I can't believe I forgot.
Mar. 14th, 2005 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sugarplumkittyEric and I were supposed to take a broccoli salad to a very dear friend's house last night and deliver the wedding gift I'd created for them. I'm so stressed out over my java class and the yard work we had to attack and get done this weekend that when we had added distractions of Eric's Dad's illness (he's home now and they still don't have a clue what's wrong), my aunt Mary having a stroke and moving to assisted care (I'm not directly involved, just worried) and the tech support we've been trying to provide to Eric's sis, preparing the salad flew from my brain. If I'd done that on Saturday, I would have remembered on Sunday. Friday I remembered, because I bought all the ingredients.
Saturday Eric mowed the front yard. The grass was about six inches tall and our electric mower didn't like it. It was still too wet due to the length of the grass, so it clogged the mower over and over again. I worked feverishly on clipping the roses. I had ignored them for several years, so the climbing rose canes from the root stock had gotten established and were making mowing next to impossible. I like our hedge of roses but gardeners had taken to leaving cards on our screen door so it was obviously time to do something about them. In the past, my constant tendonitis from keyboarding full time at a job had flared up to the point of extreme pain after pruning a few rose bushes. That's why I ignored the poor plants. Saturday it had to be done. The renegade canes are all cut off as close to the root as I could manage. The branches of the roses that were reaching out into our walkway are also gone now. The young trees that had taken root are cut off at ground level. Gotta pour round-up on those stumps.
Some weed vine had grown up and through several of my roses. Little teardrop shaped leaves about 3/4" in length in pairs the entire length of the vines with berries of some kind were strangling half of my roses. I've got some scratches on my arms from trying to get them off. I checked the UC Davis weed page to try and identify it, but they don't list any vine weeds at all. Roundup will kill them. I just have to be careful to miss the rose leaves. When my arms got really tired, I gave up. All the vines are separated from the roots. Hopefully they'll be wilted by the time my arms are ready to go at it again. I'm feeling a lot better after last Sunday & Monday's TMI ordeal, but I'm definitely not quite up to speed yet.
It's nice that even though my muscles are sore, my hands are still working without that horrible pain I used to feel most of the time. Can it be that being unemployed this long has allowed my wrists to heal? That's one positive from all of this.
After the gardening I dug back into Java. When I was ready to throw my computer across the room in frustration, I posted my dilemma to the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
java_dev community. Several people offered tips. One guy, I think in Russia, offered to have me send him my code and he'd look at it. At the same time, someone gave me the crucial hint that helped me deal with it on my own - which is the best way to learn something. Two different hints helped me solve it Sunday afternoon. Now I'm working on the first of two assignments that are due on Wednesday. The first is something I could do with my eyes closed, well, almost. I'll deal with the second when I finish the "easy" one. Then all that is left is an insanely difficult lab. I may end up taking an incomplete in this course just to finish that last one.
I need to register for the Spring quarter. The $66 unemployment check I got on Saturday will pay part of it. I've either got to use credit or ask Eric for money for the rest. *sigh* I'm SO used to being an independent woman. This dependency stuff has humbled me a lot.
While I was completely buried in Java on Sunday, Eric attacked the back yard with a weed whacker. My poor old weed whacker doesn't advance the cutting line on its own anymore. It may be because it's so old they don't make the actual refill cartridges anymore. We talked about that. I said, it's stupid that they discontinued that. I just bought that thing... oh. 25 years ago. Hmm... How can I have bought it that long ago? I'm only... oh. 49. I don't feel that old.
The new weed whackers are probably a lot lighter. They were new on the market when I bought mine.
By the time Eric finished with the back yard, he looked ill. He said his hands were vibrating and his muscles were screaming at him. He'd had to heft the electric mower over the tall grass clumps in the front yard the day before. He said he essentially mowed it five times just to get it all cut. Then the whacker isn't light. I can't use it anymore because my elbow injuries really flare up when I do. He went to do laundry right after he finished weed whacking and he couldn't pour the detergent in the cup his hands were shaking so badly.
Then he sat in his chair and was totally miserable. I was worried about him so much that when he wanted to watch war stuff on the History channel I didn't say a word. I was working on Java anyway.
The phone rang. With everything going on, we wondered if it was about his dad, his sister's computer or my aunt. It was my friend Brian, checking to see if we were on the way. My heart sank as I said "Oh no!"
Sue and I had planned to present our wedding gifts for them and we were doing a pot-luck dinner. Eric hadn't attended their wedding (darned old stick-in-the-mud who hates dressing up with a passion) and Brian's bride, Kelly wanted to meet him. This was supposed to be the night. With Eric looking as awful as he did and the fatigue I was feeling, showering quickly and heading over wasn't an option. I felt about two inches high as I said we couldn't make it.
Brian is one of my most treasured friends. It's a good thing we are such good friends. Our friendship will probably survive this and we'll laugh about it someday. But right now I feel horrible. Eric apologized to me saying, "Oh honey, I'm sorry! I forgot all about it, too!"
I don't even know how to make up for it.
Saturday Eric mowed the front yard. The grass was about six inches tall and our electric mower didn't like it. It was still too wet due to the length of the grass, so it clogged the mower over and over again. I worked feverishly on clipping the roses. I had ignored them for several years, so the climbing rose canes from the root stock had gotten established and were making mowing next to impossible. I like our hedge of roses but gardeners had taken to leaving cards on our screen door so it was obviously time to do something about them. In the past, my constant tendonitis from keyboarding full time at a job had flared up to the point of extreme pain after pruning a few rose bushes. That's why I ignored the poor plants. Saturday it had to be done. The renegade canes are all cut off as close to the root as I could manage. The branches of the roses that were reaching out into our walkway are also gone now. The young trees that had taken root are cut off at ground level. Gotta pour round-up on those stumps.
Some weed vine had grown up and through several of my roses. Little teardrop shaped leaves about 3/4" in length in pairs the entire length of the vines with berries of some kind were strangling half of my roses. I've got some scratches on my arms from trying to get them off. I checked the UC Davis weed page to try and identify it, but they don't list any vine weeds at all. Roundup will kill them. I just have to be careful to miss the rose leaves. When my arms got really tired, I gave up. All the vines are separated from the roots. Hopefully they'll be wilted by the time my arms are ready to go at it again. I'm feeling a lot better after last Sunday & Monday's TMI ordeal, but I'm definitely not quite up to speed yet.
It's nice that even though my muscles are sore, my hands are still working without that horrible pain I used to feel most of the time. Can it be that being unemployed this long has allowed my wrists to heal? That's one positive from all of this.
After the gardening I dug back into Java. When I was ready to throw my computer across the room in frustration, I posted my dilemma to the
java_dev community. Several people offered tips. One guy, I think in Russia, offered to have me send him my code and he'd look at it. At the same time, someone gave me the crucial hint that helped me deal with it on my own - which is the best way to learn something. Two different hints helped me solve it Sunday afternoon. Now I'm working on the first of two assignments that are due on Wednesday. The first is something I could do with my eyes closed, well, almost. I'll deal with the second when I finish the "easy" one. Then all that is left is an insanely difficult lab. I may end up taking an incomplete in this course just to finish that last one.I need to register for the Spring quarter. The $66 unemployment check I got on Saturday will pay part of it. I've either got to use credit or ask Eric for money for the rest. *sigh* I'm SO used to being an independent woman. This dependency stuff has humbled me a lot.
While I was completely buried in Java on Sunday, Eric attacked the back yard with a weed whacker. My poor old weed whacker doesn't advance the cutting line on its own anymore. It may be because it's so old they don't make the actual refill cartridges anymore. We talked about that. I said, it's stupid that they discontinued that. I just bought that thing... oh. 25 years ago. Hmm... How can I have bought it that long ago? I'm only... oh. 49. I don't feel that old.
The new weed whackers are probably a lot lighter. They were new on the market when I bought mine.
By the time Eric finished with the back yard, he looked ill. He said his hands were vibrating and his muscles were screaming at him. He'd had to heft the electric mower over the tall grass clumps in the front yard the day before. He said he essentially mowed it five times just to get it all cut. Then the whacker isn't light. I can't use it anymore because my elbow injuries really flare up when I do. He went to do laundry right after he finished weed whacking and he couldn't pour the detergent in the cup his hands were shaking so badly.
Then he sat in his chair and was totally miserable. I was worried about him so much that when he wanted to watch war stuff on the History channel I didn't say a word. I was working on Java anyway.
The phone rang. With everything going on, we wondered if it was about his dad, his sister's computer or my aunt. It was my friend Brian, checking to see if we were on the way. My heart sank as I said "Oh no!"
Sue and I had planned to present our wedding gifts for them and we were doing a pot-luck dinner. Eric hadn't attended their wedding (darned old stick-in-the-mud who hates dressing up with a passion) and Brian's bride, Kelly wanted to meet him. This was supposed to be the night. With Eric looking as awful as he did and the fatigue I was feeling, showering quickly and heading over wasn't an option. I felt about two inches high as I said we couldn't make it.
Brian is one of my most treasured friends. It's a good thing we are such good friends. Our friendship will probably survive this and we'll laugh about it someday. But right now I feel horrible. Eric apologized to me saying, "Oh honey, I'm sorry! I forgot all about it, too!"
I don't even know how to make up for it.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-14 09:39 pm (UTC)I hate those frustrating days when plans fall through the cracks...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-14 10:30 pm (UTC)Bad idea, as it turned out.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-15 04:22 am (UTC)