A perfect 10
My day off yesterday was fantastic. I got up relatively early, though I stayed up too late on Tuesday, wasting time. I sat on my deck reading magazines and drinking coffee for 2 hours, then got to work. I dug in my garden (which was HELL because I should have done it in May but it rained all month and I was depressed and had no ambition). The grass had taken over and was very tall so I had to work really hard to get it out of there. I only did a little more than half of it then I was exhausted and could do no more. Saved the rest for another day. I made enough bare ground to plant my 36 snapdragons (which are about to bloom) and my 20 or so lily bulbs (which will replace the ones that died during the winter). Couldn't plant the lilies because I was too sore to bend over for that long. Still need to make a spot for my 2 new echinachea plants. Also need to dig in other gardens. These things will happen, though, now that I'm apparently feeling better. Also planted 35 nasturtiums I grew from seed and about 30 morning glories I also grew from seed. Very pleased with that. Then I mowed the lawn, which turned out to be very tiring and hard on my asthma (asthmatics are not supposed to mow the lawn or shovel snow: but what am I supposed to do? who will do it if I don't?). I huffed and wheezed and just about collapsed, but it was finished! Not one of my better efforts but at least it's done. The third mowing and it's not even July yet. Yikes.

Then I changed the fish water. There was some black slimy goo all over the gravel and the fish were very logey. Something was definitely wrong. I started out just doing half of the water but it was obvious that I needed to scrub the gravel and change the whole tank so I did that. It takes more than an hour but was worth it and all survived. They are much perkier now. Don't know what was wrong in there but something strange was growing there. YUCK!

All in all I worked from 10:30 until 5:00 with a few short breaks thrown in. This is an incredible day for me. I can conclude that I am feeling much better. I would never, never be this industrious in earlier days. I actually broke a sweat, which is something I avoid at all costs. I hate to sweat. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. Maybe a little too warm. Deer flies are out and there are still residual black flies. But even that didn't deter me. Amazo.

Dinner with Ken last night. He didn't have a good day. Had to go to Plattsburgh in the morning, plus his usual Weds. foray into Ausable Forks. Then he didn't feel well so he did nothing in the afternoon. He said he felt better by the time I got there. Two of "the boys" stopped by to say hello. These are the men who have the camp next door to Bill's, former campers. There are five of them there right now doing work & opening camp. Two of them are my favorites, Duncan and David. They weren't the two who stopped by last night. They invited me for dinner on Friday, but they were really inviting Ken and only asked me because I happened to be there so I don't consider the invitation to be sincere. They never invite me when all 5 of them are there, only when Duncan and David are there alone, so I don't know if I'll go.

It's Work Weekend at our camp this weekend. Not quite what it was supposed to be: only my cousins Tom & Bill, plus a friend of Tom's and my cousin's husband Wayne will be there, plus my former parents-in-law and ex-husband (Sunday only) will be there. This is all, out of 40 people who were at last year's meeting, who could muster it up to come to work. Yes, we all agree there should be a Work Weekend, but we won't come ourselves. Well, Tom and Bill ALWAYS come and ALWAYS do work at camp even though they have a camp of their own, so this is nothing special for them. I've been emailing Bill like crazy this morning and he and his wife just got an 11-week old chocolate Lab puppy named Bosco. Bosco is coming this weekend so I must introduce Tess to him. I will call my former in-laws tonight to see what's up with the food. I offered to mow grass around camp as my part, even though I would much rather dig in my gardens.

Not motivated to work today. Not sure of what work I will undertake. Catalog, I suppose. Have some local history to work on. Blech.