the Girl card

Spent the holiday (that's Canada Day, on July 1, for the non-Canadians out there) quite pleasantly. Where else? In my garden. :) I was in an incredibly zen place with the weeds and spent hours pulling them without the least bit of frustration. I filled up a rather large size plastic tub with weeds. We really need to get a composter going.

Saturday on the other hand, wasn't exactly what I'd call pleasant. But I am left with a feeling of achievement and dozens of sore muscles to prove it.

The hubby and I went up to his mother's place to help re-shingle the roof. My advice for all the middle-aged out there? If anyone asks you to volunteer to re-shingle a roof - just say no.

Unless of course, you actually enjoy hard physical labour in the sun for hours on end. If so, then it's right up your alley.

All in all, I think I spent 6-7 hours on the roof. And for the most part, I was the only girl and probably the oldest person up there.

At supper-time, I changed into real clothes* and played the Girl card. You know, the one that lets you off of hard physical labour on account of being a Girl.

Then again, Neil** and I spent the next hour or so chainsawing up some broken limbs in the mother's yard, which is in and of itself physical labour, although not quite so demanding as roofing. But it was on the ground. And safe. Relatively speaking.

On sunday, I spent most of the day on the couch having a sinus reaction to something - either dripping, doing that whole body sneezing thing, or napping (because sleeping is the only time my sinuses would go anywhere near clearing). Fun, Wow. I figure it was a reaction to a combination of altitude change, hard labour, heat exhaustion, and the septic tank that overflowed the morning before we went to do the roofing.

* Real clothes being defined as clean and Girl-like.

**Neil played the Bad Knees card to avoid going back up on the roof again after supper.