Fat and lazy and up a tree

I feel like I am moving through mud.  I have such intentions of getting lots of stuff done while here in North Dakota but there is something about the place that sinks me into lethargy. 

Perhaps my mood is because of the weather as it is wet and cool and cloudy.  We have had under two inches of rain since I arrived in Minot less than a week ago and that is much much more rain than I have seen in many months back in Montana.  The grass here is green and lush and I am used to brown and dry.  I visited one of the neighbors this afternoon and walking across the lawn it was soft and springy and not hard like in Montana.

I also haven't been outside like normal.  This lack of being out in the fresh air, and the lack of exercise, is making me feel fat and lazy. I am getting stuff done but I don't feel like I am living up to my potential.

I created a flier to sell my mother's Jazzy power chair. I closed my mother's probate and helped my brother with some financial and city assessor questions.

I am working on going through the items in my mother's office.  Four hours later I had the top of the desk cleared and that was no small matter.

Tuesday I trimmed many dead branches and some live ones from the Scotch pine tree in the backyard that always abandons branches and loses oodles of long needles.  I used an extension ladder to reach branches so I could climb the tree to near the top.  I had to take care as the branches were still wet.

I raked the dead long needles from the lawn and it looked nice, but after today's strong wind the lawn is littered with more dead needles and other tree leaves that were in the process of turning.

When I was up in the pine tree I saw and heard people at the neighbor's house beyond the apple picking neighbor.  A half dozen men were outside between the house and the detached garage talking.  They all had thick Cajun accents.  It is one thing to go to a place where the locals have strong accents - it is quite charming - but it is odd to hear such strong accents and ways of talking outside their environment, especially in North Dakota about as far away as you can get from swamps, spicy food and accents.

I guess I was working quietly as the old neighbor next door, who was out in his backyard with his wife picking apples from their tree, needed to pee.  Instead of going into his house he came around the garage, and in the narrow area between his garage and my brother's hedge of bushes and trees he watered the bushes.  Oh well.  I am a guy and I live on a ranch so I am not offended.  The hedges are thick and the only reason I knew what he was doing was that he told his wife that is what he planned to do.  TMI!

The neighbor came over later that afternoon and gave my brother a couple bags of the apples he picked.  Another reason not to embarrass him.

The contractor for the local telephone company came by in the afternoon to check on their phone line and the trees.  My brother and I had trimmed the tree branches away from the power and phone lines this past Spring and the trees have not filled in this area yet.  Bye, bye.

Last night I visited my friend Rod.  He had ridden on the RAGBRAI bicycle ride in Iowa this past July and he showed me photos and told me stories from the ride.  Looked to be a fun time.

Rod also gave me a few bottles of wine he had made this Summer.  That will come in handy as tonight I catch the train to Minnesota to see Tammy.  She had won a free several night stay at a resort in northern Minnesota.  The weather forecast for this weekend is so-so, so we may have to sit in the jacuzzi and drink Rod's wine. Oh! Life is hard.