The Last Few Days

There’s only another week left in my mini vacation. But the last few days have been awful because in my zeal to help my daughter outside with some garden chores, I strained my back badly. Since then, I’ve spent the better part of this second week here, flat on my back, icing my 5th lumbar vertebrae alternating with being in the spa using the pulsating jets to loosen up this spinal spasm. What a dufus I am. More like a reincarnation of Lucille Ball sometimes when I go off half-cocked and end up really hurting myself. But without any common sense I go through parts of my life with blinders on and I do not notice things that I should be wary of, no matter how much I may want to assist others.

If I wasn’t in such agony, this would be comical, like the day I tried to hang a newly washed king size sheet in a windstorm when we lived high up a hill above the sea. On that very windy day, every time I put one side over the clothesline, the other side would hit me in the face with some impact. Actually, I almost did a dance trying to control it. Finally, I gave up and waited for the wind to die down and got someone else to hold one side while I hung up the other.

But in this case after I helped straighten some emerging pea shoots to start them attaching to nearby supports, I was asked to do some watering in another garden area. Although using a hose has been my nemesis in New Zealand, and I’ve written about my exploits when I water, I complied. I never had these sorts of problems watering in the States. The connections are better over there, usually brass fittings instead of plastic ones that come apart when you look at them sideways. Trudging over to that spot in my borrowed too big gumboots, I eventually found the hose and turned it on full bore. Immediately, I got a sudden burst of water wetting my face, hair, upper torso and one arm and leg as the sprayer end popped off the hose rather dramatically. It took me several attempts to push the hose end into the sprayer end and tighten the connection properly so I could water without getting completely soaked but the next issue was that the hose became kinked in lots of places. It seemed that the forces were against me but it was going to get progressively worse as I attempted to put the hose over what I thought was a fence, which turned out to be the only entry...a sturdy makeshift gate to get into that particular area. It was hanging on a hook attached to the back of one of the greenhouses. Since my daughter was too far away to help me, her inane helper, I figured I’d just slide the gate sideways after unhooking it but it fell down and I got the brilliant idea to pick it up thinking I could do that easily (even though it weighed a ton). Wrong decision of course. It was a wood framed gate that was lined with chicken wire to keep the chickens or other critters out of that garden that might eat the plants and it was very heavy for me and bulky. So, bending down and lifting it and then carrying it to lean against the greenhouse did me in. Actually, I did an excellent job of wrenching my back, which I noticed had frozen up a few hours later. Any movement at all was very difficult and restricted, which I discovered as I plodded upstairs.

But that was Saturday afternoon and this is Tuesday night. So, something’s gotta give, aside from my vertebrae. And my attempt at picking up the slack has only terminated in being more of a burden than all of the other obstacles towards finishing transplanting the seedlings into the garden beds. My one solace is that I helped her the day before by weeding part of one of the greenhouses. But compared to her, I worked as slow as a snail, so even that was suspect.

But who knows? Perhaps tomorrow I will again be able to walk erect like the earliest humans. Will wonders ever cease? I’ll let you know in the next blog. In the meantime, here are some mixed photos showing off some of the attractions here that were taken before my current condition sidelined me.