Bring out your dead

Thursday, Wonder Girl was not feeling well. Well enough to go work at the school, barely. Miserable little rug rats probably gave her the cold in the first place. Might as well give it back!

Friday, as I worked from home, wonder girl tried to do a few things, but lost power and ended up sleeping through the afternoon.

Now if any of you know Wonder Girl, then you know that nothing slows her down, nothing. So if she sleeps the afternoon, she is sick.

Saturday dawns with blue skies and cool breezes. Time to start the end of the project. For the last month, we have bought several piles of this tumbled blue-grey flagstones. The idea is to pave the concrete pad that the spa sits on. Just the exposed part around the spa. We have random shapes chosen, to go around the straights and curves. WG and I have spent the last month fitting the flagstones, chipping, refitting. It’s like doing a random jigsaw puzzle.
Once the stones were dry fitted, we took sidewalk chalk and numbered the stones. For each row we used a different color. Digital camera pictures get printed and now we have guides to the puzzle.
So we are set to pull off the stones, lay down a bed of mortar and away we go!

WG is a perky zombie. We know she can’t last too long, but she will work as long as she can.
Lay some mortar, lay some stone, drink some coffee, trim a stone just a little. Slow work on your knees. Knee pads help, but joints start to complain around noon. Wonder Girl is starting to flag.
More mortar, more cutting and trimming. Clouds of stone dust fly up as the power saw cuts into the stone.
As you set the stones, thick mortar between the stones does subtle changes. The fit and form alters. By the time I am four feet along, the puzzle has altered. You adapt, to cut the stone a little, you move on.
WG keeps up. As I need stones, she brings the ones I need. As I move along, she pulls off the next set, keeping them in order; then feeds them back. A pause to blow her nose, bring me a cup of coffee, pour one for herself. We move along.

And the day ends and we are half way around the spa. The big half. A little meal, we collapse on the couch. WG winds down and falls asleep. I am nor far behind her.

Easter Sunday, a fast breakfast. And back on my aching knees. Ibuprofen only does so much. WG is tired, she did way too much the day before.
Today we work on the back half, between the spa and the fence. Room for only one, which is just as well, WG will never get better if she doesn’t rest.
Less puzzle, I can work faster. By noon, the back half is done.
Lunch, and now I start to fill the spaces between yesterdays stones. WG has rested more and now helps with the smoothing.
As the sky darkens, we try to speed things up. But joints complain, muscles get stiff.
The wind rises, clouds thicken, the sun is long gone.
The first fat drops begin to splash and we have not even finished one side. But the mortar is mixed and we have to press on.
Hats and rain gear on, we throw down the mortar, smooth, wipe. Water drips off the spa, adding more water to the mortar. Feet and legs getting soaked, water drips off the face.
The last of the mortar is used up, we’ll finish next weekend.
Clean up the tools, clean up us, abandon trying to wipe the excess mortar off the stones.

Showers, warm sweats, hot soup and French bread. Then we collapse on the couch.

The dead can rest.
Achy from the cold, overused muscles and joints, the weekend is done.