The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history.
Czeslaw Milosz
I am looking forward to the time that the sun rises further and further to the north. Before that happens extreme cold and snow coming.
There are no words to describe the pains I now feel after that. I repaired my chainsaw, then went out to cut wood. The files I ordered were the wrong ones. I couldn’t sharpen the chain. I had a new one but I wanted to wait till later in the season to put that on. So I cut until I couldn’t anymore.
Before I did all this I tried to start the generator. No, go. The alternative was to haul the snowblower out, haul the big generator out, get that started then split wood with the machine. I have been hand splitting wood most of my life but started to use the electric splitter when my back and shoulder joints gave out. Since then my elbows, fingers and all the muscles in between have also given out.
I tried to find my splitting maul it was somewhere safe, I grabbed the old maul that I have been using to chip ice away from the garage door. I hit concrete many times with that in the last few weeks.
I couldn’t sharpen that because that also needed the generator. Off I went after grabbing the wheelbarrow to the woodpile. My normal chopping block was 50 feet away in deep snow. I decided to use a small block I fished out of the remaining logs. The first few swings accomplished nothing more than getting stuck in the log. Soon I would get back in the riff and was swinging.
This time I could feel every impact. Within an hour I had all the wood done, I had to finish chopping on my knees. I could not stand anymore.
I loaded the wheelbarrow and I heard the voice of reason, “Stop loading the wheelbarrow the driveway is full of ice don’t try to take too big of a load”
Of course, the voice of stupid said with pride. ” You can handle it, load it to the nuts” So I did and shuffled slowly up the icy driveway and walkway and got to the back door.
I looked at the load and asked God for the strength and skill to get that load up the ramp and inside. Looking back now I could have worded that better. I got halfway up the ramp and stalled out, then I felt the load tipping slowly, bit by bit, and down it went.
I had to separate the load into two loads to get it inside. That meant reloading and unloading twice, With that job done I went to get my coveralls and boots off, An almost impossible task because they were soaked in sweat. 
63 not 33
icy
just a little further
nope 800 pounds is too much
Here’s to Eddy who is rocking in Heaven or maybe the other place 😀
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