Ever since I told you about Lehman’s Hardware a few weeks ago, I’ve been itching to make the two hour drive to go see it. I was all set to go today as it is supposed to rain, but last night I told Mr. FixIt I would rather stay home and enjoy the fruits of our labors this week. It took three days to do all the mowing…and that was three long days. I finally finished last evening but I wasn’t done yet.
I pruned some trees back along the fence, put away a lot of stuff that had gathered in the yard, got the pool pump plugged back in, and put the lawn chairs away for the night. I burned a couple of boxes in the fire pit and hauled the limbs to a place down by the creek and threw them over the hill. I could have worked for another hour, but I told Mr. FixIt, by that time I’d lost interest. He just chuckled.
West Virginia went from meat locker to microwave in about a week. Every day for the last several days has been up in the eighties and it’s been too hot to work for at least two to three hours in the late afternoons. The former Mrs. FixIt came out for a visit yesterday and we all sat socially distanced in the shade of the maple tree and visited for a couple of hours. When it was time for her to go, I felt like I did when I was a kid and the fun was about to be over. This social isolation is difficult.
After I was finished with the yard work, Mr. FixIt and I went for a ride through town and out a country road I’ve been wanting to explore. My friend Stacey lives a couple of miles out this lovely little lane and I’d never seen their new place. I wasn’t disappointed. They live on seventeen acres and have the most darling white farmhouse with a covered front porch. I knew when I came around the turn and saw the way the porch was decorated that I’d found the right place. It looked like something right out of Country Living Magazine.
We had a country visit. The kind where you drive by in your pickup, holler at someone out on the porch, then sit in the truck in the middle of the road and talk for half an hour. I was about to leave when Stacey asked if I’d like to have a jar of that Redbud Jelly she put up this spring. Oh, my…I said “Yes, please!” so fast it’d make your head spin! Since I’m staying home today, I’m going to try my hand at making sourdough English Muffins so I can have some with that lovely pale pink jelly!
I mentioned to Stacie as we left that I feel like I’ve been in prison and they’ve let us out on good behavior. But, they might send us back if we don’t mind our P’s and Q’s. I was thinking about this as I was mowing yesterday. I don’t know if I will ever be able to eat in a restaurant again without thinking about all the germs. I don’t know if I will ever relax in a plane or at the theater or a party the way I used to. What if people want to hug me? What if I feel comfortable enough to hug someone and they draw away from me?
The other day, we stopped to say hello to one of Mr. FixIt’s friends. Joe doesn’t socially isolate or wear masks and he came right up to Mr. FixIt’s window to chat with him. I immediately put my hand up and asked him nicely to back up some because we really cannot take any risks with my husband’s health after these strokes. He was respectful and backed away. There are others who do not. We stopped at the pool supply store Tuesday. There was a line of twenty people. Not all had masks. Not all were maintaining social distancing. I asked my sweetheart to stay in the truck while I got what we needed. The man behind me kept crowding in my space.
This is a different world. I have a feeling that things will loosen up again, but maybe not so much till we have a vaccine for Covid. I’ve been reading all the fuss about the vaccine and let me tell you something…Mr. FixIt and I will be the first in line to get it. I’ve lived through the polio era and seen the ravages of that disease. I’ve had vaccines regularly since I was a child and there’s nothing wrong with me. I don’t glow in the dark. I don’t have autism. My kids don’t have arms growing out of their foreheads. This one will be fine. It isn’t the “mark of the beast.”
I was interrupted writing by the weatherman’s prediction of two inches of rain tonight. Good thing I put Epsom salts around the tomatoes earlier in the evening so the rain can wash that down into the soil and hopefully perk them up. I also had to run outside and get the ladder and climb up to make sure the gutters were clear. (Mr. FixIt held the ladder for me. Those headlamps we bought ourselves for Christmas have sure come in handy around here.)
Whew! It’s always something!
❤️
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”
Proverbs 3:3-4 NIV