October. Is there any better month of the year? Not only is it baseball playoffs season – Go Cubs! – and football season – Go Bears! – but it’s fall, the season when trees shed their leaves in preparation for a long, cold Indiana winter.
As a youngster I never minded raking leaves. In fact, it always gave me a legitimate excuse to be outside, releasing my pent-up energy by striking the dried-up leaves with a rake instead of striking my little sister with my fist. But now that I’m an adult – and, I might add, one who showers his younger sibling with nothing but love – the annual rite of leaf raking tempts me to check the List and pass the experience on to one of our fine local service providers.
Our backyard is flanked by three trees, all of which are about to rain their dearly-departed leaves upon my lawn. Once all the leaves fall, it’s typically a weekend-long job raking them into several large piles and hauling them away. That is, unless our three dogs decide to “help.” Last year, my good intentions of raking led to a photo shoot with the pooches, each of them getting their turn posing in a pile of golden leaves. Needless to say, I didn’t get too far with my raking, and the leaves stuck around all winter.
The more I think of it, knowing that the dogs enjoy rustling around in the scattered leaf piles makes the thought of spending my few days away from work doing manual labor a little more appealing. Unless there’s a Cubs or Bears game on.
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