Autumn Lament

These beautiful yellow maple leaves are all that remain of autumn's drama.  The oranges, reds and yellows now carpet the ground and are rapidly morphing to brown.

The Kid and I are in the midst of a remedial course on fallen leaves.  Did you know they must be removed?  Along with dropping temperatures it is the portion of fall I had chosen to forget.  It has risen and smacked me upside the head leaving in its wake enough leaves to fill a 10 ton dump truck.

Clean-up began on Sunday morning.  Once the grands finished jumping in the growing piles and waved their last good-byes we began raking in earnest.  Mounds of dead leaves were moved onto a large tarp and dragged into the woods for disposal.  The routine was repeated over and over again until the front yard was clean and green.  The Kid then took to the mower and began mulching the overwhelming task on the lake side.  Several hours later, exhausted and grimy we toasted our success and promptly went to bed.

When the sun rose on Monday morning I peeked out of the window and gasped in horror.  There was no clean, no green.  In its place was a thick mess of fallen and blowing leaves.  Suddenly autumn had lost its appeal.  Swaying palm trees and tropical breezes no longer seemed boring and mundane.  I went digging for the suitcases to begin packing for the drive south.

A firm hand on my wrist and the words of a wise man stopped me.  "Remember the bet" he said.  The bet I replied?  Ohhh, that bet.  The one that has us caving in and heading south before Thanksgiving?  Needless to say the suitcases remained in the closet and I succumbed to the idea that more raking was in my future.  It happened sooner rather than later as we spent all of yesterday gathering up autumn's discards and hauling them to the woods.  This morning I awoke to howling winds and knew that once again fate had dealt a low blow.

Only this time the news is good, even great.  The blustery winds are quickly chasing the pesky leaves across our yard and into our neighbors.  Our turf remains clean and green, but G, G is going to have a lot of raking to do.  I think I'll pull up a chair and watch.