Raking

Every Monday from now until November 12 the city crew will come to pick up the leaves the citizens of Seymour rake to curbside.  If it rains, they might skip a week.  

Gary says it is too early to rake the front lawn.  The leaves are falling here in Seymour but the two maples at the front of the house are hanging in there and will to the last. Still there are plenty of  leaves on the ground, and everyone else in the neighborhood was raking:  the mayor, who lives across the street;  Jody two doors down, and my next door neighbor Elaine who was accompanied by Mittens and Koala.  Rascal as usual growled and hissed at the other two cats, but at nineteen never does more than that. 

I did the circle walk past the elementary and middle schools and around the Assembly of God. When I passed the Pepin house, I saw Mike raking.  He's the head of the city crew.  I realized that if he was putting leaves out, they most certainly will be picked up tomorrow morning.  I passed the news on to neighbors as I passed.  Yes, they agreed, best get to raking. 

And so I found a rake in the garage and set to work.

Two middle aged women, young at heart, came down the street crunching leaves under their feet, loving the sound.  

"Just like kids," I told them. 

They laughed and kept on going.  

I thought about school tomorrow and all the children who would be wading through that golden path.  I decided Gary was right.  The leaves could wait at least until mid-morning.  

The rake went back in the garage.