Soft Hands and Calluses

We’re finally getting a winter from the old days. Wet, cold and…well, wintry. The last few years, winter has been dry, dry, dry and not particularly cold. It just doesn’t seem right to miss out on an honest to goodness winter.

That being said, I’ll be glad when the Sparing weather takes over and we start to get the warmer weather again. As a runner, I don’t particularly enjoy running with layers of clothing on my back, all that chafing and what not. Not to mention the fact that we are just about out of firewood this year. Boy, a serious miscalculation on my part thanks very much. With at least a good solid month of cold weather ahead of us it feels like we’re on a serious wood ration, virtually down to burning bark and other scraps. It’s a-scrounging I must go.

Another shocking realisation of just how indentured to the office lifestyle I have become when I did a bit of yard work last weekend. Nothing overly strenuous mind you, just cutting down a palm tree segment by segment. The fibrous nature of the palm means that the saw blade gets continually caught as you work your way through it. Anyway, I’d only been at it for an hour or so when the first blister made its presence felt on my hand. Man, it doesn’t take long for the hands to soften and a bit of hard work really shows you where you’re at.

I did the right thing, though. I sucked it up and kept sawing away until the job was done. I only did a bit of whinging and whining but not so much that I can’t hold my head up in front of the kids!

Most of the palm is still standing ( I really only lopped the top two segment off) but at least it’s getting lower and lower. The next segment will have to done from a ladder – the first couple were so high I was standing on the garage roof to get to them. I’m not sure how I’ll go cutting into the top of a palm tree up a ladder with nothing more than a pruning saw. The effort that has to go into getting through the sappy palm will really get that ladder shaking I should think. Some care…some care. At least my hands should be a little tougher for the next part of the job, I’ve got that going for me.

Soft hands and calluses, the difference between hard manual labour and none. It’s an indicator right there in the palm of your hand that reminds you whether you’ve been putting in the hard yards or not. Hopefully over the next few weekends I’ll be getting my calluses back up to a respectable level again.

The Start of Winter

The first day of winter and we’ve just finished one of the driest Mays on record in Sydney. To underline the fact that it’s winter we were greeted with overcast skies and mizzly rain for most of the day. Fair enough, but the forecast for the rest of the week – right through the long weekend – is for a lot more of the same. It’s a good thing we’re getting out of town this weekend.

We went to the football yesterday to watch the Swans do as they pleased to the Richmond Tigers and were treated to one of the funniest sights in the AFL. As everyone knows, Matthew Richardson is a card-carrying clown. Every possession throws up a new adventure is comedy as he thinks of the most ingenious ways to completely stuff up. To sweeten the pot, and as proof that Swans coach Paul Roos has a sick sense of humour, Richo’s direct opponent for the match was the Swans version of the bumbling idiot Lewis Roberts-Thompson. And so we were treated to 2 hours of Dumb and Dumber as these two fools tried to out-mistake each other. It was worth the price of admission alone.

The only downside for us was that, even though we were sitting in the top deck of the Clive Churchill Stand, when it started raining we were getting wet. What the bloody-well use is it to stick a roof on a grandstand that can’t even protect you from the elements? That was the whole point of forking out the extra dollars. The game was well and truly over by three-quarter time, Richo and LRT were starting to repeat their respective routines and the goofs were starting to grow old, so we decided to head home early.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Collingwood’s 100 point victory over the West Coast Eagles on Saturday. What a game! The Pies are starting to look like the teams of 2002 & 2003. It’s all starting to look very promising, but there’s a long way to go and there are plenty of contenders out there.