September 17

My two most favorite times of the day are being worked over pretty big time. Going to bed and getting up. Going to bed still rates right at the top but getting up has slid way down the scale. My complete body protests the move. My sore arms doesn't want to hold my fingers at the keyboard and it hurts my tail end to set here. Then, when I try to get up the pains are worse, as my back and every other muscle that my fat body contains punishes me for moving them. Only saving grace is I'm sure that after an hour or two I'll adjust to the pain enough not to notice it much. That is until around 4:30 when I begin to notice I'm missing by several inches, the block hole into which I'm trying to shovel rock. Where it once took only two or three scoops, at that time of day the required scoops are doubled.

Let me say a couple things about our great neighbors. Little Ruthie came over and helped. We have a shovel just her size with half the handle broken off. She used it a heck of a lot! One place she used it was filling five gallon pails with rock. The problem, in my opinion, and I did see some strain in her face, was after filling a pail she carried it to the wall, more or less. The problem that I notice right away was, when she grasped the handle, she didn't need to bend over to do it, because she is a little short she had to bend her arms up to keep the pail from dragging the ground. That is a hard way to go. We did end up changing that plan but she didn't give up her shovel! I'm telling you she got pretty good with it.

Even Russell made it over with gloves on but he recently developed a problem cleaning out a ditch that a pair of scissors could probably painfully repair. I tried to keep him from lifting the blocks and gravel pails. He tried to use the shovel one time and pulled something in his back. He has not been very active for too long. That and he just turned 74 one week ago today is telling.

Dale, our workaholic neighbor, engineer, operator, foreman, estimator, truck driver, job superintendent, main laborer, lead man and instructor has a very problematic shoulder and developed a pretty severe side pain but he wouldn't quit. The pains did slow him down somewhat to the delight of all the rest of us. What he finally did was to take his wife on as an apprentice on the most important task of laying the first stone. She is a quick learner and soon was handling the 60 pounds stones by herself. To get a block level and in the proper place sometimes requires lifting the same block many times. Damn, after awhile your energy sapped, would automatically lessen your zeal for the job and one would be talking about stopping for the day but with Mary Jo, she kept wanting to do one more stone after all of the lesser worked folks was wanting to call it a day.

Glenda is my closest neighbor and I can't quit until I tell you she is a hell of a worker too. She has a tiny bit of trouble with the blocks but she is able to take them off the pallet and lay them on the wall. Several times she went down and took them off the wall for Mary Jo. I did notice once when she went into the house for a Band-Aid for someone she took a pretty long time. Of course I questioned her about it....She had to go to the bathroom. Seems she doesn't want to use the can I have in the garage.

So much for this stuff for now! I've got to get out there!