Leaving One’s Mark

Yesterday warmed up enough for me to get some additional work done outside on a day when I didn’t want to work inside. I’ve noticed Lisa testing the dust levels in the basement with her white glove.

I did get some outside work done on Sunday, but I managed to skyve some time with a series of catch up phone calls with Pete Flanagan, Pete Sheridan and Helen Lalousis. At my age, you should reach out if a random friend pops into your head. Mule muffins will always be there.

The above was the second barrow I collected yesterday. I also refilled the water troughs and the hay bags. Those muffins don’t create themselves.

Realized I better order some more hay. Tom Connolly, if you are reading this, text me.

The ground was just soft enough to force me to pry up a lot of winter’s frozen muffin load from around the side of the barn and mucky enough in the back field to make it feel like the entire trip out to Hadrian’s Wall was like pushing those muffin loads through quick sand. The process really does make those muscles burn. Thighs, back and arms. I can still feel the throb between my shoulder blades.

I don’t know how Spaghetti spent his first twenty years working like this every day on his family farm in Tyrone. But I sense him around me every time I feel like tossing the pitchfork or dropping those barrow handles and saying “fuck it.”

I tell myself I’m getting too old to be doing this shit.

Suddenly, I can hear my grandfather’s brogue whispering, “You’re mother’s people may be from the South, but Vera is a McCaffrey now, and she didn’t raise a quitter.” Spaghetti was very proud of his Northern Ireland roots. And he loved teasing my mom about her Galway heritage. Compared to the McCaffreys, the Burkes were Lace Curtain Irish back home.

I can hear him laughing as I’m writing this.

And then I remember my grandfather lifting a ladder and scampering up to our neighbor’s rooftop with a huge bucket of hot tar in tow using his one free hand to guide him up the rungs like an orangutan. He was in his eighties.

Then I recalled watching him as a tiny child read the only book I ever saw in his hands, John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony. I know now what triggered the only tear I ever saw leave his eye. That was my introduction to Steinbeck. And ponies.

And then I recalled Spaghetti teaching Lisa how to tie a Windsor knot one day when the family had all gathered for a special occasion. I’m so thankful Lisa got to know Spaghetti.

Spaghetti left his mark, and maybe a few scars we are quite proud of, on all of his grandchildren.

So, I finished my chores yesterday because they needed to be done, and then detached and put up the hose, because the pipes and hose need to drain and I’m sure it will get a lot colder before we actually see the Spring.

Claire and Honey enjoyed the sunshine out back, although I did leave their coats on because the nights are still in the twenties and I just cannot be bothered chasing them around each day putting the coats on and then later taking them off. Especially when the muck guaranties I’ll probably find myself slipping and landing on my human ass while my non-human asses have a good laugh.

I’ll see how the long term weather is looking when I need to catch them for their mani-pedis this weekend. I usually use their times as captives giving them a good brushing. Maybe I’ll leave the coats off them.

As you can see, Claire has destroyed her coat by repeatedly scratching up against the broken branches of some short trees on the western side of the property. I have gone through a lot of coats each year for the same reason. I wonder what next year’s haute couture collection will look like. I wonder if they’ll ever make them in Kevlar.

Once back indoors, I walked to the front to check on the cats.

The feral cats know that an interesting photo needs just the right lighting, composition and lines of perspective. They always deliver.

I wonder what the above photo’s colors look like to my fine, five readers.

Well, it’s Tuesday, and when it comes to the work week, that’s always a good thing.

I better get moving. Kitties to cuddle and rounds to make.

No matter what else we get up to, let us make today a great one.