My Aching Footprint

This expression is from a friend of mine. I have no idea of its origin or meaning. My friend most often says this when she has a pointless Bunco roll or no move in Mexican Train or cards. Neither situation requires footwork, unless you consider metaphoric options. But, this week I have reason to agonize over my aching footprint.

I injured my right foot in May of last year while mowing the yard of the vacant house next door. What followed were several trips to a podiatrist, time wearing a splint and finally a boot, and months wearing a single pair of sandals. I graduated to a single pair of dancing shoes that I wore out.

Only recently have I begun to wear REAL shoes again: Dress shoes to church activities. Athletic shoes for exercise. Garden clogs in the yard. Stylish Wellingtons to water the garden plot.

But that came to an abrupt halt this week when I re-injured my foot. I am not even sure what I did to my foot, but walking around Ft. Vancouver on Sunday was a bit uncomfortable. By the middle of the night, my foot was throbbing enough to wake me up. By the time I finished collecting another four cans of yard debris on Monday, I was in serious trouble.

Ice and rest. Being on my feet to do only absolutely necessary tasks. Ice and elevating my foot. Back to wearing my trusty sandals. Ahh... I remember it well.  

Oh, my aching footprint!

Pining for Summer

Yesterday it was sunny.  By 8:30 AM, I was at my garden plot weeding and watering. I planned to go earlier, but it was waaaay too cold. When the sun came up, tho, it warmed up pretty fast. I shed my coat soon after I started my gardening chores.

I spent most of the day in the backyard attacking the weeds that are so prolific in our neighborhood and gathering the winter's accumulated yard debris~ five 32-gal containers in all before I ran out of time and steam. Three to go, at least. After I blew the debris off the patio, it was time for some serious sun time. Nice!

I even walked over to my neighbor's for our continuing pow-wow on how to attack the critters responsible for tunneling through the four lots that converge at the SW corner of mine. (The saga continues, but our weapon of choice is the new molecat we decided to purchase and played with last night.) When I got home, I checked the weather forecast only to discover that we might get showers today.  Late, late last night I transferred 3 cans of yard debris to the yard debris recycle bin for pickup on Monday to avoid getting wet.

I was OK with the showers I awoke to this morning.  Not so much the torrential rains of the day.  I notice that the prediction of 80-degree weather to coincide with summer solstice has been downgraded. I miss summer. It seems like only yesterday...