Friday, February 25, 2011

Busier than a one armed paper hanger?

smallpaperhanger.jpgAll my life I had heard, and even used, the phrase, “Busier than a one-armed paper hanger,” without having the slightest idea what it meant. I think I was in my mid-twenties before I understood the image conjured by the phrase, that of a man with one arm trying to hang wallpaper. Probably the epiphany came the first time I actually tried hanging wallpaper for myself. Image and comments courtesy ofhttp://weskenney.net/?p=693 
Actually my post has to do more with not being busy enough because of not having the use of one arm. Surgery was performed February 14 on my right rotator cuff leaving it pretty much immobile for the next 5-6 weeks and not fully recovered to 100% for 6 months. Yikes, right during peak gardening season.
 As I ponder in this photo above to prune or not to prune this Miscanthus now or later, you can see how limited I will be for a while. You ever tried to be a one armed garden pruner? Very slow going. Anyways one arm is better than none. And I can always ask for help from my lovely bride. So I guess that it would be
good to spend more time with her in the garden. And I am sure she will be glad to follow my detailed instructions to a t. Ha, ha. I look at the garden and see nothing but projects, projects, and more projects. Ain't going to happen is it? And you know what my doctors are saying: do nothing and heal!
The trials begin......

6 comments:

  1. I'm getting ready for the garden season - Web

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  2. Glad to hear your surgery went well. Wish we were closer, I could come help you with your garden chores... Thanks for the post on GaGa's Garden. She is an awesome host and has a great blog... Take Care!

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  3. OMG...it certainly is too bad your recovery is during the growing season...grrrrr! Hope you recover fully and can dive into the garden afterwards with gusto!

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  4. What a great blog! So pleased to have found you!

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  5. I hope you heal quickly and completely. I had to have surgery for tennis elbow. It was a minimally invasive one, but it took awhile for the pain to go away.

    I had to laugh about the thought of your wife following your directions in the garden. Yesterday, while I was raking the top layer of leaves out of my curb flower beds, the next door neighbor's son-in-law drove by and told me my husband should give me a raise. I told him I wouldn't want him to do it, because he may not be careful of my plants. Also, he would want every single leaf out of there, and I just want to give the plants some air.

    Have a great day! It's supposed to get to 70 here today.

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  6. Hey, I feel your pain. I am coming out of 7 months of an arm injury and surgery a month ago. So I know well the one-armed garden routine. If you check out my post "Lessons Learned by a Gimpy Gardner" you will see that one lesson I learned is that it is okay to ask for help. Sometimes you've just got to do it. And then you've got to bite your tongue when it is not done "to the T" as you would have done it. Your garden will be there -- take care of yourself and heal. You don't want to overuse your good arm and end up not being able to do anything. I do feel for you!!! Best wishes for a speedy recovery!!

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Thanks for leaving any comments, they are always welcomed. Sorry I had to add word verification as spam was becoming a huge problem. Greggo,