Day Twenty-seven: Pain and soreness

Wet and drizzly. Unlike yesterday, this day was overcast most of the day. The drizzle was just dew point fog condensation but I rediscovered the hard way that the sun burns through clouds.

While my youngest daughter started turning over the undead sod, my oldest and I went to Sloat's Nursery on Sloat next to the San Francisco Zoo. We spent over $250 getting planting soil, Forest Mulch, and drought tolerant plants. From a sod, and weed, no maintenance yard, I was to go to a no grass no weed low maintenance yard.

Getting to a yard that will take a little work, although it looks so much better, was a lot of work AND IT'S NOT DONE YET. It was obvious when we started digging the holes for the plants that some previous resident had parked cars where we were digging. The amount of compaction was horrible. As a result, we over dug the holes and used copious amounts of the planting soil to fill them in so the plants would have room for roots.

Then we went back to Sloat's and bought more Forest Mulch and bark chips. Oh yes, we bought more ground cover plants. But we got everything planted and every thing covered with either the mulch or bark.

The real story here and the reason for the title, is what we had to go through to dig the holes. I had to get out my spud bar. While my daughters would clean out the dirt, I would go around to the holes and spud the next layer loose. After my share of sod turning, the spud work has nearly done me in. All of my upper body is sore already, at least all the a's: abs and arms. I almost hate to go to sleep, if I can, because I know I will be stiff an sore tomorrow.

The pain and soreness are worth it. We got so much done this weekend. I'm encouraged that this place might even be presentable for visitors coming out to my son's wedding.

Life after Layoff is a pain, a glorious satisfying pain.