What You Would Have Wanted to Ask About My Sunday Activities

Q:  Did you really dig out a 25-year-old rhododendron today?

A: Yes. Yes, I did.

Q:  How long did it take you?

A:  I'm not sure. Between the hours of 12:30 and 5:30, I dug out a dead eucalyptus, dug out the rhododendron, and replanted it where the eucalyptus was.

Q:  What did it take?

A:  A rake, a pick axe, a shovel, a water bottle, an iPod, and some gloves.

Q:  Did you swing the pick axe?

A:  I swang the pick axe. (Swang is the feminine past tense of the verb swing. It's different from the male past tense because it looks much, much different.

Q:  Wouldn't it have been easier to ask Drew to do it?

A:  It would have been easier, faster, and would have been completed next September after a summer of nagging.  And the plants that I had already purchased to replace the rhodie would have been long dead.

Q:  Shouldn't he have at least given you a hand?

A:  If he were here, he would have ambled out when he heard all the commotion and finished the job in ten minutes or so, but he is out of town this weekend, and once back in town, will have to go right to work. By the time he and I have time off together again, those plants would have been goners. (They are not potted - they came in a plastic bag filled with a little peat moss. They needed to get in the ground.)

Q:  Did your face turn that red color that it used to turn when you were first took up running?

A:  Yes.

Q:  What color is that?

A:  I would say a blend of hot pink and purple. Hot purple.

Q:  What were the neighbors across the street doing while you worked?

A:  They assembled weave poles for their Sheltie puppy, who they must have put in agility training to deal with its ridiculous amount of nervous energy (of which I could have warned them, having met a few Shelties).

Q:  Once you worked around the old rhodie with a pick axe and the shovel, did it just come right up?

A:  No, it did not.  It did not move when I initially tried to move it.

Q:  What did you do?

A:  I took a break, and then I worked harder.

Q:  How big was the rhodie?

A:  Since we had trimmed it down last fall, it wasn't more than three or four feet tall, but the main trunk was probably a foot in diameter.  It was too heavy for me to pick up, but once I had freed it from the ground, I filled the hole underneath it to raise it up to ground level and then rolled it into a wheelbarrow.

Q:  Did you roar once you got it into the wheelbarrow?

A:  Yes. Yes, I roared. 

Q:  Was that moment awesome in your eyes?

A:  It was awesome.  It was awesome to all who witnessed.