by Curt Kovener 
If you strum an E-chord on the guitar join me in singing “I’ve got those tired, hurtin’ muscles and assorted body pains after working too much outside on the first warm day of the year blues.”
And so does Miz Mary.
She spent much of Saturday pulling up invasive English Ivy and renovating her flower garden. Her body is letting her know that what was enjoyable now has a price to pay.
I spent much of the day cleaning leaves and debris out of the drainage ways along the lane in the wilderness. It isn’t strenuous work, just repetitive. Scrape up some leave, get the pitchfork under them, lift, twist, toss then repeat.
Charley spent his day exploring the woods while periodically coming back to check on me. All of his running and sniffing must have reacted the same way with his unused muscles as it didn’t take him any time at all to stretch our on the living room floor later in the day.
It was glorious weather. Songbirds serenaded my work and wild creature surprises were uncovered in moving the leaves. There are some pretty good size night crawlers in the fertile woods dirt. And a couple of small salamanders came to the light of day. Being cold blooded, they weren’t moving too quickly as the ground temperature takes some time to warm.
When I returned to the house, Miz Mary was busy sprinkling fertilizer on her flowers as a spring tonic.
On Sunday I opted to give my sore muscles a rest and do maintenance on the several pieces of mowing equipment required to keep the wilderness vegetation from re-taking its territory.
But with the twisting, tugging, kneeling required to change oil and sharpen mower blades, my muscles let me know they did not like any movement I was doing.
As I finished, Miz Mary announced that the weather radio said a was tornado heading our way. The TV confirmed that some severe weather would arrive in about 15 minutes. She & Charley headed for the basement. I became the resident weather observer.
While folks in nearby Lawrence County got hammered, all the wilderness retreat received was some occasional wind and rain. (And I was glad I got the lane drainage cleared the day before.)
So I am glad it is Monday and I can get back to work to recuperate for the rigors and vigors of weekends in the wilderness.
