Again seizing opportunities

Yesterday, I again seized an opportunity to get something done. The window was brief, and I wasn’t sure I’d succeed, but I gave it a go anyway. And I won. Again.

I’d been watching the weather, which was supposed to be awful on Thursday, so I did my errands, including going to the supermarket, on Wednesday evening. I knew it had rained after I got home that evening, and during the night, but up to early afternoon yesterday, it was just brief sprinkles a couple times along with strong winds. I knew the rains would come again eventually.

However, in the meantime, I thought I may as well start mowing the back lawn because it wasn’t raining at then, and I figured the winds would’ve helped dry out the grass. I was (mostly) right, it turned out, and I managed to finish the whole back yard.

When I began the mowing task, I thought to myself that if I could just mow the part of the lawn that I can see out the windows and deck doors of the living area, then I’d be happy (it was annoying and more than a little depressing to see it deteriorate and not being able to take care of it due to all the rain). I also had painful memories of what happened last year when rain delayed mowing for even longer. The fact I finished the whole thing was huge, for a lot of reasons.

It was an active day.

However, I had to mow very slowly because the grass/weeds were so long, and the battery gave out about two-thirds of the way through. With the mower silent, I could hear “squish squish” of the sodden ground as I walked to get the new battery.

The mower gave out near the drain in the lawn, and the fact the ground was so spongey meant that it had become very wet in all the rain we’ve have in recent weeks. The bigger issue is that it wasn’t soaking into the ground. There’s really nothing I can do about it, either.

This wasn’t a suspire to me, given the thick, gluggy clay I’d recently discovered was what passed for “topsoil” on my property. I also knew that residents were complaining to each other about how poorly their sections’ drainage was, and that one neighbour had to hire a drainage contractor to install piped drains to carry the water away because there was no way the “soil”, so-called, could absorb it.

Apart from spraying gypsum to try to help break up the clay a little, there’s nothing I can do to make it handle stormwater any better than it does. And, there IS a drain there to carry away surface water, which is good. The main thing it means is that mowing so soon after rain will always be problematic in that particular part of the lawn.

The boss inspected and approved my work.

In any case, getting the lawns mowed was critical to getting the planters out there so I can put the citrus in them. I’ve only assembled one of the planters so far because I simply don’t have any room to keep them in the house until I can fill them with dirt. Now, weather notwithstanding, I at least have a shot at getting that completed.

And all of that’s true only because I again seized an opportunity to get something done. But, the terrible weather is nowhere near done with us. Further progress may mean again seizing opportunities when I can. And so it goes.