Though I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome, this could be another beer in our growing catalog.  Depending, of course, on how it tastes after conditioning in the bottle over the next couple of weeks.

Anyhooooo.  I have talked before about my neighbor the “Leaf Nazi“, and how one of our trees had it out for her.  Well today said tree gave it up and dropped its leaves.  And I, being the good homeowner I am, went out with my trusty leaf blower to get the leaves out to the curb.

And it worked wonderfully up until right after I finished with the leaves, and was putting the blower away.  This huge gust of wind came along and blew pretty much all of the leaves back into the yard. 

Stupid wind.  Now I have to do it all over again.

Maybe.

L8R

Our Leaf Nazi had a particular trait.  She liked her driveway, and walkways to be completely cleaned of any debris.  Sweeping was her compulsion.  Constant sweeping.  Morning and evening.  And one of our trees loved making her crazy.

yes, I said one of our trees loved making her crazy.  Now, we humans anthropomorphize everything.  We do it with our pets, some of us do it with plants, you get the idea.  I swear that this tree had it in for our Leaf Nazi.  Why?  Because this particular tree would hold onto its leaves way past when all the rest of the trees on the block had dumped theirs.  This tree has been here since the house was built back in the early 50′s.  It has been around the block, so to speak.  I don’t know why the tree did what it did with its leaves, but I do know that it would drop some leaves each day.  The Leaf Nazi would come out of her house, grumbling all the way.  She would then sweep them off of the drive and go back into the house.  And the next day, the tree would drop some more.

I think that the tree is missing the Leaf Nazi becuase today I was out raking the lawn where “raking the lawn” means I was running the mower over the leaves so that I could empty the bag on the compost pile.  And the tree has 90% of its leaves still on.  Waiting.  Waiting for the Leaf Nazi.

Who no longer lives next door.

Crazy.

We had some neighbors who had a different take on lawn care than what I do. Their take on it was the wife would sweep their sidewalks and driveway every day. Let me repeat that. EVERY DAY. The husband would mow his yard, and the neighbors next to him, and the neighbors NEXT TO THEM, and the woman across the streets every week. He would mow 4 yards every week.

For some of you that doesn’t seem excessive. For me, it is on the brink of obsessive, because I figure that if you can still see your dog when she goes into the yard the grass is fine.

Back to the neighbors wife and her sweeping. Fall was a really bad time of year for her, as we have a tree that drops leaves on their yard. A lot of leaves. And they don’t all come down at the same time. The tree is rather sadistic like me. It releases a clump of leaves, waits a couple of days, releasese a few more, and then holds on to a bunch into the depths of winter.

I love that tree.

So imagine my dismay when I saw a “For Sale” sign in the yard of my neighbors yard. No more watching the wife do her freaky “Gotta sweep the Driveway” dance. Shoot.

The house sold to a young couple. And today as I was sitting here at my computer the familiar sound of a leaf blower entered the house. EUREKA!! We have another nazi! Maybe not to the extent that we had it before, but we have someone to devil with our leaves. Life is good.

Namaste.