make like a tree and get out of here

as is traditional here in ohio, the weather can mess with every aspect of one's life. and thus, the old men in the locker room at the Y talk of nothing but it (along with the occasional reference to 'The War').

Fall and Winter were meshed together, here, like a shredded wheat biscuit. Freezing cold mixed with sunny days with rain and rain and then last week's blast of snow. Summer seemed to extend well into fall which was nice - but that left leaves on the trees a whole lot longer than usual.

Thus after an extended period (as in maybe 7-10 days) of rain and wind in late November the leaves were all down on the ground. There was one sunny day after the rain... it was cold - but not bitter - and I knew that that day was my only shot at raking up the leaves in the back yard. i should mention that my rake is old school. i don't even know where i got it. i mean, who really wants to spend his hard earned money on a rake? While raking, i realized we didn't have any outdoor trash bags - so I raked all of the leaves into a giant pile against the fence - figuring that i could bag them up the next day. The next day it snowed... followed by what they call a 'wintery mix.' Then, last Thursday we had a huge bit of snow (o.k. - maybe not huge - but 4 or 5 inches... some schools were even called off).

So - i was not able to ever bag up the giant leaf pile in the backyard. Well the last two days have been warm enough to melt away the snow... the sun came out and i figured i might as well bag these leaves up.

there is nothing worse than bagging up wet leaves. Even though i was wearing thick, winter gloves, my hands were stained with a dark orange color - somehow the colors of the leaves seeped through the gloves. it took 8 bags to get rid of that pile. now, my back is really sore and my clothes and jacket are stained as well.

after bagging, i had to haul them in our van to the recycling center. it took two trips.

i don't like leaves. at all.

this caused me to wonder - who came up with the idea that leaves needed raked anyway? did the pilgrims get off the Mayflower and create some sort of makeshift rake out of sticks and branches - in order to rake up the leaves around their huts?

i'm guessing mankind survived thousands of years without rakes... and could have cared less if leaves were raked up. maybe this wasn't God's intent. i have to believe it wasn't... because i think this is my last year to rake 'em up.

i am boycotting leaf raking, i think.

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