Work, a happy word, with son, in LA, the "valley"

i was lucky enough in my younger years
thirties and forties and some of fifties
to mainly do what i call
"real work"

I moved my body and brain
and a hammer or saw
or wheelbarrow,
I build decks, put in French doors,
remodelled, built small outbuildings,
put in amazing gardens that included bizarrely wonderful fences,
combines fruit and vegetable and flower beauty
and to cap it off created the three acre core
of what has become the five acre
public garden, the Sonoma Garden Park

whoopee for me?

who knows,
and then I learned this and that
about how to be relaxed and happy in any body
and yesterday I was out with my son, who is 36,
and we were digging the holes and mixing the cement
for what's going to be on Thursday an amazing
and shade producing and plant holding and
space defining trellis arrangement

and I was dead tired after
and so was he
and we ate a lot
and conked out easy
and

life is good

( this is in LA, the valley, where it gets
hot in the nineties in the day,
sort of like Austin,
but no humidity and no bugs,
and unlike Austin
gets to a cool low seventies high sixties
at night,
and as we worked late yesterday,
pulling out cords and lights to work by,
no mosquitoes,
and we finished,
tired,
body tired,
and this was something we co designed,

and building something real
with a grown child is
a great
gift to one's life

i hope it happens  for you


,,,,
Chris)