Monday, November 9, 2009

I really enjoy yard work twice each year - the first mow of the year and the last mow of the year. With the first mow of the year, I spend four or five hours mowing the front and back yards, trimming, edging, clipping the hedges, and then blowing all the leftovers down to the creek. Then it is time to sit back and admire the great job done, knowing that it won't be that perfect again until the following spring. Every other time leading up to the last mow of the year, in the hot, humid summers of Nashville, is really just a pain in the ass. However, I told myself I would never complain about doing yard work again after living in a crappy apartment the year we moved back to Nashville. In reality, it's not the mowing that I mind. I just snap on my iPod and push the Yard Machine around for three hours. I consider it good exercise. I measured it with a pedometer one time and logged in 2.5 miles. It's the weed pulling, flower planting, and gardening that I really can't stand. Don't get me wrong, I certainly like the way it looks when all of it is done, I just dislike doing it. This past Sunday I completed my final mow of the year. I raked and mowed the front and side yards, and completely ignored the back. What's the point? The back yard is simply a mess, and I figure with the next rain, the workers will simply get on their toys to play in the mud and cover up any leaves I would have raked anyway, so I will sit back and enjoy looking at the bright golden leaves on the ground this year and feel no guilt for not raking them up. Metro Water Services will probably look kindly upon me and thank me for not dumping thousands of leaves into their water system, too. The front looks incredible today...and probably today only. My neighbor's tree still has plenty of dead leaves on it that tend to drop slowly over the course of the fall and winter. Most of these fall on his driveway and our side yard, and are usually blown further into our yard by even the slightest of breezes from the south. And, in the not too distant future, the front yard will probably look as bad as the back yard when they rip off the current overhang over the front porch and install a real front porch on the house. But today, on one of the most beautiful fall days of the year, the front yard looks spectacular...and serves as a nice facade to what sits currently behind the house.