Rip Van Winkle

Have you ever had one of those nights where it feels like you were sleeping for about forty years?  When I woke up this morning – at 9:15, which is horrendously late for me – I was convinced that I must have slept through all of Tuesday.  Thank you Google Doodle for informing me that it is St. Patrick’s Day and I therefore had not slept through an entire day.  (Though I am a little disgusted that the first thing I do in the morning is turn on my computer.)  You might be thinking this little Irish girl drank herself stupid in some St. Paddy’s Day celebrations, but alas you’d be wrong.  Yesterday I spent about five hours in the canopy of a Honeylocust tree, and I sure am feeling it this morning!

Five hours seems like a long time to be climbing around a tree, but it really isn’t.  There are days when I may need to be in a tree for a full eight hours.  (Let’s just say this job requires some serious bladder control.)  However, it’s been a long time since I’ve done a nice long, intricate pruning job like that.  Work slowed down a lot in the last few months of 2014.  I spent most of my time on the ground while my crew leader worked from a bucket truck.  Then I was laid-off for the winter.  Since December 19, I have been sedentary, spending most of my days knitting on the couch.  The toll that five hours of climbing has taken on these atrophied muscles?  Not only was I convinced that I had been asleep for forty years, but that those forty years were spent in a bloody battle.

My hands are sore and cut up, my muscles are aching, and I have blisters on my heels from wet boots.  It’s a type of pain that is full of promise.  Some day soon, I’ll be back up to speed.  I’ll be settled into this new tree company and I’ll have new friends.  Right now, things are awkward at work.  My co-workers are feeling me out and vice versa.  Yesterday’s job, followed by today’s pain, offers a little glimpse into a brighter future.  A vision to which I have been blinding myself because I am still so attached to my old workplace.  I catch myself constantly referring to my work style as “how we do it.”  So much so that one of my new co-workers politely pointed out “Meagan, there’s no ‘we‘ anymore.”

I have the next two days off work, which should be sufficient to recuperate and get some stuff done around the house.  Today’s to-do list is getting shorter and shorter.  Not because I’m accomplishing anything, but because the day keeps getting shorter and shorter.  Hours are sinking into each cup of coffee.  Cup number five, and I still lack all motivation.  It’s already noon.  A friend is coming over for dinner so I suppose I should at least make this place slightly presentable.  My living room is currently being consumed by wool.

Two of the three skeins of roving that I purchased this weekend have been spun and are ready to go up on Etsy.

 

My Etsy site may not be updated until the weekend, but I’ll keep you posted.  If I happen to get a surge of energy today (come on, coffee!!) I may have it up and running by tomorrow evening.  Stay tuned.

Auf Wiedersehen, gute Freunde!