Whatever...

Also known as "don't bug me when I am working."

Most of my work around the place MUST be done early morning. Before 11am. Figuring that most of my outdoor stuff takes a couple of hours, that means out as soon as I am up and dressed. Sometimes "dressed" around the property is a bit different than dressed for town, if'n you know what I mean.

I put off power equipment until after nine as a courtesy for "Jim." However, lately as soon as I start up the mower, weed whacker, chainsaw, etc, he makes his way over. I think I may revise my time for 8am. Heck, maybe 6am. The problem lies in that he plunks his-self down and wants to chat. I have a pretty small windown of time that I can do what needs to be done. I don't do well in the heat. In fact, I do very poorly in the heat. I get grumpy. I get terse. I sometimes get downright mean. So when I was mowing and he made his way over I first tried to "talk" without turning off the machine. I have a 95% hearing loss in the left ear and a small loss in the right...I want to say around 10%, but I don't remember for sure. My parents reared me to be polite. Yelling over a lawnmower is probably not polite. So, I think, what would Dad do? I let up on the handle that keeps the mower going. BUT, I give him less than five minutes. When the whining got too much I stated a fact: "I need to get back to mowing before the heat comes in." One of the things I have learned as of late is that we all have an agenda. Mine was to get the chores wrapped up. Well, and the obvious (to y'all) send the neighbor back to his house. A quick comment as I grabbed the starter chord: "How's the pool coming" made me realize that, not unlike a child, he wanted to swim. I can't do it. I just can't. I said something about the water still be slightly "off" (which it is) and he left. I don't mind swimming, nor do the dogs, if the water isn't balanced perfectly, but I don't want the responsibility of others. More to the point, I cannot afford to risk MY health if someone drags something into the pool and my chlorine levels are not high enough to kill it. Knowwhadimean? Today my daughter and grand daughter are coming over. We are checking out a movie at the new theatre in town and then will come home and swim. Suddenly it will not be a quiet swim. There will be laughter, splashing and fun. He will know that the pool is "open." I will need to just nip this in the bud, but I am not sure how to go about doing it without hurting feelings. Do I care? sigh. Yes. OK, Dad, get me out of this one.

G2