The Unbearable Heaviness of Raking

You don't know just how old you are until you have to rake leaves.

I think of myself as a young 43.  But I could stand to go to the gym. Actually, I drive by the gym all the time - I just never go in...

Towards the end of summer, when the garden is on autopilot and I get to sit back for a while and admire, I let the garden work fall to the wayside.
 
But then fall rudely comes.

The leaves fall and blow into the flowerbeds. The plants die back and need cleaning up.

I bust out the rake and heavy gloves and head out to rake the grass and fill up some yard debris bins. Thankfully I have neighbors that allow me to use their bins too, as I can fill up three in one swoop.

So many leaves, so little daylight to get them up.

Then it's obvious just how old I feel.

I've raked leaves and I can't get up!

Knees, back, neck, thighs and arms all hurt. Pain killers and a glass of wine are required.

Not to mention the recent cold weather, rain and terrible wind making everything worse.

To top it all off, the extreme cold weather now gives me eczema on my calves. I'm now like a little old lady predicting the weather based on my aches and pains... "Boy my legs are sure itchy, must be a nor'easter blowing in"...

For now, thank goodness there is left over Thanksgiving food, a visiting mom and shiny things indoors to distract me.

Oh look! Something shiny!