When a Window of Opportunity Opens .....

.... slam it shut, quick!

My town usually only does curbside leaf pick-up in the fall. However, last fall, it snowed (!) on a lot of the curb-side leaf piles before the town could pick them up, so the town announced that they would do another pick-up this spring. Even though I raked (and raked, and raked) last fall, a lot of leaves had accumulated along the back fence, so I decided yesterday to rake them up and get them to the curb.

The backyard had an amazing amount of blown-down branches in it, so I started hauling them to the curb first. It's at least a hundred feet from the backyard to the curb. The few few, even the first few dozen, trips aren't that bad, but after a while it gets kind of ..... tiring.

Anyway, I got enough branches up to start raking along the back fence. I have a "leaf sheet", which is actually just an old bed sheet, which I spread on the ground, rake the leaves onto, bundle up, sling over my shoulder, and haul out to the curb. Just like Santa! Except I have leaves instead of toys.

So, after I raked along the back fence, I decided I really should do the side garden, as well. Because who can resist the allure of a town-sponsored spring leaf pick-up? Not me!

You see where this is going, right? I raked the back fence, I raked the side garden, and then I decided to rake the other fence line. Then I raked out front, I raked by the parking area, I raked by the garbage cans ........ all the while intermittently picking up amazing amounts of downed branches. I picked up branches and raked leaves for five hours straight. And today I can't decide which hurt more, my arms or my legs.

But! The job is done! There is a huge pile of leaves by the curb, and an equally huge pile of branches. The woman across the street actually came over to exclaim over my giant piles of yardwork. (Well, actually, I think she mainly came over to get the scoop on the death of Jabba the Hutt. But as it turns out, she had as much info as I did, because she was actually home when all the commotion happened! Who knew that when you die, they send two ambulances? And two cop cars? And a sheriff's car? And several other unmarked cars? And we speculated as to why two ambulances were sent to the scene. I mean, granted, the guy was huge, but what did they think they were going to do? Don't answer that .........)

So today I am sunburned and sore. But all those leaves currently residing at the curb are leaves which I will not have to rake this fall, right? Right!