Dick's Hideaway:

Ready for winter

Dick MacKenzie - www.dickshideaway.com

I was up early this morning... usually am, but today was a special one.

At 5 a.m. I could see a fresh overnight accumulation of a half inch of snow covering the deck and the trees and my old Ford sitting white in the driveway. “Oh, boy! I can hardly wait for 7 o’clock.”
The evening before I had stepped inside with my newest toy. The dogs were excited, sniffing eagerly. Mary’s eyes turned huge and her face became a steel wool question mark as she tried her best to guess what I carried.
“It’s a leaf blower,” I shouted out with the joy of a kid at Christmas with a brand new Flexible Flyer. “Battery operated!”
With that I pulled the trigger, blowing a picture off the wall in the dining room and scaring the squash out of both dogs, one of which knocked Mary to the floor with a fine body check to her shin. Dust bunnies that we didn’t even know lived in our house sailed through the living room like planes at an air show.
“WOW!” I shouted as I let go of the trigger, Mary hopping away holding one leg up, and four dog eyes peering from behind the couch that stretched at an odd angle away from the wall.
“I think it’ll work,” I smiled after that first try with my new leaf blower.
At daybreak I snuck quietly out the back door in my robe and slippers, leaf blower firm in my fist. Stepping calmly and confidently up to my truck I let loose with a mighty blast from the leaf blower.
Within a minute it was all over. Windshield, side and rear windows, mirrors, roof and hood were bare. I even blew snow off the license plate.
“Show me the best you’ve got, Mother Nature. I’m ready for winter now.”