Springtime downpours create an entire set of troubles. When rain is combined with a driving wind it leads to double-trouble. The saturated ground caused a leak in the basement that has to be corrected through moving dirt and creating additional slope. We have a contract for the work, but we need nine consecutive dry days. That hasn’t happened for the past two months.
Then
there’s the grass. The ground has been too soggy to mow and the rain brings
about super-growth. When the ground dried out, Harold’s diesel mower quit. It’s
been in the shop for several weeks. My mower won’t mow tall grass, but I
managed to etch out an area in front of
the house. When I decided to mow again,
my mower died each time I engaged the
deck. Well, that’s not helpful for mowing.
The
gloomy weather is disheartening. It makes me understand why people with
dementia “sundown.” Sundowning usually happens in the evening, but with the
grey skies and darkness during the day, I would imagine the behaviors are
multiplied. Sundowning causes mood swings, anxiety, sadness, restlessness,
panic, increased confusion, and other problems. As all caregivers are aware,
each person with Alzheimer’s disease is different. Worse yet, each day is
different.
The
weather makes me moody and depressed. My arthritis acts up during rainy
weather. My aching body makes me cranky. I’m not physically able to finish all
the work required to maintain a big house and huge yard, especially when things
go wrong.
I’ve
turned into a handy-woman at times. I fixed my mower, stopped the leak from the
heat pump (ok, so I cleaned and changed the filter), stopped the running toilet,
and built a dam of old towels to contain the water coming into our basement to
contain the mess.
Now, if
the rain will stop long enough we can get our dirt work done. Hopefully, it can
dry out enough to get the crops in the field.
On the
bright side, I haven’t had to water my flower garden for a month. We finally
got 90% of the lawn mowed. It isn’t pretty since the grass grew to epic
heights. If we get the mower back from the shop, we can make it look better
until we can mow it on a regular basis during the drought that’s bound to hit
this summer.
In the
meantime, we have company coming from Oregon, so the next two weeks will be a
different kind of busy. Maybe we can order up some sunshine and an occasional
gentle rain shower.
Copyright
© May 2021 by L.S. Fisher
http://earlyonset.blogspot.com
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