Regular household duties

This week, I mowed my lawns. It’s a common-enough thing, of course, but through it I realised I have a problem, and I also found another one I have to deal with. It’s just regular life, really.

The mowing itself went quite well: I mowed both the front and back lawns and when I finished, I’d only used around two-thirds of the battery’s charge. I don’t know why things went easier this time, but the cold weather has allowed the growth of the grass, which is probably the main reason. However, another factor could be that I now store the battery for the mower in the house, at room temperature (which is considered ideal), so maybe it held its charge better.

The mowing adventure aggravated what appears to be a new affliction: Inflammation along my sciatic nerve, somewhere in one of my gluteal muscles. The symptoms first appeared over the weekend, and at one point I had some sharp—but brief—pain in those muscles.

However, by Tuesday morning it was no worse than an ache, so I decided to go ahead with the mowing. Part of me thought this affliction arose because I’ve been aware that I’ve been sitting far too much lately, and I need to move more. This inflammation usually goes away in around 4 to 8 weeks, but it may return. I clearly need to move more and get fitter, but knowing that doesn’t change my current reality.

Because I was out on the patio on Tuesday, I happened to look at my patio table and chairs, still under the cover I got for them last December, and I noticed that there were holes in the cover where the cover was sitting on the backs of the chairs. I came up with a plan to take care of the problem (by re-doing the project—stay tuned), and planned to go get the supplies yesterday. Unfortunately, I was still sore from the mowing adventure Tuesday, so I didn’t go. I was a little too sore today, too—but I may go this evening. We’ll see. At any rate, I only noticed it because I went outside to mow the lawns, so another good thing that game from that.

I’m not a big fan of the complications of ageing, of course, and that’s a topic all its own. Right now, though, the reality is that I’m dealing with challenges as they arise, finding workarounds when necessary, and, basically, doing what I need to do. There are always regular household duties waiting to be carried out, after all.