A Gruelling Day

 I’m still sticking to the conspiracy theory about the Universe. It doesn’t only want me to have any extra money it also wants me to have no time. Last week I cleaned up the yard, picking up most of the dead branches and burned them. Well, that wasn’t good enough. A few days ago we had a storm with winds up to 100 km/h. High winds cause branches to break off trees.

We have willows growing on the perimeter of our property. I planted them twenty years ago and I curse the day when we made the decision to plant willows. I got the cuttings from a friend of mine. They were sticks about one foot long. In the Spring I stuck them into soil and kept watering them. They developed roots and sprouted little branches, and then in the Fall I planted them around our property.

Willows grow fast and within three years we had a nice high hedge. The problem with willows is that the branches are very brittle. That saying about ‘bending like a willow’ is not quite accurate. Those brittle branches break, especially when it gets windy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: DON’T PLANT WILLOWS!! Unless you are asking to be punished for it. There is no end to the work with them. Those lovely catkins on the pussywillows are not worth it.

Repeat after me: “I WILL NEVER PLANT WILLOWS!” Again: “I WILL NEVER PLANT WILLOWS!”

Our nice clean yard was covered with a thick carpet of willow branches. We’ve never had it this bad. Not only our yard but also part of our neighbor’s yard in the back on one side. I try to be a good neighbor and I always clean up those branches even from their yards.

My wife and I went out this morning and raked the branches together and moved them into a pile in my garden. That pile is huge. I’m hoping for no wind tomorrow morning so I can burn them. There will be high flames and it will be scary. We burn twice a year: once in the Spring and once in the Fall. I could take the branches to the dump but that would involve several trips with my truck. Faster and easier just to burn them at home.

Either way it is gruelling work raking and loading up the piles of branches into a trailer, and then dumping them again in the garden. On top of that it was windy and chilly. I have a bit of a cold and too much exertion causes one to perspire and tire more quickly. I did not need this extra work. What makes matters worse I wanted to go fishing this morning. That didn’t happen.

The Universe doesn’t want me to go fishing, either.

Now I have a dilemma. If there is no wind tomorrow morning I will have to burn those darn branches, but if it is windy I can go fishing. What should I pray for? Wind or no wind?

I’m really torn…