A pretty tree, but not in my yard... ;)
I
like to work outside in the yard, whenever I possibly can. I cut the grass,
shovel the snow, pull the weeds – I hate to leave those types of projects to
clutter Todd’s weekend, since after working 55+ hours every week, he has 1,001
other projects to complete. So imagine my delight with Waukesha, Wisconsin’s
recent run of wonderful weather. Wow! How lucky I was to be able to cut the
grass and pull the weeds when it was 70 degrees in the middle of October.
So…
one day last week, I emerged from my garage carrying my blue metal rake, a
plastic trash can (in which I’d cart my leaves to the curb), and my 1980’s boom
box – a girl’s gotta be able to listen to some good tunes while she works… As
the garage door closed, I glanced up at the cloudless blue sky and breathed
deep. “Good Morning!” I said to no one in particular, and headed up into the
back yard.
Only
one of our five trees had lost its leaves, but that lone producer had yielded quite
a healthy pile. I figured rather than leaving the job until all the leaves were
grounded, I’d keep up with the workload this year, and rake little by little.
However, there was nothing ‘little’ about this project.
I
don’t know how you are, but I usually start a project feeling energized. I clap
my hands once, rub them together, and say, “Alright, let’s get ‘er done!” (or
something along those lines…) I started that morning’s job the same way. With
Madonna blasting through the airwaves encouraging me to, “Get into the groove…”
I started raking one side of the yard. I carefully ran my rake along the back
of our block wall, sure to snag each and every leaf from its early autumn hiding
place. I filled the garbage can full to its brim, and made my first trek to the
street. My goodness, it’s a beautiful
day, hmmm… maybe even… warm? Is that perspiration on my forehead? No, not in
October! I hiked back to the rear yard.
I
glanced around and realized it didn’t look like I’d even started yet. “Okay,
let’s see what we can do here!” I said, giving myself a brief pep talk. I
grabbed the rake and swiped around myself in a circle. Whew, this is quite a pile of leaves I’ve got here. I filled the
garbage can a second time, packing the leaves down more firmly, trying to fit as
many in as possible. Again I dragged the bin to the front yard’s curb, and
dumped the load. Wow, it’s really warm
for October, and yes, that’s definitely perspiration up there on my forehead!
Just
as the directions on a shampoo bottle read, “Lather, Rinse, Repeat,” I went
about my task. “Rake, Load, Drag, Repeat.” I’d been at my project about 45
minutes, when I realized my left hand was already bleeding. I never knew I was so delicate! ;) The skin between my left thumb and pointer
finger had scraped off from rake pressure. Great
– guess I should have worn my gardening gloves! However, if the truth be
told, this slight distraction did provide me with the opportunity to take a
break, get a drink of water, and get a lil Band-Aid for my ‘owie’… And H*ck! As
long as I was inside, I took a second to jot down some ideas I’d had about this
blog piece too. Finally, I felt cool again and went back outside, ready to
finish my task.
A
few more trips to the curb, and I was almost finished. One more load of leaves till lunch… And then I noticed leaves
swirling and twirling in the wind – falling from their now-bare branches onto
my newly-raked green lawn. With my hands on my hips, I just had to ask the
perpetrators, “Are you guys ever
going to stop doing that?” “No, silly,
this is what we do this time of year,” one mocked at me before scuttling away. I
knew that he? / she? was right. To provide Todd and me with cool shade during
the hot summer months, the falling foliage needed to complete its yearly
cycle.
And
then I knew that raking them up was the least I could do for all their dedicated summertime
service…
Katie
Kolberg Memmel is the author of “Five Fingers, Ten Toes – A Mother’s Story of
Raising a Child Born with a Limb Difference.” For more information about the
author or the book, visit her website at www.katiekolbergmemmel.com
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