23rd DAY ISOLATED AND LOST IN THE AMAZON

After 23 days in lockdown, my mind is starting to play tricks on me, and for a brief time I almost felt that I was enjoying it. NOT. I have found lots to do, I now attend an online course for 2-3 hours each day. It has been eye opening. It shows me just how feeble the mind gets after years of not having it tested by an instructor. I have also tried to keep up with this blog and at the same time have tried to expand and improve on it. Finding material is not a problem. My memory is starting to shake off its cobwebs and flashbacks to the past are coming more regular.

I am still trying to keep up with part of the cooking. Although Bubbaloo has taken on much of it in order to allow me time to study and blog. An interesting side note is that, I love her cooking and she loves mine. I would rather eat her offerings than my own.

Anyway back to the confession part. For days I have stayed indoors and kept myself distant from others. My contact with the world is only when my turn comes up to peer thru the curtains and spy on any foreign looking virus carrying passersby. We take shifts. So far, I haven’t spotted any! Now my secret, I broke my isolation, but not of my own choosing. So yesterday Bubbaloo comes to me and with hands firmly planted on her hips, says “ok this is enough, you need to get off you butt, and get up close and personal with the Amazon Jungle growing in our front yard”. I protest “but what about my isolation”. To no avail her reply was “well we will take our chances of you catching it from a tree”.

So out I go, and the task is staggering, monumental and overwhelming. It seemed like this jungle had now grow another 6 feet while I was inside ignoring it. We now have weeping willows bigger than the house. Small trees that were so small and innocent a year or two ago, are now big menacing hulks spewing out branches and leafs by the zillion. The palm trees have overgrown the deck. I stood there thinking where should I start? I made one last appeal inside the house, but was told “get back out there and don’t come back until I see significant progress”. So I decided hmmmm what should I do first. Well there is one huge awful looking branch coming straight up out of the top of the weeping willow and heading for the sky. There that one is my target methinks. Let’s get to work.

I dig out my 20′ extendable limb cutter, and knowing I can’t reach it even then, I also bring out my ladder. No sense going for the low hanging fruit right? The real gains are to be made in the highest reaches. So I set up the ladder, extend this cutter out about 20 feet and work it up thru the tree and its zillion lower hanging branches. I am up about 4 rungs on the ladder and can barely reach it. So balanced like, this I pull, on my cutter, with all my strength and after a few minutes it finally gives up. Now, this massive branch with its zillion child branches attached, gives up and topples over. It comes right down thru the tree goes over my head and around my shoulders like a Peruvian poncho, and over and around the ladder.

I am now a prisoner. Now, pinned to the ladder, I can’t move. I am holding this cutter straight up thru the tree, standing halfway up my ladder. A thought goes thru my mind, “hmmmm what ya gonna do now”? I could have yelled for ol Bubbaloo, but I’m not that brave (read stupid). The branch is weighing more heavily with each passing minute. I abandon the cutter to the tree, slide off the ladder carrying this massive shroud and once on the ground I wiggle out from under it. So now 30 minutes has elapsed and I have one branch cut. Now I’m worried my boss is gonna come out to review the progress.

I step back, review my progress and think well that’s one, there are only 10,000 more to go, maybe I should try one of the lower ones next. And that ends my Rambling for today. What say you?