Perpetual Ruminations

Not Much, Just Some This-n-That

It's been a while since I've written, so it must be about time to blite something.

Not much new to write about, we are still looking and planning for some more amper outings, but with the parks all so full it's been a bit depressing. Of course, if my wife had some vacation time left it would be easier, but since she doesn't, we only have the weekends to camp; like everyone else's it seems.

We are hoping that with autumn's arrival and schools starting back up, openings will develop at a campground close to home. This would provide us with a nice weekend campout and if we stayed over, she could commute to and from work from the campsite.

We are still adjusting to not having any children in the home (we had adopted two teenage grandchildren) since they both decided they didn't like it here any longer. The oldest turned 18 and was planning on a college close by so she could live at home, but after visiting with her estranged mother, who gave up custody many years ago, she has had a change in her thinking and attitude towards us.

The younger also had contact with "mom" through her older sister, she also ran away and is now removed from the home. With a past history of abuse and neglect, neither of them was supposed to have contact, but at 18 the older child could do what she wanted. Unfortunately, she also made sure "mom" could meet up with the younger teen at their school, and also informed certain people where we live, so there is no chance of the younger child returning; with all the problems and allegations that were made, we had already decided that it was in our and her best interest if she didn't return.

I've been suffering from some back pain, an old injury, after removing some shrubs from the front of the house. I kind of overdid things and suffered for it for a few days, but it's starting to feel better and I suspect that I'll be as good as new I was before the shrub incident by tomorrow or Sunday.

Shrubs? Yes, they were at one time, the evergreen, low-growing bushes you often see in front of a house. But these were a tangled mess of dead branches and overgrowth, so they needed to be cut back. But, most of the branches were a couple of inches in diameter, so we decided to cut them back to ground level. One we di leave a bit of a stump on to see if new shoots will grow from the root system, but the other was rotting from the inside out so it had to be removed completely. The base of this "shrub was at least eight inches in diameter! I did get most of it out but had to use a grub-axe to chop out the main roots to remove the stump; no wonder my back flared up.

That's it for now; see you all later, take care, and stay safe!