Sweat Therapy

     Slept in.  Woke up and I was kinda sore and achy.  Made a nice breakfast -- nice by my standards, an omelette fortified with smashed-up Stoned Wheat crackers (no idea what they're on!) and filled with a little dice salami and chopped Kalamata olives (which you can now buy in little "snack packs").

     No longer hungry, but still sore, and the yard was, let us say, notably unmowed.  Time to get stuck in!  Hauled out the extension cord -- I mow with coal, burned several hundred miles away -- and the mower and gave the front a nice buzz, then followed with the string trimmer, blasting burdock and Creeping Charlie out of the joints in the sidewalk and attempting to civilize the edging.  That took about three bottles of water during: it's hot!  Followed that with the leaf vacuum, getting all the grass clippings and such from the walks.  It blows out great clouds of dust through the canvas collection bag, necessitating another bottle of water.

     Did all this in Bobbi's Tropical Uniform #1, which means shorts, dri-weave T-shirt, great tall, black pole-climber boots, big sunglasses and wide-brimmed, denim boonie hat.  (There may be photos later.  You should fear this.) The vitamin D is free, you see, but so is low-level high-speed debris.  It also meant I had a nice coating of dust on my limbs, so I put all my toys away, swept the ants Tam had nerve-gassed yesterday (oh, the carnage!  There were hundreds.  She's a cruel enemy to make, and yet the ants never learn) down the front steps (and away from the mint), and went inside to rinse the worst dust off, followed by Old Family Sun-Exposure Remedy: a wipe-down with a vinegar-dampened cloth.  Done soon after you get out of the sun, this will usually turn an incipient mild burn into a tan, possibly by fiddling with skin pH.

     Fiddled around on the internet a bit, then soaked in the tub and you know what?  I stopped aching somewhere about a quarter of the way through the mowing.  I feel almost human now!  ...Almost.