Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Max: Compost

Ever since we moved to this house, Laura's parents, who live just up the street, have been threatening to get a riding lawn mower for us to share. Today, they carried through with the threat and bought a shiny new John Deere. They brought it around to our house to give a trial run. Laura got the first ride, doing the front yard in a fraction of the time with a fraction of the effort it took me to mow it a couple of weeks ago. And while I was just short of killed by the effort I put out back then, Laura was more than capable of standing upright when she was done.

When it came time to do the backyard, we ran into a bit of a snag. The mower would not fit through either of our gates. So, my father-in-law - who seems to find the word "impossible" missing from his vocabulary - grabbed some tools and turned a section of our fence into a new gate wide enough to allow the mower in.

While he was doing that, I noticed some rather healthy looking vegetation growing in the gutters of our garage. Laura climbed up on a ladder and started pulling out what looked like dry compost. It was kind of nasty, but it came out pretty easily. Although my fear of heights means I am not normally a fan of ladders - or step stools or shoes with soles that are too thick - I volunteered to do the other side of the garage as we have a bit of a poison ivy problem over there. Laura is highly allergic to the demon weed while I have so far proven immune. Big mistake. The downspout on the other side had been well clogged. While Laura had pulled out dry compost, I was pulling out wet chunks of organic matter that would have made Swamp Thing gag. When I cleared the downspout there was a diluvian flow out of the opening.

I finished that just in time to start tooling around my backyard on the mower. I have been mowing lawns off and on for about 26 years. This is the first time I actually had fun. Once got the hang of the mower, it was like my backyard had become my own personal go-cart track.

The yard work finished, the day's filth finally showered off of me, I settled into one of the lawn chairs in the afternoon shade. I just sat, and thought and watched the dog run around like the hyperactive nutjob she is. For the first time in a long time I felt good. I felt at peace. Then Laura came out and reminded me about the argument we had last night. After a short reprise we made our peace and headed out to do some grocery shopping on the in-laws' dime. Have I mentioned my in-laws are fairly awesome?

We just got home. Laura is watching the great, prime time karaoke contest that is American Idol. So I figured I would share the details of my day with you, the vast fanbase that makes IWDC the awesome place it is. You two are great!

2 Comments:

Blogger Jericho Brown said...

Wow, I didn't realize that May 24 was scheduled as a "Day in the Life of Max" feature. Weird, guess I missed the memo!

That was actually quite cool. I don't mean the fact that you are upset and feeling helpless or that you had to do house chores - I liked seeing through your eyes for a day. I wish I wrote out here more often ... like that ... that was freakin' cool.

So, you'll be doing this twice a week, right?

May 25, 2005 2:58 PM  
Blogger Max Dobberstein said...

As the mood strikes.

Feel free to give it a try yourself.

May 25, 2005 9:12 PM  

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