Being John Wayne

Well, not EXACTLY, but while working the leave vacuum/shreeder yesterday I could – for a little moment at least – comprehend that gleeful joy you sometimes happen to see on faces when men – yes, mostly only men images come to mind – use some automatic or semi-automatic gun, propped against their hip and TRRRRRRRRR away.

But after lifting that beast for 3 hours – it’s fuel powered and thus weights even more – even those pictures of being a monster, a mob, a killer, a TV actor… they all vanished and what I am left today with are arms that hurt so badly (biceps AND triceps) that I can barely lift a pen and a back that refuses to bend or turn.

But most of all, it seems we have finally caught up with the leaves. It still doesn’t fully compute in my head how only 5 trees can produce about 60 bags of heavily MULCHED leaves, which corresponds to about 300 bags of non-mulched leaves, even considering all the blown-into-our-yard-leaves, but this is how it is.

One of the 5 large trees which we have still shows a fair amount of leaves, but most of the other is gone. So this leaves us to do one last round in 2 weeks or so and then… amen. Until spring. This is the beauty of oak trees. They shed all year round and not only in fall, but in spring we have more leave removal ahead. The reason I don’t mind it is because it puts me outside, away from sitting in the same chair, away from starring at a screen and it puts me into fresh air and to work up a nice sweat while listening to some good music.