Green thumb?

Those first beautiful sunshine filled days of spring are finally here. God they're beautiful! As the sun starts to arc higher in the sky and the ground warms up, everything starts to bud-out and turn green. Unfortunately, the trees and grass don't have exclusivity here. The weeds grow, well like weeds and the shrubs look like they're sporting Bob-Marley dreads. The beds carry the overburden of last year's fall leaves that are half composted just waiting to host some new airborne chlorophyl based life form. All this stuff needs to be cleaned and tended to before the house looks like Blithering Heights.

You've got to remember this is Judy's job. She's the one who looks forward to coming home from work, slipping on the work gloves, grabbing the wheelbarrow and the shears and going to battle with the landscaping. She's the one who'll stay outside trimming and pruning 'til the bats come out to feed on the freshly hatched insects.

I certainly don't mind cutting the grass, trimming & edging, mostly because I get to use some really cool power tools. My mower does 9 miles an hour, has a seat belt and a roll bar. In the little more than an hour it takes to cut the lawn, my mind wanders off into the most obscure, serene, creative or introspective places you can imagine.

Unfortunately my mind finds no such happy place rearranging the pavers and meticulously plucking crushed red brick chunks from the hardwood mulch my snowplow deposited over the winter. It's like the second grade when you stare out the window for what seems like forever and you look at the clock and only two minutes has elapsed, no hope of freedom anytime soon. As I stare down the final few days of the kid's spring break I realize I really need to get the beds cleaned & Preened & lay down the mulch. Nope, this is most definitely Judy's job.

-- Phil Basinski

(Phil is holding down the homefront while his wife is in Afghanistan.)

Comments

[Maryann Waters, FRG 2/101 CAV HHT]

GREAT writing! This could turn into a book! :)

PS - on a personal note...
"It's like the second grade when you stare out the window for what seems like forever and you look at the clock and only two minutes has elapsed, no hope of freedom anytime soon."
Gosh, I hope that my 2nd grade students don't feel that way!!! HaHaHa We do laugh a lot in my my room...maybe the laughter helps the clock appear as though the tick-tock is at a quicker pace. *wink*

[David M]

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 04/17/2008 - News and Personal dispatches from the front lines.

http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/2008/04/from-front-04172008.html