some angle iron and pipe in his 'junk' pile and sheared off the cover....and dented the filter putting a hole in it.

I asked him why he mowed so close and his reply was that he didn't know it was there. I went around to the other side and spray painted other pipes white and blue.

Is his 'driving' and memory worse? Um, maybe. But for me to take away his mowing privileges certainly would be a slap in the face. He just plain forgot he had stuff there. And he really likes to mow.

I was proud of me for not playing the blame game and yelling at him. Instead, I'll make another trip to the shop and see how we can get the machine fixed again.

I filled Ol' Smokey up with gas [my Crappy Lawn old semi self propelled mower], checked the oil and fired her up. I tackled a section that Rich had been telling me he would do. It was knee deep and quite the adventure! 

I ran Ol' Smokey out of gas and stuck her away for the next crappy project. I have one more tough and rough section to do but decided to go with plan B. Pony Mowing.

I use Sven first who eats the icky weeds and then Lil' Richard comes through and eats the grasses. If I give him 24 hours there he will crop it all close to the ground. This is a spot that has to be hand mowed because it has not yet been graded out. I've got to get the trees cut down first and then hire someone to come in and grade it.

I dropped my plans for KVR but ...

YES!

Charlie and I went this Sunday morning. We found some radically cool fungi and slime mold both at KVR and in our woods. 

Oddness

I may be in one of those moods. What kind of mood? 

Gosh I really don't know. I walked out yesterday morning and watched the sun rise over what used to be the Merry Meadow. It belongs to the neighbor and we no longer brush hog it or fence it for pasture. At one time it was nice to walk through that well groomed pasture. I think there were about 10 acres of it. Now it is a nightmare to walk through unless the snow has pressed down the weeds and grasses.
Still, the morning sunrise is still beautiful to watch.

The Teddy and his lonely tea party. 
I spray painted the cups and sauces.
They were purple.

My husband's Aunt sent us this huge decoration for our house. I don't have the heart to tell her that it is way too large for my tiny house. I chuckled at the word 'Family' on it. 

Let's just say that I don't get the Warm Fuzzies with the word Family.

I get what it is supposed to mean though.
I was sorting through my mini boney dinosaurs to figure out which ones I'd keep and which ones I'd send to my youngest grandson. I set the ones I wanted to keep for photos on the mini bench in front of the place I stashed the Family sign for the time being.

[I have no idea where I would actually put it. Really...I don't! 

I'm thinking though it would 

make a nice frame without the letters to use for a 

flat layout and still life photography... hmmm....]

Other meandering thoughts. My flower garden is going great guns and it will be time to start collecting seeds for next year's gardens. The barrel I had in the middle of the plantings is now surrounded and one has to peek through the towering plants to see what is on the spool top I set on the barrel.

The Tree Ent looks

pleased.

Think so?

The tiny brass car with the hen and chick in it looks like it is doing well. I have to remember to reach in and water that and the ones in the tea cups....

Maybe I'm feeling the ... well, I don't want to call it stress... but perhaps it is stress...

The stress of worrying about something I can't really do much about. The worry about the coming winter. The worry about world events. 

Perhaps what causes my feelings of unrest come from something deeper. The cost of Isolation and being careful. 
The feeling of waiting for that Other Shoe to Drop.

Sometimes I go to do something and I just stop. I look around and feel as if I've lost my way a little bit. I stand and wait. Then I think of something I should be doing. And of course then I do something else.

Distracted and disjointed.

I sure hope this oddness passes.

I think I'll take Charlie for a stroll now. Unless I should be doing something else.

[Oh...and if my kids read this they'll get the reference to Family. It isn't about them, they will fully understand why I chuckle at the word.]

 

Plan B

My neighbor and friend Bill planned on working out at the Wellness Center this morning. He was not aware that they had closed the gym with no plans at this time of reopening....well, until I texted him early this morning.

He just texted back:
He said "I need to go to plan B. Wait, I don't have a plan B."
I texted him back and said, "Home workouts, raking, bicycle, light jogging, fresh air, creative ways to do upper body weights..."

Next text: Can we do a really hard hike this week?
My answer: Sure. I have a 3 mile killer hike. We can start at my driveway and it will take us through two valleys.

I'll be looking up workouts to keep up my current upper body strength.

Next text from Bill: Will I get hurt on your hard hike?
My answer: Of course not! Hard in the way that there are two valleys and lots of steep hills but the trails are good and I've taken kids on them.

I thought that was funny sort of. If he wanted a hard fast hike, I'd give it to him for the leg burn.

There is plenty of space for us to hike and stay separate. However that may come to a swift end soon if positives are found in the county.

But anyway.

Plan B for exercise? Well I am still working on Plan A for staying home.
I have one more errand tomorrow and that is to pick up the taxes.
I dropped into Walmart [eeks !] to grab some coffee.
I needed some seeds also.
The garden and hardware sections were void of people. The food isles were full of people. NO toilet paper, no napkins, no paper towels, and two boxes of Kleenex were left.

I told Rich we were going to go back to cloth for napkins and wiping up messes.

I'm all done in for right now. The Patient Advocate for the VA says she is getting the run around on the claim I've been trying to work on for 18 months. She told me to call the White House Hot Line. Um. Okay?

Bam.
The oncologist we were going to see tomorrow called. He asked to be on speaker phone so he could talk with the both of us.
[I moved that appointment assuming it was just a 15 minute consult and congrats on being clean for almost 5 years]


Um. No. He wanted a Nuclear Medicine Bone Scan. Rich's CT scan from last month showed 'something' a bit out of the ordinary. Then he mentioned the C word and my heart stopped. He went on to downplay it but to tell us he was scheduling a scan as soon as he could.
He said not to be concerned over this, it was probably nothing, but if it was cancer it might just be prostrate or bone or...well, when we saw the Urologist we could be better informed for .... options.

[Did he say that? I don't know, somehow my brain sort of had a disconnect when he said cancer.]
I thought NO.
No...no no.

He then assured us that this was normal operating procedure and he'd put the consult in right away for the bone scan.
He hung up after wishing us a nice day.
Hey, this guy is nice...but hmm.

Rich was unconcerned. He shrugged and then patted my hand and told me not to worry. He smiled and said "But of course you will! YOU won't sleep for weeks now!"

He turned back to his Western and pushed play.

Plan A & B had just changed.


Hey. Why not address Pandemics and Cancer all in the same day, right?

We will see what happens.

I need a Plan C.