Max Riffner

The Parlor

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Heavy Eyes

Ben tells us in our yoga class to “know our own limits,” usually before he makes me do something painful. However, I find my body is usually up to the challenge, and I do know when to back off a bit. I know that there is just some stuff my body can’t do well.

I seem to have a hard time doing that in real life lately. I’m still rundown from this infection, but today, the lawn had to be mowed (and edged), and the gutters definitely needed to be cleaned. Mowing while under the weather takes it out of me, but getting up on the roof takes a psychological toll. It isn’t that I’m scared of heights – far from it. I just know that I’m extremely likely to fall. This isn’t an irrational fear; I’ve fallen off a great deal many things (roofs, second story balconies, even a mountain in France) and lived to tell the tale. Probably due to my dense melon head able to sustain skull crushing blows without so much as a dent. Still… how much longer is that going to last? I’m getting older. Thus, I now have a great deal more respect for heights.

I got up the roof like a nancy boy, feet wobbling to and fro. The hose was wedged securely in a ladder rung. I grabbed it and went to work, spraying dead plant matter from the trees and pushing it down the drainspouts. I have to admit the pleasure I get from watching a big chunk of compost come shooting out of the gutter below at great speed.

I made it down successfully, and I was just spent. My body was so tired, and my eyes were heavy. However, instead of trying to rest, my mind started to figure out what next task I had to cross out of my ambitious weekend to-do list. The Chief kept telling me to take a nap, and I remember last weekend after Free Comic Book Day how I had that deep-down exhaustion setting in as my immune system was again succumbing to illness.

So, no more for tonight. I’m trying to learn a lesson here. Tonight, I curl up on the couch and read my Eisner/Miller book (which will make it harder not to do anything, because I get whipped into a comic creating frenzy whenever I read a chapter out of this book). I hope everyone else out there is relaxing as well.

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