I Thought She Was My Friend

Today I spent most of my day sewing. I was very excited about a new project I had decided to start. I found what quilters call "jelly rolls". they are strips of fabric, corrniated and cut accuratly so its a much better chance of the quilt turning out well. When I got my first jelly roll home, and unrolled it, I was so happy with it, I ran back and got another one just like it added some white fabric for the background and my afternoon was set. I was busy in my sewing room several hours which I havent done since my back surgery four years ago. When I stood up, boy did I feel the stiffness, "I need to take more breaks", I told myself. Thats how I know I am into my project, when time goes by and I don't feel the pain of leaning over my sewing machine. I feel it tonight though.

We were getting ready for dinner and I looked out my kitchen window and saw Sally, my next door neighbor. I haven't talked to her in so long because of conflicting sechdules, so I decided to go outside and say hello. I grabbed my sweater from the chair and put on my flip- flops, stumbled down the three steps to my yard and went across the driveway to her yard and said, "Hi, Sal, long time." She said hello, commented on how often she is out there picking up dog poop, and ask how my husband was feeling. My husband is living in a lot of pain because he is waiting on a hip replacement surgery. She is a nurse, so I know she knows what I am talking about. She should also understand the constant bone on bone pain he is in. On a scale of 1-10 of 1 being no pain at all and 10 being the worse in your life, he lives around a 7 with it going up to 8-9 all night long. He doesn't sleep well and is in a terriable mood most of the time.

Sally started talking to me in the usuall way, asking me leading questions, as I look back, I can see that now. How much longer till his surgery? How long is that trailer gonna be sitting there? I said till we are finished with our move. We just moved here from another state and some of our stuff is still at the other house. What about that old camper and truck? And, What about THAT car, pointing to a 1997 thunderbird. I said, "he is NEVER gonna sell the t-bird". I think that is when she got mad. outside our garage is a pile of broken tiles from a job he just finished in our bathroom. There are some lawn chairs. There is some wood he wants to make planter boxes from, some recycles. potted plants, and a huge ditch that was dug along the side of our house a couple months ago for some dranage pipes before his hip went out. there is no kids in this neighborhood. No one ever comes to our house, only us. this hole in the ground is not a hazzard or anything, if you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't see it. I admitt our back yard is a mess, and my husband needs to clean it up. He can't even walk to the mail box right now. We do not have the money to hire anyone to help us and if we did have extra money, it would go for his transportation to and from the dr. not for someone to haul stuff from our door to the garage. I cannot lift over 5 pounds because I had my spine fused 4 years ago. I have had a piece of cadaver placed inside my back with screws and other hardware. I am not about to mess up my surgery and have to go through that again.

So, Sally informed me that all the neighbors have talked to her, because its known she talkes to me. they are taking up a patition to get us to clean up our yard. I have been upset all afternoon and evening. What are we gonna do?