Maintenance

 

I wondered yesterday afternoon how much maintenance it was gonna take to get myself moving first thing this morning. 

After all, when you're performing maintenance on some cheap planter boxes in the garden which lean so far off toward Nellie's that there's no more room for error, you kinda work up a sweat, a few choice words and, for sure, some sore muscles. 

Yes, I've come to the stage in life where my own body maintenance for greeting each new day is taking up way too much time each morning. 

What happened to the old "just launch off from bed and scurry off for the morning shower" days??? 

Nowadays, my personal early-morning maintenance involves not only the task of getting up but also extensive planning on just how that's gonna happen. 

Will my leg cramp up if I try stretching it too much?  Or, will both legs cramp up just because I'm thinking about stretching?

Did I remember that bottle of ice water to put in the mini ice chest for the morning foot roll? Yep, I've been dealing with either planter fasciitis or some heel spurs lately.  

It's probably planter fasciitis cuz, after all, it IS gardening season, and the good old aging process has been planting a banter crop of aches and pains into my body over the past few months. 

Thanks to advice from another planter fasciitis sufferer and all my Dr. Google sources, it's a good idea to roll those feet on frozen bottles of water for a few minutes BEFORE hitting the floor and swearing that you're stepping from your bed onto a bed of nails. 

The nice thing about this frozen-bottle morning maintenance is that I do have time to wake up, get the cobwebs cleared and assess where all it hurts on this given morning. 

Back to the planter boxes and their broken-down bodies. 

Yesterday, after much thought (sorta like I do every morning before taking my slow exit from bed), I decided my planter boxes might stand up straighter if I pounded some strong stakes next to them for extra balance.

I looked around for stake possibilities and found a collection of pieces of framing from our old greenhouse, which Bill disassembled last summer, standing against the side of the shop. 

Some of them seemed perfect for pounding into the garden soil next to the planters. 

I tried my idea on one planter, and, happily, the further I drove those stakes into the ground, the less the box leaned. 

So, I went to the worst of the leaning planter boxes and pounded a whole lot of stakes.  While I was finishing up on the new support strategy on one box, its bottom filled with dirt fell out.  

That's when the choice words were uttered. And, that's when I did some physical stuff that was surely going to attack my lower back, which has flared up with pain off and on over the past 40 years. 

First, with the shovel, I removed most of the dirt from inside the planter. 

Then, I went to the shop, brought out some nails, cleared all the dirt away from the planter floor, heaved it back into position, pounded one nail in AND, by golly, it stayed in place.  So, I pounded two more nails for good measure. I think the planter floor is good for another year.   

All I could think of while doing this back-breaking project was how my old back was gonna scream this morning.  What the Hell, though, I thought; it will hurt if you do it, and it will hurt if you don't---so why not just finish the project. 

This morning I'm happy to report that those colored planter boxes look significantly better out there in the garden.  

A couple still could use some more support, but, as Bill and I agree, they've already outlived their life expectancy. 

If they can make it through one more year of providing the platform for growing beans and lettuce and chard and other veggies or flowers, we'll plan to remove them this fall and go another route. 

I'm also happy to report this morning that I did feel aches and pains, but my back didn't scream too much.

 Usually, it quits complaining within the first few minutes of my mornings.  The feet---well, if I keep 'em iced and keep wearing all that support stuff inside my footgear, I'll make it through this current pain siege. 

Speaking of pain maintenance, over the past few months, I've made some new friends, and they seem to be becoming better friends every day:  Voltaren, Arnica gel, tiger balm and an occasional Advil. 

Advil has actually been my friend for years, but I'm told by experts that it can have some evil intentions in mind for our innards if you get too friendly with it, so I hold off except for extreme circumstances. 

My friend Eileen, a veterinarian, told me about Arnica gel last fall when CB squashed my big toe, eventually turning about half my left foot black and blue. 

That Arnica gel works miracles with bruises and pain.  

In fact, these days, when I don't wear my gloves and getting dinged by something, the little and unsightly bruises afterward go away pretty fast with a few applications of the gel.  

Just sharing this information, in case there are any other elderly dingnuts out there. 

In the meantime, I'll keep soldiering on, trying to do most of my usual work around here, which I love.  

I have asked Bill and Willie, however, to be around when the garden rototiller and the weed eater need to be started.  

Seems like pulling those ropes as hard as one has to pull sometimes could do a real number on an aging back.  So, I'll ask for their help. 

It's not one bit easy for me to ask for help, but I'm also realistic and determined that the projects will get done somehow.  So, if asking for a little help is what I have to do, I'll do it. 

All this said, I consider myself very very lucky to have made it this far in life without major medical problems and with the ability to still do a lot of physical things some folks cannot do. 

I can still hear. I can see and I still have all my own teeth, and last I checked my brain had not gone too far south.  

So, I am both grateful and humbled. Still, it would be nice to be doing the maintenance on my garden or my yard rather than my body. 

Yes, I do agree with the cliche:  growing old ain't for sissies.  

Hail to all who do it with grace. 

Happy Tuesday. Now, where's that bottle of frozen water?