Rainy Saturday
I feel virtuous this morning because I started on my taxes. Mostly, that means I skipped through TurboTax steps while making notes of information I need to find in the pile of papers on and in my file cabinet. But I’m pretty sure I’ll be paying this year. Either that, or just barely breaking even.
The other day a guy showed up to edge my lawn, because my homeowner’s association sent me a pissy letter about the edging, and I did buy a weed whacker but it hasn’t been enough to battle the edges left by the former owners. So I’m waiting for this guy to show up, and he’s late, and I go down the street to get the mail, and I see other guys working on another lawn. I have a long talk with them. (In Spanish, so it took a lot of thought and effort on my part. How do you say hedges in Spanish?) They give me their number for future lawn service consideration. They were hard-working, normal-looking guys.
So then I’m back home and this guy shows up to edge my lawn. (See first sentence of paragraph above.) His appearance surprised me. He’d told me, on the phone, in perfect English, that he would be there himself. (He was a co-owner, not an employee.) So I don’t know what I was expecting. But it wasn’t the guy who showed up. He was styled sort of like a younger, straighter Raymundo Baltazar. But cuter than that. He had red highlights in his gelled hair, and the cutest short-sleeved western shirt over his gray cotton thermal.
The way he spoke to me gave me the impression that he was used to being forgiven by women, whether for postponing their lawn service or sleeping with their friends. It was funny. He wasn’t my type, but he amused me, so I let him do the lawn. And then I paid him the price we’d agreed upon, even though he didn’t bring the tools to trim the hedges. When he left, he smiled over his shoulder and said, “Maybe you can write a review for our company.” I guess he’d noticed me typing away while he worked.
I’m thinking I’ll call the normal-looking guys next time. I wouldn’t want this cute guy working on my lawn more than once or twice a year.
The grass is still wet outside. I like that I can see my back yard while I’m typing. We have one squirrel and one tiny wren who forage here every day. All the leaves on my pear tree are suddenly red and gold. There’s a pile of tangled windchimes on a broken patio chair. I need to hang them up for good feng shui. But I’m not in a hurry. I’ll type a little more, first.
