Mowing the lawn.

I mowed the lawn yesterday. If you are living with any kind of chronic illness, you’ll understand how massive the statement is.

Yes, it took me pretty much all day. Yes, I was exhausted at the end of it. And yes, I only have a teeny tiny bit of lawn.

Why did I do it? The last two guys I had organised to come and mow the lawn didn’t show up, and I was getting a bit tired of paying $60 for their 10 minutes of work – but the lawn does need to be mowed. So I popped to Bunnings on Saturday and bought myself a cheap electric lawn mower.

How did I do it? Pacing. And I had to wear a mask to protect myself from the dust, and take an antihistamine to avoid any triggers. But mostly, I got there by pacing.

I bloody hate pacing. The general idea is you decide how long you’re going to do something, and then rest. The trick is to stop whatever you’re doing and start resting before th fatigue or pain or whatever inhibits your activity kicks in. Which is why I hate it – stopping while you still feel good (more realistically, still feel ok) has always felt to me like giving in and letting your life be dictated by your condition. But, I know that if I work for 10 minutes and rest for 20 (or however long I need) that I’ll be able to get hours of work done, as opposed to working flat out for half an hour and then being stuffed for the rest of the day.

It took me the rest of the day to construct the mower. Not that it needed a lot of construction, I was just struggling with one part which in the end I decided not to do (the cable was on the wrong side of the bar and I’ve left it there… not anything that affects how it runs). And I wasn’t feeling great – so I was constructing for just 5 minutes before breaking for about 40 minutes.

I got up the next morning and stared at the yard for a while… and then decided not to waste any energy on cleaning up Bryn’s poo or the leaves that plague my backyard (my house backs on to a park). I decided on a pacing schedule: 10 minutes on, 15 minutes off.

I almost got there. I got three quarters of the lawn done before the nausea kicked in, so I got most of it done in under 90 minutes! The last little bit took me four hours: 5 minutes of work, rest of the hour resting. But I don’t care, because I got it done.

Well I didn’t do the edges and it’s pretty rough, but it’s not a forrest!!

Bonus: I only stepped in dog poo once.

Because it was very long I mowed it at the highest level on the machine, which means I’ll need the do it again soon. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to smash it out in under two hours next time.