Mower Man

I was granted two hours gardening a fortnight by the TAC, who provide support post vehicle accidents. I have also finally received 2 hours cleaning weekly starting next Wednesday. Now six and a half weeks into my injury, it seems a bit late, but I will take it gratefully, as the dust is building up.

I have learned to vacuum one handed, and wash the floor. Mopping is quite difficult, and works better if I have a long sleeve on my right arm and the handle can slide up into that.

But I digress: back to the mower man...............

He was a tall, taciturn fellow, but pleasant enough. I walked him around the two gardens, pointing out what needed doing, saying he could choose his areas and my man would pick up the slack.

At the end, he turned to me and said, "The TAC only pays $21 per hour and I charge $45, so you can only have an hour".

I looked at him with my mind racing, pondering on the possibility of dobbing him in, but thought I might hold off and see how he worked.

I joked back, "Well, what are you doing talking to me, you'd better get to work!", and walked back inside.

He whipper snipped furiously for a while, then got the mower going, firstly on in the house yard, then down around the studio. Just over an hour went by, and as he was packing up, I went around for a look, and he had done it all!


I went to thank him, and he said in a pleased voice, "It'll be easier next time!" and drove off down the hill. He was mopping his face profusely, so had worked up quite a sweat.

Needless to say, my man is feeling threatened by this dynamo. He says it would take him half a day to do all that.

Having a self propelled mower like his would take a lot of effort out of mowing the slopes, so maybe we should look at one of those........

After we worked it out, there would have been 40 minutes of traveling time, fuel, and payment for his franchise, so it didn't seemed so bad after all. And our lawns look great!

................................................

I had my second physiotherapy session last night, and am feeling a lot more confident about my injury. He says it will take 6 - 12 weeks to really loosen it up, and the full 12 months to stabilise it. He gets the Voltaren and Vitamin E cream and rubs it all in vigorously, crackling the joints around, and flapping my wrist backwards and forwards. It hurts like hell, but I steer my mind away from the pain, and after a while it feels quite good. It certainly feels wonderful to have it moving.

I have two areas of unexplained pain; one on my outside wrist 'knuckle', and at the base of the thumb bone. He says that would have been caused by pressure from the cast, which had been an issue in both places, and the bone was a bit inflamed. Ouch!!! It certainly burns and is quite swollen still.

I have some scary exercises, like steepling my hand in prayer fashion and pushing together. My fingers don't want to do that. Then I must interlock them to force them apart and roll the wrists up and over each other. Everything is designed to stretch the shrunken tendons and ligaments.

I haven't done it this morning because I'm a bit scared of how bad it feels, but that's my next job.................

"Oh, wouldn't the world seem dull and flat with nothing whatever to grumble at?"

~W.S. Gilbert

................................................
Postscript Photo

'Longing'
Lunch or playmates?