Am Able to Walk, But Pro-quality Stick Breaks in Half

August 26, 2010.  Thursday.

Situation:  I have work to do today.  My foot is better, and I’ll definitely be able to take Mway for a walk this afternoon.  I don’t know about mowing the lawn; maybe I can do a little bit of it.  Last night I managed to carry the heavy equipment all right, although it would’ve been nice to have had some help.  My day work doesn’t require any heavy lifting.  Moi mentioned that she took Mway down to the creek last night, but all she said about the walk was that she saw some jack-in-the-pulpit seeds, turning red, down by the creek.  Before I leave for work, I break a metal bracket on the handrail along the stairs, from putting too much pressure on it, and Moi has to fix it, or rather, she moves a good bracket from the middle to the end where it broke.  I get home from work about 4:45.  Moi tells me she fed Mway but didn’t take her for a walk.  Mway watches me as I put on my walking clothes in my bedroom, and she runs around the kitchen table while I put on my helmet, boots, and gloves downstairs.

State of the Path:  Mway takes a dump in front of the garden pond, then while I’m taking a whiz in the walled garden, she takes another dump by the trash pile.  I think about taking a walking stick with me to help support myself, but the “pro-quality” stick, even with the crack in it, works fine as one – and indeed my foot feels good wrapped in the heavy athletic sock and supported by the boot and I feel I have no trouble walking.  Mway stays straight on the path, so I don’t take the side path, and no sooner do I get to the sumacs when I’m astonished to see two new plants of my creeping bush clover.  These have several of the same pea-like pink flowers like I’ve been seeing, with buds in clusters that look like any day they could bloom, but the plants are in long stalks, although the stalks are flopped on the ground.  I’m confused now because Audubon describes creeping bush clover as a creeper, and this plant doesn’t look like it creeps.  I take off my gloves to touch the plant, when suddenly I’m alarmed to think that the leaves, in groups of three, and which are bigger than the ones I’ve seen before, could be poison ivy (though I’ve never seen poison ivy look like this).  I let go of the plant, put back on my gloves – not however until after absent-mindedly scratching my nose – and resolve to wash my face and hands when I get back to the house.  In bug land and down by the creek, the jewelweed flowers are big and bright, big enough for a bumble bee to disappear inside, as I see one do.  I’m disappointed I still don’t see any flowers blooming on what I think are dayflower plants.  I walk across the board over the swale and as I’m negotiating the little gulleys there, the “pro-quality” stick breaks in half – it’s no longer a “pro-quality” stick, and broken in half, neither piece is as long a stick as I like to throw.  Just past the “chokeberries” I see yet another creeping bush clover, this one with a long stalk too and even more flowers on it, and I’m happy to see that, even though I don’t quite know what this plant is, it looks like it’s more prevalent than I first thought.  Coming up through the goldenrod on the way to the clearing, grasshoppers hop from stalk to stalk.

State of the Creek:  The pools are still swelled with water, and there’s water among much of the rocks, but some of the creek bed is starting to dry up again.  The tip of the vinyl siding is out of the water, and the creek bed, for example, is dry just beyond it, where it’s filled with rocks and rises a little bit just before the swale.

The Fetch:  Holding the slightly smaller half of the “pro-quality” stick in one hand, I toss the slightly larger other half for Mway.  She fetches it for a long time, and then coaxes me to play “Put it down” for a long time.  When Mway decides we’re done with fetching, she runs ahead of me back to the porch.  As I approach the porch, I see drops of water on the stoop from the tiny pool and the larger half of the no longer “pro-quality” stick lying where Mway dropped it in front of the door.  Mway has become accustomed from her walks with Moi to bringing the stick inside (as Moi lets her do), and when I reach down to pick up the stick and throw it on the bench, Mway fights me for it.  I manage to whip it out of her way, and throw it on the bench, where there are now other sticks that are longer, one of which I’ll probably use tomorrow.