You don't notice the years...

The latest photo of my grand daughter. She'll grow up fast enough.

Today has been my day off. We are trying to get a bit of order in the chaos of our house and section. We have an acre of ground, a hectic lifestyle and one day off a week is not much time to keep things in order.
Memories
A carton of old stuff from one of my children fell down out in the workshop and I sorted that out. It brought back memories. There was geometry equipment from his tech drawing days at school. There were some fishing fly tying bits and pieces when he tried that for a while. A couple of old toys, some tramping bits and other items that brought back memories of the journey he had been on. We pulled our handicapped foster daughter's bedroom to pieces. Her water bed is being moved tomorrow so we had to siphon the water out of it. Other items were moved from the room. She suffers from severe handicaps and there were a number of things we gathered together over the years in attempts to get her to communicate. Lots of memories, some of them of hard and sad times as dreams we had of change never eventuated. We had to try though, to endeavour to give her the best sort of life she could have. She was home yesterday and we both commented on how intentional and happy she seemed to be.
Breakages
This afternoon I began to cut the hedges. We have quite a length of big hedge in the front and down the side of our section. I got the electric hedge cutters out and the electric cords. One is wound up on a reel and as I unwound it the reel broke. Disappointment and frustration. I got everything going and completed the front hedge. I then began the bigger side hedge. I hate this job. You get bits of hedge and dust in your eyes. You stretch every part of your body while balancing on a saw stool to reach where you have to reach. Worse was to come. Quite suddenly the cutter would jam and scream when it hit any thick piece of hedge. Something was wrong, it usually cuts anything reliably and well. In frustration I took it into the workshop and pulled it apart. One gear cog was totally stripped, worn out. It would never work properly again. I had to revert to hand hedge shears. As my shoulders began to ache my mind went to an elderly man I knew who only ever used them. He had extensive hedges around his house and they were always trimmed beautifully. They were a work of art. The rain started and saved me from the long tiring task. I complained to my wife about the cutters and the cord reel. "They are not that old?" I complained, "We got them not long after we moved in here." "That was well over twenty years ago," she informed me, "we can't really complain."  Good grief! Where did those years go? The reel was second hand when I bought it. The hedge cutters have done a lot  of work in that time. It is funny how the years fly by and you do not really notice them. After the cold rain started I went into the workshop and patched up the reel. Maybe I'll get another twenty years out of it. I'll be 84 then if I'm still around. It sounds a long way off but time has a way of speeding by.