Changing Seasons in a Changing World

I'm in the market for a leaf blower. It is number one on my list of Christmas Gifts to receive. My house is surrounded by tall poplars, bushy oaks, a black walnut tree and I think, if they weren't all removed to make room for the kids' playset, a couple of cherry trees. There are leaves everywhere. And I am noticing them more than ever this fall season.

Perhaps I am noticing them because of the sheer amount of them in my driveway, on my lawn, in my house - tracked in from the dogs. But they are everywhere. They remind me of how my year has gone thus far.

Yes, it is close to the end of 2007 and every year about this time I begin to reflect upon the year so that I can write a year end summation on New Year's Eve. I've done it every year since 1995. This year it will be "the year of the fallen leaves"; in 2005 it was the year of "the dark horse"; and in my 2006 summation, I simply labeled it, "good riddance 2005". I could easily say the same for 2007, but it wasn't such a bad year. Many, many parts of it were bad - the leaves fell heavily on my home this year. I am kicking them up every day, in every way. But I am also seeing them blow by me, onto my neighbors' lawn and maybe that's good for me, but I'd take them all. Why should my neighbors have to clean up a mess of leaves when I already have a mess of my own? I'd rake my friends' lawns and the lawns of every one of my family if I could. But I can't. That's why a leaf blower would be nice.

Ironically, I did have a leaf blower. I used it in the early spring to fill up the kids swimming pool - sticking the blowy end into the hole to get some air so that they'd have somewhere to swim in the hot summer months. By the end of summer, the long nails of my thirsty dogs dug a hole in the pool and the thing deflated. After I patched it with duct tape, I pulled the pulley thing on the leaf blower and found that it didn't budge. It just quit on me. The damn thing must have been left out in the rain - neglect, or maybe it was just time for it to say good-bye. In any case, I no longer have a leaf blower but I have all these leaves that I just don't know what to do with.

I guess I'll pull the rake from the garage and start making piles. I'm not raking the leaves to make my house look nicer. My house looks just great - especially when the kids are in it to make it a home. I am doing it for the kids - so that they can use all those fallen leaves and find pleasure - to jump in, roll in and throw around. Those leaves, some the size of my head, falling down all around them. What pleasure to fall onto, stomp to bits and throw at each other... all those leaves just waiting for their little feet and hands.

I changed my mind. I'm in the market for a camera.