Monday and Tuesday
I don’t even like the outdoor Christmas lights tonight.
How dare you?
We have extended ourselves these past two days
Trying to clear the litter from our yard
And we are worn out.
DeRay is 77 and has had shingles for over a month;
I am 75 and my knees hurt.
I crawled around on our back lawn picking up
The round prickly balls the neighbor’s trashy
Tree dumped on us. The rake wouldn’t do the job.
It hasn’t been above 30 degrees for the past
Two days we’ve been out in the yard.
It’s my first experience of raking
With snow on the ground in spots.
We still have 10 or so piles to dispose of tomorrow.
Ed Denny and his son,
Who flew out from Baltimore to help,
Spend two hours last night working
On our satellite dish – two stories high.
He’s hauled a lot of our trash away too.
Even picked some of it up.
It makes me cry.
Such good-hearted people.
Amy’s new Hyundai $2,100 to repair.
DeRay took the van in tonight to get an estimate.
Guess!
Over $3,100.
Cavalier $1,500.
A roofer came.
He’ll write up a bid.
He said he would be able to work on it this week.
Yes!
Other things.
Don’t even mention Christmas, OK?
It's coming at a bad time this year.
It's coming at a bad time this year.
*
“Did you sleep good?
Ed asked me this morning.
“No.”
He grunts then says,
“You just gave me the wrong answer.”
I cannot tell a lie.
Too many things to do;
Too many things to think about to sleep well.
*
*
“I’m dead,” I whine
when I come in after working out
in the debris-laden yard.
“You’re not dead,” Ed informs me.
“You’re 75 and still alive.”
--a statement made famous
by his grandfather--
by his grandfather--
That's the first time I've connected
myself to it.
Wasn't it just yesterday
Grandpa was saying it?
Neither of my parents lived to be 75.
2 comments:
hj,Your prickly-ball description of your neighbor's tree, which you love so much, perhaps identifies it as a liquidambar tree. Are the leaves star shaped with 5 to 7 sharp points? Do the leaves turn bright red before they fall in the fall? Do the prickly balls fall well after the leaves do usually.
Liquidambar, a very large tree, is also called sweetgum and redgum, and it's one of the most important hardwood lumber trees in the U.S. Sweetgum grows naturally in the SE U.S., but is often planted as an ornamental in cities with mild climates. Is it mild there? Goleta has many streets planted with it. We call it liquidambar, which is the name of the genus, rather than sweetgum. ld
Where is your Ward? You shouldn't be out there!
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