Just Hanging Off the Grape Arbor

Yeah…don’t mind me…

It was just another day in my so-called sane life.  Actually it was last week.

It started out easy enough.  Coffee, breakfast, Gabi getting ready for school, Tim left the house to walk to school…and then he came back around the other side of the house to the deck door.

Needless to say this NEVER happens, so I looked at him rather strangely, opened the door and he said “You need to come look at the grapes!  They’re ripe and beautiful – hanging down through the arbor!”  We’ve had the grapevines for years (there’s even a sweet story of a gift Tim brought me when we were courting (all two and a half weeks of courting that is), but I digress).  This is the first year they’ve been this bountiful.

And this year, I was determined to beat the birds to the harvest.

I jumped up off the couch (and Facebook), grabbed my collection bowl, and raced out there.

As you can see the grapes were absolutely gorgeous….and the harvest began.

In my mind I was in Italy, snipping off the grape clusters and dropping them in my pan.  OK…they drop them into crates, but I am imperfect after all…I like my industrial pan.

As I reached up I realized I couldn’t quite get to the ones hanging down so I looked around for something to stand on.  My mind very briefly thought, I should go and get a ladder or stepstool.  Then my not-so-sharp brain took over and thought – “No, I’ll just pull the Adirondack chair over and get them quick.”

{insert sigh}

The Adirondack chair of which I speak is a wonderfully grayed, antique chair that we found in an old building when we bought a little extra piece of property.  It’s probably the oldest Adirondack chair in the history of the world.

{sigh}

You can see it coming.

I climbed on the chair, ferociously harvesting those grapes so the darn birds wouldn’t win this year.

And….CRACK.

Panic.

I quickly reached up to grab onto the arbor so I wouldn’t fall through the chair.  I then tried to slowly step down and somehow in my holding onto the arbor, I felt myself hanging there.

Only me.

I let myself down…doing a little ‘kai-aing’ (that’s a major ‘ow’ with a dance) as my shoulders felt like I’d ripped the muscles apart…and there may have been a few swear words…and a “dumbest woman in the world” comment.

But I got the grapes!

And another upside…my chiropractor told me yesterday that he’s never seen my back in such good shape – he said hanging from the arbor may have straightened it out!

Whoohoooooo!  Don’t mind me…just hanging from the grape arbor!

My poor neighbors.

Patty O

ps…These grapes have lots of seeds, but still taste good.  At least the baby thinks so, however, yesterday she decided she didn’t like the skins.  Her plate looked like it was splattered with little purple grape skins.  I wish I would have taken a picture!