An Exercise in Futility

Yes, this title could describe oh so many aspects of my current life! Ha! But for today, it describes my battle with the leaves. For those of you who don't know, we have two huge trees in our front yard. One of the trees I love. It is nice and round and turns an amazing color each fall-so bright that it lights up my foyer! The other tree I don't love. It is huge and sprawling and mostly just stays green. Needless to say, the presence of both of these trees adds up to mounds and mounds of leaves.

I'm determined to stay on top of the leaves this year. In past years my philosophy has been to wait until all the leaves had fallen and then try to get them up. Notice I said try. The problem with this method is that by the time all of the leaves fall, the leaves on the bottom have started decomposing, forming what I like to call leaf glue. They are so damp and rotting and just stuck to everything. Not to mention the amount of time it takes to get all of those leaves up and either bagged or dumped in the woods. So, this year's philosophy is to rake a little every day or so. Seems simple enough.

Yesterday (about my fourth day of raking) I raked 7 huge piles of leaves. All had to be put in the wheelbarrow and toted to the backyard. All the while, leaves were falling down around me. It was laughable. Drew and I raked at about 8:30 and by nap time the entire yard was covered again!!! Boy, is it ever on my perfectionistic nerves!! And yes, before you ask, I have a leaf blower. But, in Drew's mind it ranks right up there with the hair dryer and the vacuum cleaner-thanks, but no thanks. And since the only alone time I have comes either at 6 a.m. or 8 p.m., I don't have much of a window to blow leaves without inviting the rancor of my neighbors.

And so, I rake. And rake and rake and rake.