Today was a day of yardwork. “Think of all the time we spend with just maintenance,” K said as she looked at what I accomplished today. We’re not really getting ahead with our yard with a day like today: we’re just maintaining a steady state.

I turned this, for example,

into this. To do so, I borrowed my neighbor’s massive trimmer that theoretically allows one to trim the top of such high bushes without a ladder. Theoretically.

It’s also heavy. My shoulders ached after just a few minutes of work. That’s why I took it back after finishing the first two shrubs and used our own, light electric trimmer to turn this

into this. The growth on those shrubs — what are they called again? I can’t even remember what’s growing in our own yard — has been phenomenal. I have to trim them several times a year.

I continued with the electric trimmer to turn this

and this

into this. The trimmer has its advantages: it’s light and, well, I guess that’s its only advantage because it’s terribly stressful (perhaps not terribly, but it is an added concern) to make sure one doesn’t trim the power cord along with the shrub. Not that I’ve ever done that. Countless times.

In the evening, another bike ride.