Seven days off

I am on vacation this week. Yippee! I don't have to return to work until Memorial Day. I don't have any major plans. My daughter might be coming for a visit. I will be getting a mammogram done on Tuesday and I have a recheck doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I have been on a diet eating program since April 9th. So far so good. I am determined to stay the course during my vacation.

Ever since Friday night my tailbone has been killing me! I didn't fall on my rear and the pain just started very suddenly while I was sitting in front of the computer. Ever since that night it hurts so much. The pain is the worst when I get up from the sitting position.

I have been desperately searching for someone to mow my yard this summer. My father saw a "will do mowing" sign near his house and he gave me the phone numbers listed. Last Thursday I called the number and it was a 17 year old boy (Travis)and his best friend who do the mowing. Travis told me he charges $35 for large yards and $25 for smaller ones. He said he would be here at 3 pm on Friday. I told him my yard wasn't very big but since it was in bad shape I would give him $35 this first time. I don't really have much of a front yard...just back yard and some on the sides.

Travis arrived on Friday right before I was getting ready to go to work. He was a very personable boy and told me he would trim and remove leaves too. Because of health problems with my legs, I haven't been able to do much with my yard so I was relieved to find someone. When I got home from work on Friday night, I was so surprised at such a good job he and his friend did. He went above and beyond what I expected! Let me explain.

Several years ago I had raked up a pile of leaves and the leaf pile was situated near the back of my house. One day my ex boyfriend, M told me he could burn the pile of leaves for me. I told him I didn't want the pile burned where it was because I needed to move the pile farther away from the back of my house. That was common sense. My ex didn't show common sense though. A few days later I came home from work (I worked days back then)to find that he had burned the pile of leaves right where it was. When I drove past the front of my house I could see the smoke coming from my back yard and could see M's car back there. By the time I drove down the street, turned right and then drove up the back alley toward the back of my house, he had left the scene. There was still small flames lapping up from the burned pile of leaves. I pulled into my back yard and got out. I was shocked to see that the vinyl siding on the back of my house was melted! By the way, my ex was a volunteer fireman in his hometown believe it or not. I could not understand why he had not moved the pile of leaves first. When he came back about 20 minutes later, he acted like he didn't even know about the melted siding. I had to point it out to him and he said, "when did that happen?" Duh! To make a long story short, he basically lied to me about knowledge of it.

Recently (after my troubles with M bothering me) my neighbor enlightened me about that day. He told me that he and his son had walked over there that day when M was burning the leaves. My neighbor told him he was burning too close to the back of my house and my neighbor said M acted perturbed and told him he knew what he was doing. Then he took a water hose and started spraying the siding on my house and that is when my neighbor said the siding started drooping! My neighbor told me that M was drinking a beer too. I think the drinking was the real culprit.

So anyway, the place where the leaves had been burned was a big mess that never did get cleared way. Over time saplings grew there and it turned into a little jungle there. It looked terrible. When I came home from work on Friday night, I was shocked to find that the "jungle" was completely gone! The back yard looks awesome and all the old leaves were raked and removed. Travis had even stuck a note in my back door telling me that he still had a few piles of leaves he wanted to remove but that nightfall came and they had to stop. He said he would be back on Saturday.

I called his number on Saturday and his father answered. I told his father how stunned I was at such an awesome job Travis and his friend had done. I told him that I had $65 more that I wanted to give Travis. He said Travis wasn't home right then and that they were planning to go to his daughter's graduation that evening but he would tell Travis about my call. About 20 minutes later, Travis and his buddy came to my door. When I opened the door, Travis had a big grin on his face. I came out on the porch and told them how surprised I was and how he really went above and beyond my expectations. I could tell he was pleased with himself. I gave him the money and even gave them both a hug which made them laugh. He told me that he had intended to finish up by removing a few small leaf piles but he had a graduation to attend but he would be here on Sunday (today). I told him if he wanted to wait until after the weekend that would be fine. I am still amazed at how awesome the yard looks! I am really happy about it!