not to worry, harv and thank you for your concern.  i am doing things very
slowly and with as little risk of injury as possible, taking baby steps,
staying very aware of how my back feels when i do things.  not sure who you
mean i should brow beat, though.

hopefully, though, you don't mean my son.  he does waaaaay more for me than
i think he should, that i don't ask him to do, but that he recognizes needs
to be done.  i really want him to have a life of his own---he deserves that,
harv.   we'd been through a lot together, taking care of butch.  there's a
lot of equipment and stuff around here, and he repairs all that, both
indoors and outdoors (mechanical, electrical and plumbing).  he replumbed
the entire backyard for me last year---that backyard is over a third of an
acre and has 4 hose stansions/spigots (and he replaced everything) and
hundreds of feet of underground plumbing.  he did a big concrete job outside
and behind the spa room, to make it easier on me to just hose off or sweep
the 7foot by 24foot area, instead of having to weedwhack it or fight
encroaching blackberries.  mixed all that concrete by hand and poured and
troweled it all himself.

this year he's already regraded our south utility driveway (not our main
driveway) with a bobcat and leveled the old orchard area and hand raked it
all, to make that area easier to mow on the northwest side of the house.
rewired and bent conduit so he could install a motion activated light for
me, for when i get out of my car at night.  he's been hot-mudding the septic
tank pumping access chamber, 36"x36" and 3 ft deep, that had crumbled and no
longer supported its heavy diamond plate cover safely.  no easy job that
one, because it has to be done in stages and layers.  he drove me to and
from my last series of thoracic injections and even made sure i ate
homecooked meals when we got back.  fixed the garbage disposal,
cleared/replaced a plugged up bathroom drain trap.  he works full time, and
also has an 8 year old son, in arizona, who he faithfully speaks to everyday
and whose needs he faithfully tries to meet, while working with his ex to
make sure his son is doing ok.  takes his paternal responsibility very
seriously.  and i haven't touched on even close to half the stuff he does
for me.  his thoughtful and considerate efforts have been waaay more than i
should expect of him.

that the dandilions bothered me really was my problem and not his.  he mowed
what he had time for, right after he replaced the mower deck belt on the
tractor when he got home from work the day before.  it is my house and land,
afterall.  truth is i feel like he gives too much of himself to helping me,
sometimes.

i just had a bug up my butt yesterday, cuz the weather was so nice and i
really wanted to do something i loved doing and missed doing.  a few minutes
ago, i kicked him out of the house this morning, after he emptied the two
grass catcher bags.  told him to go get his fishing license and drown some
worms today.  he had been planning to mow the rest of the yards today.
nah-uh, he needs some time for himself.

kate

"might be prone", nann? LOL!  kid, i had only two speeds, stop or
passionately full speed ahead (and butch used to say that was coupled with
racehorse blinders that didn't come off until the finishline).  but, i'm
learning, still learning, cuz that doesn't work anymore for me the way it
used to.  but, ohhh how i sooo miss my not so long ago energy levels and
some of that fearless abandon!  these days, i seem to think too much before
i do, or decide not to do, what i feel is calling to me---and that's the
bummer part of physical limitations for me.  probably for many of us.

kate