(re-run)
A garden-club friend knows that I like pots and plants. She called to say that a member was moving and offering her many potted plants to the club. Nancy drove over to the woman’s house with me on Tuesday. I filled up my car with lots of little pots and plants.
The woman offered large gorgeous glazed ceramic pots. My back hurt just looking at them. I told her that my handy woman might help me with it later in the week. She gave me her phone number to keep me posted if anyone took the big pots.
By Thursday afternoon, I had my handywoman and a truck at my disposal. We went over together, me with my bigger car this time. The woman welcomed us and showed us the pots up for grabs. Each pot was filled with soggy dirt from the recent rains. Kelly knew she’d have to remove the dirt and get the plants out if she was going to be able to lift the pots into her truck.
The plants were root bound, and roots had found their way through the holes at the bottom of the pots. No wonder the dirt was soggy. Kelly ripped apart the large succulents in order to empty the pots. In the meantime, I told the woman that she should put the little stuff on the curb where folks would take it for free. As I waited for Kelly, I moved about 15 additional items from the back yard to the curb. I was careful not to lift anything too heavy for me, but just the act of bending over repeatedly irritated my low back.
Kelly asked me to run home and get a shovel. Instead, I asked the woman if we could borrow hers. She was happy to loan it to us.
By the time we left, we only had one large ceramic pot in the truck with Kelly promising to come back later that evening with her strong son and better tools.
After dinner, I got a text. Kelly was asking me to come over to the gardener’s house. I said I was pooped from a five-mile hike that morning and then lifting too many things. Kelly and her son worked by flashlight and showed up 90 minutes later wiith two huge pots, two more large pots, a bunch of wet dirt and smaller pots.
I paid them, and Kelly said she had to go back in the morning to get the rest of the dirt out of there.
The home buyers hadn’t wanted any of the pots. We got them all. It cost me a hundred and a half in labor but I ended up with 5 nice huge pots, some large pots, a bunch of medium pots, zillions of little pots, and many salvageable plants, too.
The downside is that I am so pooped that I am dizzy. It was a lot of work for me, as well. And at the grocery store this afternoon, I offered a shopping cart to a very pregnant woman, and the next cart was stuck. So I carried the dog food bag to the check-out counter and then to my car. I am such a wimp that even a fourteen-pound bag hurts my low back.
I came home dizzy, so I drank a cup of water and ate a Twix bar. Still dizzy, so I sat on the floor and took my shoes off.
Getting better.
Let this be a lesson to me to not do this again.
But it was fun, just the same.
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 