Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Thankless Time of Year


Fall is in so many ways a wonderful time of year. The leaves on the trees changing from green to orange and red and gold brings joy and wonder to our hearts.....and then they fall off and we are left with the thankless task of removing the bounty of of all that beauty.

I have mentioned before that Doc is a bit obsessive about home maintenace (I think I may have called him a maintenace freak) and his obsession extends to yard maintenance. Even though leaves have just begun falling here, this afternoon Doc gathered his leaf removal tools and went out and cleaned up all the leaves that had fallen in our front yard. Before putting his tools away, he stopped for a moment to proudly admire the results of his efforts. As he stood admiring, a big gust of wind came up, seemingly out of nowhere, and rattled the trees. When the wind stopped all that was left for him to admire was a yard once again covered with a  thick blanket of leaves. To add insult to injury, the next door neighbors were out and stopped laughing only long enough to tell him that it looked really nice.....for a minute.

I had been gone and Doc told me this story when I got home. I must not have offered a sympathetic enough response to the first telling because he told me the story two more times. It's not that I wasn't sympathetic, it was more that I was biting my tongue to try to keep from advising him to wait until most of the leaves had fallen before he started his clean up  (and a little that I was trying to keep from laughing). Any laughing or advice would have been thanklessly received by a maintenance freak.

16 comments:

  1. Thankfully, I am at liberty to laugh because I find it very funny.

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  2. This is funny, but I have to say, I am a maintenance freak also. I have been spending the last few weekends cutting back plants that may or may not be done blooming to ensure that the trash can is completed packed with plant material on Monday pick up day.

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  3. Wish someone around here was like that:)

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  4. Your story got me laughing. I know what you mean about maintenance freak....

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  5. LOL!! Its kind of like vacuuming with a corgi in the house; you just get through with it and there is no corgi hair around and then he shakes his body and tons of fur fly on the floor

    I feel for Doc. At least for just a moment......it looked nice!!

    I remember one year when we lived in Montana, on Halloween of all days, it was so windy. It was amazing to see lawns full of leaves and then they were gone,taken in the wind, and I just don't know where they went, but it was amazing how so many could disappear in such a short period of time

    betty

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  6. We have about 20 mature leaf bearing trees here in both the front and back yard. I use the grass collector on the back of my lawn tractor to pick them up when I mow the lawn. The first year we moved here, I did it by hand with a rake. It took me both full days of an entire weekend to do it, and for a week after I couldn't bend an elbow. I swore I would NEVER do that again, and bought the grass collector. Thank goodness.

    But I do understand his appreciation for a nice looking lawn. I'm much the same way. It's a man thing, you know.

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  7. This must be a guy thing. My husband was the exact same way with those fall leaves... until he finally hired a lawn crew to do his raking for him.

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  8. We watch the neighbors here out raking and bagging leaves already and a half hour later their lawns are ready for raking again. It must be something more than seeing leaves raked.

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  9. Too funny! Good thing we can laugh about it. :)

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  10. My husband didn't notice that I had removed an ugly vine, painted the wood trim and placed a new hibiscus plant with beautiful flowers out by the side of the garage where he drives in every night. What's wrong with him? I'm sure Doc would have noticed, don't you think?

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  11. That poor soul...Is he retired? Well this is what retired life is all about; trying to remember all the things we have learned over the years and putting them to use. He's got a few years to go.
    Give him my sympathy...

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  12. I never have understood why people rake them up before they're done falling, but then I'm not a home maintenance freak! They look so pretty just laying there, though I do realize that they eventually get yucky and ugly.

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  13. That's very funny! Poor doc, if only he could wait until they all fall....We used to live on an acre lot at the lake and had about 40 oak trees. Raking leaves is the only thing that I don't miss about that place.

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  14. Blessings to you Jeanie, I think our men who be two peas in a pod and my hubby's neatish tendencies also are on the inside of our home too. The things I don't think anything of drive him crazy. I would have had a hard time not laughing at this. Isn't the weather incredible!! Guess we might get rain tomorrow though. Have a delightful evening.
    Hugs, Noreen

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  15. Just caught up...crocs and all...I have not made my peace with them...but I do like that one you showed...I will wait till I see them at a garage sale (o:
    Poor Doc...only those of us that live here can appreciate that crazy gusty wind.

    by the way... I believe in the hear After... but I hope I can remember what I am hear after (o: when I get there.

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  16. You are such a good story teller. This made me smile.

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