Productive start to the week

Weekends are when many people take care of all sorts of chores they don’t get to during the week. Even I do that, despite, technically, having unlimited time. In my case, though, the timing of projects is often determined by the weather.

I’ve needed to mow the lawns for several days because all the rain and mild weather we’ve had lately caused a growth spurt, something that was true before my previous mowing adventures two weeks earlier. Unfortunately, that same rain also made it just as difficult difficult to find the right right opportunity this week.

This past Monday was the day I was determined to do it, but first there was a different projects I needed to to do: I once again had to clean out the weeds from The Damn Raingarden. In the near year since I first wrote about doing that, I’ve had to clear it our a few times, and when I do a normal mini-clear out, I toss the weeds onto the lawn so the lawnmower can grind it up into mulch. There was rather a lot this time.

The mowing when very slowly because the grass clippings being mulched by the mower had trouble getting back out when the grass underneath was so long. I had to frequently stop and raise the mower up so it could spit out all the tiny clippings more easily. Even then I nearly stalled the mower a few times.

Once I was done with the front, I mowed the part of the side yard where I keep my wheelie bins for rubbish and recycling so they’d be easier to roll out. I did that because it looked for a time like it might rain, and I wanted to be sure I got that done in case I didn’t get to finish the mowing.

Back inside, I put the battery on to charge—once it cooled down, something I needed to do, too. Once the battery was re-charged, I headed back out, rolling the mower to the patio. I decided to start with the parts of the lawn I can see from the living areas of the house, because I remembered that last time the battery ran out of charge before I could finish.

I reached my first goal, and the mower was fine, so I mowed more, until the views out my bedroom windows would also be over mown lawn. The mower kept going, so I did, too, and I managed to finish mowing the entire back lawn on one charge—as it always used to be. Along the way, I noticed a small wasp nest on my fence (photo up top), and I removed it. I don’t know if it had been abandoned or if it was just too new to be occupied, but either way, it’s now gone (the wasp species is an invasive and fairly aggressive foreign species, btw).

It was a productive day, clearly, because I closed all three rings on my watch by the time I was done. This usually happens on days when I mow the lawns, so I was expecting it. I’m always glad when it does, because it’s not all that often that I close all three.

Later that evening, I was sitting and watching TV when my watch tapped me on the wrist to tell me I’d hit 200% of my Move Goal for the day, something that’s far more rare than closing all three. The Move Ring (the red one) records an approximation of kilojoules consumed by activity of any kind, especially movement. The user sets the Move Goal every Monday, and mine is set kind of low so I have a fighting chance of closing it every day. The alert made me smile—because I thought it was funny that it happened when I was sitting and watching TV.

I did all this despite being dog tired, so to speak. At some ungodly hour yesterday morning, someone we’ll call “Leo” (for no particular reason…), decided he wanted to go outside to go to the toilet. That ended my sleep—and yet I still managed to get all that outside stuff done (maybe it was the caffeine?). I assumed that I’d probably fall asleep in my chair while watching TV that evening, but I didn’t.

I was kind of puzzled by this: The whole mowing thing had gone better than two weeks earlier, but for the machine and for me. And then I remembered that last time I used the line trimmer on all the edges, and that’s probably what exhausted me personally. I also knew I should’ve done that this week, too, and if I had, I probably would’ve fallen asleep in my chair.

Today I washed and dried tow loads, and I also ran the dishwasher. This is relevant because they, too, were because of the sunshine: I used the free electricity from the sun do run those machines. Unlike the mowing, however, it’s at least possible to do those chores in the midst of rainy weather.

This week, then has gotten off to a productive start. I have some deliveries coming this week, a podcast to record, and maybe even some more projects to get done. Was this week’s start the trend or an anomaly? I’ll know in a few more days.