partly because it was work away that seems to be taking more of a toll recently.  I just don't Want to.  and it took forever,  it seemed,  because in the last couple months,  like today,  Bill is home.  He semi retired himself.  He likes to talk to me.  So,  when i'm scrubbing the bathtub he says things from over there and i can't  hear him,  so me and the rag have to get up and go out into the hall and say WHAT????  Part of it is because i have KEPT their house for going on 15 years now.   and that i'd kept his mother's house,  Alz. B,  and then i kept his mother herself in her 3 years at the old folks home,  and how,  the night she died,  we both sat there with and next to her and then walked,  the rest of the night till dawn,  the streets in town,  just walking and feeling it.  and i have known all their dogs,  he and his wife Nelia,  a few horses that are gone now too,  sang them the Dying Song and helped him bury them.  and how he has many times fixed my plumbing  and has watched me here,  built that overkill beam over the place where daughter Jenny and i cut through the wall of this trailer house and made the ROOM out of a screened in porch,  helped me with fencing when the Goats were coming.  He does the oil change in the Honda.  I gave him my Datsun pickup,  Blue Bird, because she either ran perfectly or not at all.  50/50.  He is a geologist but also loves mechanics.  BlueBird is his welding truck.  He met me and i began housekeeping there when i was still married to That Person,  he met him,  knew him just some,  but he knows me from those days when i was Wary of anyone knowing much.

so we have History.  there's a Lot More.  But just to say

and before i went there this morning i walked the perimeter  of this fence that creates the  sovereign state of Here to repair some slats of that fence because of a couple dogs that appeared yesterday,  frightening the Goats.  as i did that i realized that if i took a pic of that Other side of the fence,  i could give You a real sense of the Kochia.  What Kochia IS here.  How it is all consuming.   I'll take a pic tomorrow morning,  so You can get the drift.  I didn't have the energy for it this eve.  There was a TON of rain to that storm last night.  It's 90 something and humidity is HIGH.  All the feed tubs for Goats swimming in stinky feed water and needing hosed out and Gideon's tarp leaked…i need to muck his little hut out and fill with new dry straw , buy him a new tarp tomorrow.

and the Kochia grows.  You'll see.  now the Pig Weed too.

any Way.

i didn't want to go to Work Away.  I don't want to have to deal with this abundance of Kochia.

and i can't tell if it's because i am 71 this summer?….that's OLD.  or  OR if it's that i am knowing i will be going soon?,  to a place where it's very different?  I don't know.  I can't know.  and i'm trying to work out how to Work it,  whatever it is.  Because i AM here

and 

i AM here.  Here.  And as i was just out feeding and filling the water tubs there was the most amazing Black and White dragon fly.  I ran to get the camera but it was no use,  s/he wouldn't sit for a photograph,  flitting here to there,  this side of the yard fence to that,  but so so so BeautyFull

there's just a LOT.  a lot of stuff.

 

 

 

 

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16 responses to “words will have to do.”

  1. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    Grace- I am turning 71 in September. Right now I have the summer off of work and usually return in September. I don’t want to. So, I hear what you are saying—I also know how it feels to be saying this. We almost 71 year olds were raised old school. Work. We must work.
    It’s really hard to let it go. In our heads. But our hearts, Grace, our hearts want to be free of WORK.
    so that we have some period of time (in what is left) to do just what we want. And that will be “work” but not someone else’s work. Our work.
    I’ll keep reading to see what happens. I’m thinking leaving now would have solved this problem?

    Like

  2. grace Avatar

    it’s late and i’m tired and words won’t come Right, but i am
    so gratefull, like Gratefull for your words of Understanding about the
    sense of Independence
    making One’s Way
    “work, but not someone else’s work. Our work.”
    “some period of time (in what is left)”
    THANK YOU AND LOVE TO YOU

    Like

  3. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    Later still and this seventy FOUR year old, three flights above a City cast in concrete, steel and glass, ambition and struggle, is waving at your THERE so full of history, work and human story. You tell it well dear grace. I see it and feel it when you speak. I wish for you a sweet sleep with no storms, no stormy dreams.

    Like

  4. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Your heart is already in California with your family … your well planned new life. But we all know plans change …. still doesn’t make it easy. Soon all this will change and you’ll have more stories that you tell so well.

    Like

  5. Peggy McG Avatar
    Peggy McG

    Are you able to semi-retire from this work? Last january i put in my 30 day notice and finally left my job. It was my third notice in over a year. They begged me not to go each time. My energy and sanity said it was time. I still dont have much energy but i do have my sanity… at least I think so.. i will be 63 in sept and marvel at women older than me that can run circles around me! You, Grace, are an inspiration.

    Like

  6. Mo Crow Avatar
  7. vicky aka stichr Avatar

    you need to tell yourself that you ARE going, but you have delayed the move for the best of reasons, the health of the goats. what IF you had gone in the heat and something happened?
    that is why you are tired. you were already to go, and got stopped .
    i won’t tell you how many times i have been there, not done that.
    so tell self that when the heat passes some, you and your goats will GO…

    Like

  8. jude Avatar

    ah the inbetween

    Like

  9. grace Avatar

    i don’t need to make it Pretty

    Like

  10. grace Avatar

    human story. i slept well.

    Like

  11. grace Avatar

    the days bring them, the stories
    all kinds

    Like

  12. grace Avatar

    63…oh, eeeeee…..
    i semi retired long ago. Now it’s just SOME. But i find that
    i am also tired of Some.

    Like

  13. grace Avatar

    ((((back)))))

    Like

  14. grace Avatar

    i think this is true. being Ready and then …..no. twice.

    Like

  15. Nina Avatar
    Nina

    I agree that I think it is the anticlimax of going and then not going that is frustrating. It will all happen when it’s the right time. Until then, I would love to see you photo of the Kochia!

    Like

  16. grace Avatar

    you have it. Kochia. all hand harvested. Given. received, eaten, taken IN.

    Like

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