living-writing: Leaf Embankment

leaf embankment

These neatly piled-up, 4 to 5 feet high, leaf embankments can be seen in front of the yards of all the houses along both sides of the street in our little neighborhood.

Coming from Florida, it was an eye-popping experience to see the leaves on the trees, in what seemed like a week's time in October, changed colors from green to brilliant orange and yellow and then without any warning one afternoon all (or almost all) fell to the ground as if in unison. After this, troops of yard workers started to show up in the neighborhood and the sound of the blower motor could be heard nonstop, one day from this, another day from another house all around us. And then we saw people dragging huge tarps overflowing with leaves to the curbs and dumped the leaves there. We were holding our breath and anxiously watching and observing all these activities happening around us, not knowing what we, or any respected citizen, were supposed to do with all these leaves. We were paying special attention to our neighbors next-door and across from us and decided not to take any action until we saw what they did. I went to the local hardware store and sought help about this leaf-cleaning business and bought myself one of those blue-colored tarps and a rake that was supposed to prevent leaves from being clogged in the spikes. And on one chilly morning last week, properly protected with puffed jacket, a hat and gloves, I went out there and, like a monkey mimicking what other monkeys were doing, started to rake up the leaves, put them on the tarp, drag the tarp to the curb and dump the leaves there in piles. It was actually not too hard to do and I made some modest piles of leaves in front of our yard and was very proud of it. However, I only managed to clear a portion of our front yard and there was still the whole back yard to do and the obstacle of terraced steps to overcome with regards to the fully-loaded tarp. Fortunately, I got an e-mail last Friday from the owner of our yard maintenance company offering to give us an estimate to clean the leaves including those on the roof and the gutters. I had forgotten that he had mentioned this to us when we first engaged him in July. So, after about two and a half hours of work by four young men this morning, our yard has been restored to its pristine condition! The tall piles of leaves embankment-like in front of our house are now waiting to be vacuumed up by the City of Bloomington which runs a free leaf-pickup service starting today to December 17. How thoughtful!

I was, however, forewarned by Kirk's colleagues the other day that the leaf-cleaning task was just the beginning of what was to come for folks living here. They told me about getting the cars 'winterized' which I have done for one of the cars, about shoveling snow off one's driveway, a task which cannot be neglected or delayed and the possible consequences of neglecting to do so in a timely manner and about having to shovel one's way in and out of the garage at times. They told me that this time around no City service will be coming to clear the snow off your driveway or street curbs. I can already picture in my mind's eye the leaf embankments turning into piles of snow and everyone being entrenched inside their own house by snow piles blocking all the exits!

What follows are the photographs of the 'same' view taken about a month apart from one another of our neighbor's house across the street -