What not to do on a 90+ degree day

It wasn't even 3:00 when I gave up for the day. Over the long weekend, I had a handful of projects I wanted to complete. Yesterday, I removed carpeting from the bedrooms and pulled out the ceiling tiles, T-grid, and wallpaper from the basement. By the end of the long weekend, I also wanted to get all of the landscaping pulled out and the carpeting pulled up in the basement. Since today I had more time, I figured it would be perfect to tackle the bigger task: the landscaping.

This was against my better judgement as it was predicted that the temperature was going to reach record-breaking heights. C'mon, it's Chicago, how hot can it get in May? Needless to say, I underestimated Tom Skilling's warnings.

I started lopping off parts of the front yew at around 9:00. At about 10:00 I started to reconsider but figuring I would look like a major wimp to the rest of the community if I quit so I persisted. At about 2:00, after several breaks for water, I was forced to stop. On a particularly tough branch, I broke the loppers, smacking my left-hand knuckles into the handles. It did not feel so great. I spent the next hour or so helping the fallen branches migrate to a pile in our back yard.

It is about 4 hours later. I have showered and relaxed a bit and now my whole body is in pain. I worked part of my way through college as a landscaper. Today I had a harsh reminder that my body is not in the shape it was during college. The worse part of today is that I still need to go back tomorrow and finish the job. The house looks pretty crazy. I think I need to invest in a chain saw or something.