17 April 2024
No good deed goes unpunished, no yard work goes unscathed. I’ve been wanting to clear out some dead limbs from my sour orange tree and I felt I had the energy to get it done. After about 30 minutes sawing with a handsaw, I realized the wood had turned into seasoned concrete and the hand saw was not going to work.
Fear not! I have an electric chain saw. I pulled it out of the garage and got a long extension cord so I could use the outdoor plug behind the gate. Since it is an outdoor plug, it has a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter). When that wall was replaced due to the flood, they replaced the GFCI and the plastic box surrounding it to protect it from rain. What they didn’t do was clean the plastic box of stucco from when the stuccoed the wall. I had to get a screwdriver to get the cover off the GFCI.
When I hooked the cord to the chain saw, nothing happened. I went back to the GFCI and it had been tripped so I pushed the reset button and got to sawing. To the saw’s credit, the chain only came off twice.
As I was getting ready to put the saw up, I stepped from the grass to the concrete garage pad and fell. I skinned my knee and sprained my ankle.
My intent was a quick removal of dead limbs, do yoga, swim, and clean house to get ready for movie night with Chris. No yoga and no swim and the clean house is looking iffy.
Before I tried to kill myself, I did manage 1.4 miles today. While on the walk past my favorite natural yard, I saw Indian Blanket in bloom.
Up until I went to New Mexico with Jo to see Patrick and Sarah, I’ve never seen this growing in the wild – only in peoples’ wild flower gardens.
On that trip, we stopped at Palo Duro State Park, Texas’ Grand Canyon, and I saw it in the wild for the first time. It’s an arresting flower with the yellow tipped rays and pink to red ray flowers.
The Biota of North America Program reports 13 genera in the U.S. with G. pulchella the most widely distributed. I suspect it’s because so many people plant it in their gardens.
It’s my choice of movie tonight and I suspect I’ll go with The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. With everything going wrong today, that might be the ticket.
I’ll try not to do any more damage to myself until Chris gets here so she can take me to the hospital if I do try to kill myself again. Remember, most accidents happen within the home!
Stay tuned!