Break My Heart

So, I suppose I'm not really doing the whole NaBloPoMo thing this year. Seeing as I've only posted once this week.

Oh well.

The balance was off, and now I'm getting my groove back. I can't promise Oodles of Blog Posts...but I can promise that my home is a happier place to be right now.

Which is much more important.

What I really wanted to say today, though, was that I really don't like this New Economy.

Have you noticed?

It's been so odd in our little town. The mall parking lot is packed, every weekend. It's been packed, every weekend, since we moved here 18 months ago.

Recession? What recession?! I see no recession!

But it's so obvious, in the details. I'm surrounded by empty houses, where tenants left because the house was either condemned*, repossessed or they found a new job, closer to family. (*Remember I live on a street that was originally populated with Summer Lake Homes...not Sturdy Winter Homes. Things fall apart or into disrepair sometimes when subjected to purposes they were not intended for.)

We have gardeners that come to mow our lawn every other week during the summer. They're great guys, extremely honest, quick, hardworking. (When we moved in, our landlord informed us that hiring gardeners wasn't optional - the lawn is nearly impossible to mow without a 4' wide professional mower. The hill is simply too steep. As evidenced by the nice ride-on mower stuck at the bottom of the hill.) (If anyone local is looking for a great yard service, I highly recommend these guys! Contact me for their contact info. Oh, and they hired a guy who speaks fluent English this fall. It helped with communication a LOT, as my Portuguese is a big N-O.)

They came by a few weeks ago, and quoted us a price for "winterizing" our yard - clean the gutters, blow and bag the leaves, give the lawn a final trim. The price they gave us was high, we thought, and they wanted to come twice.

Lo Gung and I discussed it, took a look at the yard, and decided that we could do the leaves ourselves. The backyard, we thought, wasn't so thickly covered that a mower couldn't just mulch the leaves in, and the part of the front yard that needed the real work wasn't so big that we couldn't take care of it in an hour or so.

So we did. The kids and I went out 4 times over the past four weeks and raked and pushed and pulled the leaves down the hill to a heap, where we've left them. (I've begun to add my kitchen scraps to the heap, a'la Fraggle Rock Trash Heap, but I think something is carrying off "treasures" during the night. Oh well - at least my trash can doesn't smell like rotting veg any more. That much less for the landfill, right?)

Then, this week, the gardeners came back. They stopped by to see if we were ready to have them clear up the leaves...and were surprised to see the leaves raked. They were disappointed.

And it broke my heart. (Lo Gung, don't laugh.)

I asked them to leave the leaves in the front yard where they were (I left leaves along the edges of the yard, to try and protect the dry, crumbly soil there) and to also not bag the clippings in the back yard when they mowed. (He thought I was nuts, but agreed to leave the leaf mulch on the lawn as I requested.) They'll come back this weekend and mow.

This economy is affecting different parts of the community so differently. The Top Dogs are being cut. The Fluff People are being cut. People are cutting back, Doing It Themselves, or just making do without. And the people who make their living Doing It For You are feeling the pinch.

It doesn't change the fact that I can't (don't want to?) afford to pay $500 for someone to rake up my yard, bag my leaves, clean my gutters and mow my lawn. (My landlord told me that's a Very Fair Price, and Totally Worth It.) Of course they could do a better job than me. Of course it would look fantastic.

But you're talking to the woman who spent 15 minutes this morning giving her daughter a hair cut. Because if I can do it for myself...I will.