So, since my husband has been gone for 8 DAYS (including 1 weekend and to include another weekend, starting tomorrow, and possibly a third…aaaaah), here is what I've been up to:
Working. Watching movies (just finished Gilda last night. The ending felt phony but Rita Hayworth was amazing!). Geeking, waaaaay too much. Reading (total trash – something about Gene being out of town makes me want to re read those awful VC Andrews novels). More Sirius 22: First Wave (July 4th weekend is all Depeche Mode, woohoo!!!). Writing, just a tiny bit. Thinking, also waaaay too much.
And also yard destruction. Sunday (or maybe it was Monday…the days really run together) I was sitting on the patio swing in the back yard when I noticed that there are grody plants/ weeds/whothehellknowswhat growing behind our fence but still in our yard (we didn't fence that part of the yard, but I guess we should have?). Some of these WTHKW things are as tall as I am. (Have I told you I am terrified of weeds that are taller than I am??). But now, with Gene unavailable, the dogs go outside with someone we don't even know (dog walker). And some of the forest has berries growing. Poison berries? Delicious berries? Solid gold berries? I don't care. They have to go.
Fortunately, I live 2 minutes from a Home Depot. Across the street from Home Depot (aka Agent Orange) is a Lowes Home Improvement. I bought a pair of hedge clippers with the loooong blades. In the evenings, I sit outside with the dogs surveying the forest, choosing my first target. Then I grab the hedge clippers. First, I felled the weeds (hell, they could be money tree branches and they are still GONERS!) closest to the fence so they wouldn't reach out and grab me (paranoid, I am!). If I lean on the fence and mostly blindly cut, I can actually do some damage.
I was hacking at the berry vines earlier when I thought, "I wish I had taken a 'before' picture."
Actually, I'm glad I didn't. Then you'd all KNOW I live in a ghetto. I mean, what kind of surburban family lets a fucking forest of Who the hell knows what grow in their yuppiefied back yard?
Does anyone have any suggestions on ways to get rid of the forest that I can't reach by leaning? The forest goes back a good 6-8 feet and I can really only get the closest 2 feet. And no, I am not leaving my safe back yard to go get close and personal with the weeds. The hell you say. Indeedy, I think the hell not.