Still Doing Manly Deeds

Sometimes I feel so freaking old. My back hurts, my sciatica hurts, my fleshless right foreleg hurts. Damn. Can't walk for not breathing.
    And then I defy it all. Today that meant hiring one of Madeleina's friends, strapping young Patrick and asking him to help me finish the little fence around the back porch. I'd done three sections, about 16 feet, but the last section was 10 feet long and tough to keep square while I was holding the 90 pound weight and simultaneously measuring, hammering, leveling and so forth. So I offered $20 an hour for 3-4 hours and he showed up and within 45 minutes we were in sync. Fence section got done, then we moved onto the bigger yard fence and after an hour that was repaired. Then we moved on to painting the fence we built--plus the part I built alone--and then, while I washed the brushes, he swept and I cooked him a burger for lunch.
    Then I paid him $70 for 3 1/2 hours.
     He got more than that, of course. He learned how to handle a hammer from someone who hits nails straight and hard and buries them in three, four shots. He learned how to level a section of fence and clean a work area. He learned how to fix a larger fence. And I got a lot too: I was stalling on the last piece of fence because it was too ungainly to work with alone. So I got my work done. He got paid. Well.
     I think everybody's happy and a bunch of manly work got done around here. That's something.