I have been battling nausea all day today, so of course I worked in the yard a bit.

When I purchased stepping stones to lead from the sidewalk by the side of the house to the decks in the backyard, my step-mother suggested that I set them into the ground so that I could mow over them. However, three years later, all of them have sunk too far into the ground and are nearly covered by grass. I spent two hours digging up nine of them, (sadly) tearing out the overgrown grass (wishing it would have grown elsewhere in those bare spots of mine), putting sand down in the "hole," and resetting the stones.

I am only half way done, but I was shaking so much after the ninth one I thought it prudent to cease my labors for the day.

My water spigot is leaking and needs repair. Both the sprinkler and the hand sprayer do not stop the leaking water from spilling out even when the water is turned off. I asked my step-mother at dinner last night if I needed to call a plumber. She seemed quite confident I could repair the problem myself by either replacing a gasket (huh?) or the spigot itself (yeah, right!).

As I labored over the stepping stones, I couldn't help but watch the dripping water, thinking how my normally infinitesimal water bill that was growing drop by drop. In the very recesses of my mind, I remembered an old metal sprayer that I found while working in the yard one day. It is one of those short, cylindrical types that you twist open and shut. I rooted around the bottom of my shed until I found it. After breaking of the dried soil still clinging to the rather ancient device, I put it on the hose, but the leaking did not abate. After thinking that the rubber ring inside might be hardened from age, I took off the sprayer and poked at the orange ring. A piece broke off immediately. Having a package of those rubber rings in my took kit, I used a screw driver to pry out the rest of it and replaced it with a soft, new green one. Alas, my repair was effected. With the sprayer twisted closed, the water leak was resolved.

I was quite grateful that I would, at least for the time being, not have to learn about spigot repairs and returned, with renewed vigor, to my stepping stone project.

Aren't work-arounds great?