Playing Badminton- Poorly.

That’s my fault. I’ve gotten out of shape and I don’t wish to blow out a knee chasing the birdie all about the end of my driveway. Near perfect weather for it this morning. Hardly any breeze, sunshine, and warm but not sweltering hot. We’ve taken a shine to Badminton over the winter, playing it for brief stints in the hall or living room. It’s a stunted game when we play indoors. Low ceilings, narrow halls, pendant lights. It’s a whole thing. But now! Now we can play outdoors. So far we can comfortably manage between 4 & 7 returns in our rallies. We have no net, and keep no score. Just trying to get to a point where we can just pass the birdie back and forth, before we worry about things like nets, court sizing, and the ultimate conditions needed for competitive play. Hell we are also trying to get out basketball dribbling down pat, before I invest in a hoop, or whole rig for the front driveway. On occasion we’ve even spent some time bumping and volleying in preparation of playing volleyball come grade four (4). Trying to stay active without over doing it. We played a couple games of road hockey in January when we had oddly hot weather for two weeks, and again in early March, prior to getting the ‘Vid.

I think going on a bike ride will be the next big thing. I should get a wider & softer seat for myself, because… ouch. I’m also 10lbs shy of the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life, and all that extra weight on one tiny seat will leave me walking funny for a day or two. Too much pressure over such a limited amount of area. A fuller seat would alleviate some of that, or so I believe.

The mosquitoes and black flies have been unpleasant so far this spring. I can only imagine how bad it is at the cottage. My sibling in Ottawa has been swarmed by them in Ottawa, so cottage country must be horrendous right now. Yuck.

I finished off our back hedge row yesterday, and gave myself all new scratches on my arms that sting and throb. Cedar and me don’t get a long. Not as bad as a Juniper bush, but enough that I look as though I attempted to hug a badger. Strike that off the honey do list. Now I need to find a way to dispose of three fairly large piles of brush consisting of Maple limbs, Lilac limbs, and the top 6-8ft of my entire Cedar hedge row. It still stands 10ft tall, so it’s only noticeable if you knew how much taller it was to begin with. I have let it grow untouched for 8 years. And this winter’s heavy snow & ice storms caused them all to nearly bend in half. Hopefully this way, now they will thicken up along the trunk and not be so susceptible to bending during inclement weather. I need a trailer to get rid of these three enormous piles. Not like farm enormous,  but suburb enormous –  piles. Couple hundred pounds of dead and dying wood, brush and leaves. Too much for a mini van to lug around, unless I took five or six trips, and even then, might need a few more after that. I still need to clear out over the top of the back of our shed, but I hurt my biceps using the loppers, and didn’t feel like doing more damage to my left arm. Both shoulders are sore today anyway. So glad I called it off when I did.

Yesterday was a very long and productive day. Only one more month with the kids & wife out of the house until summer starts, and then things will get really crazy. Ciao Bella!