Labor Day, 2005

We cleaned up around the house yesterday, chopping down the larger weeds on the far side of the house. That’s the side no one ever sees and it hasn’t been painted in years. It’s been so long that it’s still brown while the rest of the house is grey. There was a large shed up against the house when we changed the house color. The shed got painted with the new color, but we couldn’t get to the side of the house then. And somehow, in the two or three years since the shed came down and got recycled, we’ve never found the time to paint that wall. I guess it’s time now.

I had to fix the gutter along that side of the house; it was sagging a bit, needed to be nailed back in place. That led to cleaning out the gutters. It’s been a while since that’s been done too. There are trees close to three of the four corners of the house. Scott helped put some mesh material in the gutters to act as a  leaf guard for the coming fall season. Not an easy task, sitting on the edge of the roof, leaning over to finagle a piece of nylon mesh so it stays in the gutter. I think I’ll have that grit from the shingles embedded in my hands for weeks. And it gets down right warm up there when the sun is shining. At one point I moved from one section of the roof, over a peak to the far corner. I startled a couple of squirrels who were just coming from the tree onto the roof. They froze and gave me a look like “What the heck are YOU doing up here?” before scampering back into the tree and disappearing. I got a laugh from their expressions. I was that last thing they expected to see.

So, one of the tasks for this fine Labor Day will be to trim the tree branches back from the house, at least so they aren’t aiming their leaves at the gutters. If we get organized in time, we just may prime the side of the house, cover up the brown and get it ready for a new, grey coat of paint sometime in the near future. And the lawn needs mowing.

Regardless of whatever else does or does not get done today, we will be burning some meat over an open flame. Barbeque! A nice pork tenderloin is marinating in the “secret” sauce as we speak.

The end of summer ritual.


School starts tomorrow.