A Rain of Maple Seeds

Posted on May 22, 2015 by TJ

Today was an extremely productive day.

I decided to paint the floor of the front porch this morning. The day was beautiful–a cloudless sky with just enough coolness to make working a pleasure. I really enjoyed painting the porch, although Rikki-Tikki-Tabby and Tesla wanted to join me and I had to keep shooing them away so they wouldn’t get red paws. Unless the floor gets scraped when we move heavy furniture and appliances, I think one coat of paint will be enough.

Cream and red–the porch is now completely painted.

I liked the colors and shadows.

More colors and shadows.

This week I finished painting the garage and painted the front porch. EJ and JJ aren’t going to recognize our house when they arrive tonight.

I was expecting our mortgage officer to email me a Power of Attorney so EJ can sign on my behalf at the closing so I periodically came into the house to see if it had arrived in my inbox. When the email came, I printed it out and then took it to our local bank and had my friend notarize it and fax a copy to the mortgage officer. EJ will have to take the original up with him to give her, but the copy will allow them to get started.

When I got home from the bank, I took Danny for his walk. As I walk or drive here or there, I have been thinking to myself, “Soon I will never go this way again.” It’s a way of saying goodbye. I wonder if I will be sad when I move away? I have been mostly focusing on my joy of going to the Enchanted Forest.

With those tasks out of the way, I started the next one: I mowed the lawn. I love the look and smell of a freshly mown lawn. As I mowed, a rain of maple seeds fell from the trees. It was kind of cool to mow with billions of maple seeds helicoptering down, but I also felt victorious because every spring billions of seeds fall from our maple trees and I spend hours pulling them out so they don’t grow into seedlings, saplings, and a forest of trees that grow so thickly they could imprison us in our house. THIS year they can rain all they want but I won’t have to worry about pulling them out because I won’t be here. I asked EJ if there were a lot of maple trees on our property in Anatevka. He said there were mostly evergreen trees and I was thrilled because I’ve always wanted to live in or near an evergreen forest. The needles of evergreen trees make a carpet that deadens sound so that sitting in an evergreen forest is very quiet and peaceful and soothing to the spirit. I don’t dislike maple trees–especially in the autumn when they are ablaze with beautiful color. I just don’t like pulling up billions of seedlings in the spring.

After work EJ called a furnace guy about perhaps coming to our old house next week to give us an estimate for putting in a new furnace. If the guy could come while I am still down here, it would save us a trip south. EJ called me to tell me that the guy is coming Tuesday morning. Yay! Next week is going to be super busy and although I would have really liked to attend the closing for our new house, I think it’s better that I get stuff done here.

Up North, JJ was excited because Comic-Con is being held in the Emerald City this weekend and he and his Dad were going to go for an hour or so before heading home. Comic-Con is a convention Comic-Con that takes place in various places in the world in which, as one site described it, “all the nerds descend to express their fandom for all things geek. From movies to TV shows to comic books to collectible action figures, it’s all here. And there’s a lot of it.” Celebrities often attend and fans dress up as their favorite alien, superhero, villain, or science fiction characters. Both EJ and JJ told me that the traffic was the worst they’ve ever seen and they couldn’t find the convention. Bummer. I told JJ that aliens must have hidden the convention with their cloaking device, but we’d find it next year and attend.

After talking to my guys, I worked on pulling down some plywood from the woodshed. We had turned the grape arbor into a woodshed by enclosing it with fencing. We had not quite finished it when JJ was diagnosed with cancer. As a temporary measure EJ nailed a piece of plywood to the unfinished back side. Every now and then over the last few weeks, I have been working at removing it. I finally got it off today. I took a piece of leftover fencing and nailed it there so it looks nicer. The woodshed can easily be turned back into a gazebo.

Now, after a day of productive work, I am relaxing as I wait for my guys to come home. As busy as the last few weeks have been, next week will be even busier–with the furnace guy coming, and the dumpster being delivered, and the final packing to do, and a bunch of other things. But NEXT weekend, I will be heading up to our new house in the Enchanted Forest! I am so excited.