The patio/the walking
Jun. 25th, 2017 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kate_schaeferIn the spring of 2015, Glenn and I decided to build a patio in our backyard. First, we ripped out all the grass and argued about layout and materials. Next, we went to Ohio for a week to visit my aged parents. After that, we leveled the space where we intended to put the patio – no, we didn't. What we actually did then was rebuild the retaining wall closest to the house, dig a great whacking trench for drainage, replace the drain Glenn had put in place more than 20 years ago when we sealed the basement wall, fill all that in, and then level the space where we intended to put the patio. Then we went to Alaska for a week to visit Glenn's aged father. After that we built another retaining wall, and another little retaining wall, and another little retaining wall, and then we laid the pavers for the patio, and then we laid our old bricks into a ramp to the patio.
When I say "we" in this project, what I actually mean is that Glenn did most of the execution and I did most of the fetching and carrying of tools and materials. This subsidiary role is more physical than you might think, if you're just thinking about the tools. We used a couple tons of pavers and wall blocks, and I moved all of them at least once, some of them two or three times. Glenn moved them even more than I did, because he put most of them into place, and he moved most of the dirt. There was a lot of dirt to move, so much that we got a box from the Dirt Exchange and filled it with dirt for them to take away. We still have a tiny dirt corral at the side of the house with several-many wheelbarrow loads worth of dirt in it.
I moved those wall blocks and pavers a wheelbarrow load at a time, with each load weighing around 100 pounds. I stacked them into staging walls in the backyard, then moved them a few at a time over to where Glenn was putting them into place.
At the end of the process, Glenn placed the very last brick into the ramp from the lower part of the yard to the new patio about an hour before the first guests arrived at the party we had committed to host for Clarion West. It was a fabulous party, and the new space worked very well. We threw another party a few weeks later, and that was also lots of fun. The patio was – is – big enough for the two of us to do tai chi on it, side by side.
Our backs kinda ached after all that work, but we got massages and did exercises and figured things would get better. Glenn's back did get better.
Mine didn't. It got worse, to the point that I had to hold on to the wall to be able to walk when I first got up. I'd improve during the day, but any time I sat for more than a few minutes, my back would be non-functional when I stood up again.
It all gets too-long-don't-read from there. The short version is that for most of a year, I couldn't walk more than half a mile without having to stop and rest, but only for a few minutes so that the back would get some benefit from the rest rather than getting worse. I had lots of physical therapy. I did lots of careful exercises. I worked on walking a little farther, a little faster, a little more confidently.
I got better. By May of 2016, I could walk a mile without needing to stop and rest. By September, I could walk 2 or 3 miles with relative ease. Now, two years after the injury, I can and do walk between 4 and 6 miles every day, in two or three mile chunks. I'm aiming to increase that to 5 to 7 miles a day, in three or four mile chunks, and then to 10 miles every other day, in five mile chunks.
And then I'm going to walk Hadrian's Wall.
When I say "we" in this project, what I actually mean is that Glenn did most of the execution and I did most of the fetching and carrying of tools and materials. This subsidiary role is more physical than you might think, if you're just thinking about the tools. We used a couple tons of pavers and wall blocks, and I moved all of them at least once, some of them two or three times. Glenn moved them even more than I did, because he put most of them into place, and he moved most of the dirt. There was a lot of dirt to move, so much that we got a box from the Dirt Exchange and filled it with dirt for them to take away. We still have a tiny dirt corral at the side of the house with several-many wheelbarrow loads worth of dirt in it.
I moved those wall blocks and pavers a wheelbarrow load at a time, with each load weighing around 100 pounds. I stacked them into staging walls in the backyard, then moved them a few at a time over to where Glenn was putting them into place.
At the end of the process, Glenn placed the very last brick into the ramp from the lower part of the yard to the new patio about an hour before the first guests arrived at the party we had committed to host for Clarion West. It was a fabulous party, and the new space worked very well. We threw another party a few weeks later, and that was also lots of fun. The patio was – is – big enough for the two of us to do tai chi on it, side by side.
Our backs kinda ached after all that work, but we got massages and did exercises and figured things would get better. Glenn's back did get better.
Mine didn't. It got worse, to the point that I had to hold on to the wall to be able to walk when I first got up. I'd improve during the day, but any time I sat for more than a few minutes, my back would be non-functional when I stood up again.
It all gets too-long-don't-read from there. The short version is that for most of a year, I couldn't walk more than half a mile without having to stop and rest, but only for a few minutes so that the back would get some benefit from the rest rather than getting worse. I had lots of physical therapy. I did lots of careful exercises. I worked on walking a little farther, a little faster, a little more confidently.
I got better. By May of 2016, I could walk a mile without needing to stop and rest. By September, I could walk 2 or 3 miles with relative ease. Now, two years after the injury, I can and do walk between 4 and 6 miles every day, in two or three mile chunks. I'm aiming to increase that to 5 to 7 miles a day, in three or four mile chunks, and then to 10 miles every other day, in five mile chunks.
And then I'm going to walk Hadrian's Wall.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-26 10:50 pm (UTC)