A MOOT POINT NOW

I was just flipping through my journal, to make sure I hadn't skipped anything important that I meant to tell you. I did find one thing, but now it's more or less a moot point, as I will explain at the end. Here goes:

"I'm so excited that John seems to be developing an interest in stonework. We live on the side of a solid limestone hill, and our property is just covered with big chunks of the stuff. Plus, when we dismantled our pond in Houston, we ended up with a pile of brown algae rock, so we brought that along too. For four years now I've been looking out the windows here, thinking 'What a crying shame!' People around the state are paying a fortune for stone like this, and we've got it just sitting here, going to waste.

You'd think with my background in landscaping, I'd feel compelled to do something with it myself, but I just don't have the vision for it - probably because it doesn't involve color. John has always been more of the big picture person, who gets us started by dividing up the space and doing the hardscaping, then I get inspired to come along and fill up those spaces with color and texture. Not only do I lack the vision, I'm also lacking in strength - those boogers weigh a ton! Plus, the piles that have been sitting undisturbed for years would seem to be the perfect hiding places for snakes and scorpions. So, though I deplore the waste, I leave them alone.

Imagine my surprise then, when I came out one morning, after John had been here for just a short weekend, and realized that when I wasn't even paying attention, he had cleared all the grass and weeds out of the area at the top of our staircase, leaving only three majestic yuccas, surrounded them with a stone border, and created the perfect spot for me to plant some of those sedums and sculptural desert plants that I've been longing to play with. After another of his visits I realized that the pile of debris, left in front of our house by the builders, was gradually being transformed into a stone edging, and the brown algae rock had been formed into a kidney-shaped bed around some cypress trees. I don't know when or how he did any of this, but I am so thrilled and grateful, for at last I have the inspiration and motivation I was lacking, and I'm finally feeling the urge to design and plant!"

Why is all this a moot point now? Well, when my husband had his most recent stress test, they found something fishy in the area where his two stents were placed five or six years ago. He's having a heart catheterization next week, so they can figure out what's what. I just pray that all this stonework isn't what caused the problem. A friend, who has heart problems herself, and who has done a lot of research on the subject, just told me that heavy lifting is a big no-no for people with heart issues, especially when, like dear hubby, they get no exercise on a regular basis, and just do it in fits and starts. So, between my boogered up neck, and his heart, I guess we're gonna have to pay someone from now on, whenever we need heavy lifting done. Bummer.

On the bright side though, at least Little Helper Dude put a LOT of that stone to good use, building his retaining wall!