I consider myself to be a pretty straight-forward kind of guy. In general, I know what I like and I know where to get it. When I find something I like, I prefer knowing that I can obtain something I like year ‘round, which is why the concept of things like pumpkin spiced items only showing up when the leaves change colour and Halloween is imminent. But I digress…
The true purpose of today’s rant is to address something mentioned in that last sentence. That is to say, leaves. Autumn has the potential to be the best season. The morning air is crisp and cool, the need for constant air conditioning in the house is lessened/eliminated and I don’t find myself in a constant state of sweating anymore. certainly not least is the fact that kids have gone back to school, which provides an element of silence for a number fo hours in the house (not that I get to enjoy it, since I’m at work all day).
One would even be inclined to say that autumn is better than the winter, since there‘s no snow to contend with. There is, however, another insidious monster to deal with: the falling leaves. It’s odd how some of the things people find the most beautiful require the most work. “Oh, the falling snow is SO beautiful…” Yeah, until you need to spend an hour at 5 in the morning shovelling it out from in front of your car. “Oh, I just LOVE the colour of the falling leaves…” Again, it may look “pretty,” but your back and shoulders sure pay the price of having to clean up that “pretty” stuff…
That’s how I capped off my weekend. The photo above is the pile I accumulated in my front yard after raking it, yesterday. I was supposed to be assisted by an energetic 6-year old, who decided at the last minute to go play with friends instead of helping his old dad. Kids! I started immediately after breakfast and had Nathan flip-flop twice on whether he wanted to be involved or not. In the end, I wound up raking and collecting the entire back yard on my own. I was lucky enough to have one of those metal racks that holds a plastic bag in place, so I was able to pick up and dump leaves into the bag on my own.
I wasn’t so lucky in the front yard, however. Without the protection of the fence and trees, there was JUST enough of a breeze to keep the bag from staying secured to the rack. Every time I collected a handful of leaves, the bag slipped from the rack and I’d have no way to place the leaves in the bag. Fun. Finally, I called it quits and left the pile on the front lawn. I’ll go back to it, once I know I’ll have some help to collect the leaves or there’s no wind and I can effectively use my metal rack.
In my mind, the coming of colder weather means sipping hot coffee while writing/reading. But I guess there’s no real happy medium. Mowing lawns has you sweating in the summer. Shovelling snow has you freezing in the winter and you have leaves to deal with in the fall and yard clean-up in the spring. That’s the beauty of home ownership; it’s never boring! Now, if only my basement renovations could be done… ☯️
The Blogging Buddhist 