Is like a ball and chain. Sing it with me,
Trying to love two women is like a ball and chain. Sometimes the pleasure ain’t worth the strain….
Lord, ain’t that the truth. What we’ve got right now is two houses, and sometimes the reason doesn’t seem to justify the strain of two old people trying to take care of two places.
Dad died. Mom died. Dave and I are getting older by the day. We knew we could not maintain The Compound with its possibility of eight bedrooms, three kitchens, or maybe two distinct households. Or perhaps three, and at one time, four, but here we are….
We were so close to closing on The Compound on the ravine. A young family wanted the property to afford space for an au pair and extended family for visits that sometimes last months. They were enamored with the grounds: the wildflower gardens where butterflies, bees, and birds feasted; the twenty-five varieties of daylilies and iris; the shade gardens of violets, trillium, and ginger; the formal foundation plantings of small, round nandina, Happy Returns lilies, and varieties of buttercups and tulips; the shade mounds of ferns and hostas. They made sure I would not destroy the charm of all these flowers.
It all seemed perfect until almost the last minute. There was a problem with financing that could not be overcome.
So now, in upper-90-degree highs, we are mowing, weeding, trimming, and cleaning all these beds and meadows. It’s so hot. We begin at 7:00 A.M. or so and work until it’s just too hot to do much more. This morning, we worked longer than we should have. Our friend who was helping us almost passed out. Dave was headed toward heat stroke. From now on, our friend will work inside. The house needs a good cleaning.
Trying to love two women, you can’t please yourself.
At best it’s only half good, you just can’t stock two shelves.
Yeah, well, one can try. We took inventory today of our cleaning products. Our cleaner prefers a special kind of mop. We got it. We also have every cleaning product known to man, much more than our cleaner can use. We’ll share them after the whole Compound is sparkling.
Trying to love two women Is tearing me apart. One has my money, the other has my heart.
My goal right now is to take pieces of my favorite plants to the new house. New, huh, we’ve been at the new place for almost ten months. The shade gardens here sometimes feel neglected. August is not the best time to plant, but it’s hard to kill iris or daylilies.
We knew selling the Compound would mean finding an extremely unique family to make that big old rambling place their own. We also knew we’d have to maintain it until those people came our way. Our realtor continues to work it daily.
Several people pray over it every day. God love them.
You know, I knew a man once who tried to love two women. It didn’t work for him. (Actually, my numbers could be wrong. There may have been more than two, but who’s counting?) I know I’m glad Dave and I only have two houses.
Trying to love two women Is like a ball and chain, Trying to love two women is like a ball and chain,
Sometimes the pleasure ain’t worth the pain. It’s a long, hard grind, and it tires your mind.
On the Ravine 