Times have changed and so has my work out routine. Since last Sunday was time to roll the clock back an hour, it made my evening run become obsolete until spring. I started running during my lunch hour at work with a few co-workers. Monday and Tuesday I ran a 3.7 mile route on the sidewalk of a busy street. It has several long hills and overall not too bad. Tuesday I almost got run over twice in the same intersection. After that little scare I decided to look elsewhere to run. There is a ritzy neighborhood about ¼ of a mile from our office that works just fine. The streets have nearly no traffic but the hills are steeper and more challenging. The overall distance is 3 miles which works out good for a lunch time run. The new office has a shower in one of the restrooms which was specifically added for such workouts.
Saturday I worked in the yard cutting grass and gathering leaves. I also cut a few branches off of the big oak tree near Caris’ room. One of the limbs was touching the roof line and peeling up some shingles. The biggest challenge was climbing 25 to 30 feet up the tree to cut it down. There is no way I would have done this a few years ago when I was 40 pounds heavier. I was a little scared, but I knew I had better strength control while making the climb. I used a hand saw to cut the 5 inch branch. I first made a slight undercut. Then I slowly cut through the top and it just snapped off at the last inch or two.
Sunday I worked at Gin’s friend Jean’s house. Jean is in her 80s and is very active, but really needed some help with her overgrown yard. I started out with weed eating the sidewalks, driveway and around the trees and fences. Then I trimmed the bushes along the house which were about 5 feet above her porch rails. I did managed to upset her when I trimmed too much of a camellia bush. She did tell me to cut everything to the rail height, so I did. She took all the clippings with a plan to replant them for more bushes elsewhere. I gathered up the clippings and loaded the trailer. I then trimmed her crepe myrtles and some of the oak tree out front. The next task was to cut the grass and pick up the leaves. I used the lawn tractor to mulch the leaves in the front of the house before picking them up. Once they were mulched the bagging system cleaned up the yard pretty well. I dumped all the leave and grass clippings in the trailer and we drove to the vacant field to dump the first load. Gin and Jean made the second trip with tree limbs and then I followed up with the remaining limbs and clippings. I cut the backyard without bagging. Overall Jean was satisfied with the yard and her house looked like it was occupied again.
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