Finally
Posted By Russ Emerson on October 1, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Now that October is here, I think we can say that summer is well and truly over — de facto as well as de jure. Personally, this has been the worst summer I can remember — and if it had gone on any longer, I’m not sure I’d have survived.
Worse than 2007? When my health was declining precipitously? Well, perhaps. In 2007, there was hope of a solution, and I was looking forward to improvement. This summer, though, I’ve been having more problems with my legs, and I’m losing control of my feet. I’ve been to the ER once, seen I don’t know how many doctors, been X-rayed, ultrasounded, poked, prodded and tazed, all to no effect, other than the sure empirical knowledge that the nerve response in my legs has degraded. I have more tests coming up in the next few weeks.
Maybe something will point to a cause and a treatment, but I’m having a hard time remaining optimistic.
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself shopping around for a walker, and for hand controls for my pickup. Not just looking around online, but seriously investigating.
I’m 48 years old.
I’ve tried to remain upbeat about all this. I have accepted the new status quo, and can function pretty well — well enough to handle living on my own. The renewed decline, however, is beginning to wear on my morale.
On the “plus” side for this summer, my lawn died early, so the neighborhood lad I hire to water the lawn has not had a lot to do. OK, that’s not much of a plus.
On the other hand, when I have the lawn aerated and reseeded next week it will give me the opportunity to perhaps replace the fescue grass with something more likely to survive a North Carolina summer.
Oh, who am I kidding…? I’ll just have fescue put down. Again. So I can kvetch about it dying again next summer. At least that’d be something tangible for me to complain about.
I love you, Russ. I am so sorry for your suffering. I just wish I could make it go away. But I can only pray that somehow this painful, disappointing, frustrating, discouraging situation will bring you closer to God. I admire your stiff upper lip, big brother, because you know I’d be whining 24/7. Thank you for still being a good son to your mother, and funny and supportive brother to me, and a loving and generous uncle to Faith….all the while enduring something no one should have to. I love you. *hug*
Let’s get to the serious subject of this post: turf grass. If you have a “neighborhood lad” cutting it for you, and you have a sprinkler, your yard is an oyster, and the lawn your pearl….
I would plant bentgrass – perfect time of year to seed right now! Have someone come in with a SODCUTTER, to remove the old sod. Have them go as ddep as they can to remove as much of the old root zone as possible. Have a few yards of sand (enough to cover the lawn area in about 4 inches of sand)delivered and dropped right on the front yard. Get a worker to spread the sand over the lawn area and then roto-till (is that a word?) the sand into the top couple of inches (not more) of the underlying topsoil. Spread some fertilizer over the surface. Have the area smoothed out (no big chunks or organic matter) and spread about 1 to 1 1/2 pound of seed over every 1000 sq feet of lawn. Lightly rake the seed into the surface. Water, keeping moist the first 10 days. Wait,… and be the envy of the neighborhood.
Seed available online: recommend Penncross bent variety or SR 1020, or a blend.
You won’t have the problems with bent grass that golf courses have if you maintain the grass at a height of 3/4 inch to 1 inch (which is LOW for an ordinary lawn, but MUCH longer than golf course turf)
You will, however, have the most cool lawn in your ‘hood.