Yesterday, besides the acupuncture session, the graduation party for my next-door neighbor’s kid, and the dinner with an old co-worker, I also spent time in the basement with a soldering iron and a kit. But what was I making in the dungeon (or as my mom calls it, jigoku)? A USB-to-Morse-code adapter! Talk about geek.

So I have to admit that my back hurts worse now that I’ve been to the acupuncturist. This is not unexpected, but I also spent most of the day pruning the rhododendrons or as my gardener dad likes to call it, “chop-chop.” He did come out and tell me, “I still own this house, you know! I’m embarrassed to live in a house with such awful looking gardening!” Yeah, well, he’s been saying for fifteen years that he’ll get around to trimming the bushes and now that he’s 90 we’re just ignoring him and doing the maintenance ourselves.

Anyway, I ran the wood chipper again with less detrimental effect to my body (i.e. fewer major injuries) but my back hurt like hell. And the hay fever certainly didn’t help any. I should take some pictures of my butchery to document my work and to see if others think it’s as bad as my dad thinks. But I always forget to take the before pictures and I only think about doing things after it’s too dark anyway.