Leaves

Fall is my season. It's when I'm happiest and most energetic. I come alive as the leaves turn their vibrant colors and the air turns crisp and fresh. I think about fall all year long. The first year we lived in Moses Lake I braced myself for some serious fall blues. I knew it would be a big bummer for me to live in a place with few trees and very little fall colors. I was right. It was like winter with no Christmas or knowing it's your birthday but not celebrating it. I knew it was fall, but nothing really happened. Last year was pretty much the same. Except I knew I was moving east. By the time we were settled in Johnstown the leaves were all gone. That's when I started dreaming of fall. Last December. We would look out at the bare brown drab trees and I would say, "Can you imagine how gorgeous this will be in the fall?!" Oh, Spring was pretty and summer was lush and green, but I was focused on the prize. Fall would be magnificent. Of course, I didn't look at the gigantic trees throughout our 1.3 acre lot and think, "who's going to rake all of these leaves?" All I could think about were the colors.

And when the weather changed I reveled as the sun glinted through the weightless leaves as they floated slowly down from the trees. I exulted as I looked out at the magnificence of endless forests filled with trees all ablaze with red, orange, gold and brown.

Fall did not disappoint. We got our leaves. Oh, did we get our leaves.

The other night I spent 2 hours blowing the leaves out to the road (the road crew will come and get them if you can only get them to the street). I made a small dent in the yard during that 2 hours. Like maybe 1/6th of the yard. And that night it was really windy. By morning you couldn't tell I had ever been there. And the trees still look completely full of leaves! You can't have too much of a good thing, right?