I know A Guy

Do you ever have one of those days (or moments) when you’ve just had it? You’ve had enough. You’ve put up with a situation for as long as you intend to and you’ve reached the absolute end.

For me, that day and time arrived bright and early Saturday morning. And no, I didn’t decide it was time for an entirely new life altogether, jump in my car and just start driving – as tempting as that little daydream can be. I’m not writing you from my hidden bunker, somewhere “out west.”

I looked around my house – specifically at the backyard – at all the projects that were going to get done when the weather clears. When the truck is fixed. When the trailer is available. When OS isn’t working. When YS is home. When donkeys come flying by the window.

I looked around at all those projects and I thought – that’s it. They’re getting done TODAY. And by today, I mean right now.

First, M and I got in the back yard and started clearing up the pieces of fencing that were taken down when our old fence had to be replaced . . . (wait for it) . . . TWO YEARS AGO!!! When one of those Atlantic hurricanes came a little too far inland and blew down the back section of our fence, we had to have it replaced – and we agreed that we would take down the remainder of the old fence and cart off the old wood pieces.

Two years ago.

Since that time, M has made various attempts to get the wood fencing out of the yard. And when you talk to him about it, he swears and declares that it’s all gone.

But it’s not.

There are still boards leaning up against the house. Leaning up against the new fence. Lying on the ground, beside the storage shed. Scattered around the yard. And no one EVER seems bothered by it, but me.

M and I spent Saturday morning, getting up those rotting pieces of fencing, digging in the piles of leaves to pull them up and loading them . . . not in a trailer pulled behind a truck, as we have been waiting on all this time. No, we loaded them up in the back of my CRV.

It was so full, you couldn’t have gotten a piece of paper in there, but we got that back yard cleaned up. Then we drove to the dump, which is open on Saturday until noon . . .

And the dump was closed. Closed on Saturdays until further notice.

I’m not sure how I refrained from throwing those boards over the locked fence around the dump. I think it was the idea that there were probably cameras there that deterred me. I also drove away without ramming my car through the gate, which I thought showed great restraint and maturity.

Fortunately, I know a guy.

He helped us get the boards unloaded and he assured me that the city he lives in (10 minutes from my house) will pick them up on trash day. I baked him some cookies on Sunday, and we considered it a done deal.

When M and I got back home, I decided we probably needed to thank Jesus that we hadn’t seen any copperhead snakes while we were digging in the leaves and wood. That’s just the type of place they LOVE to hide.

I told one of my brothers about my Saturday morning adventure and he said that there probably had been copperheads in the wood, but when they saw my face as I was stomping across the back yard, they high-tailed it out of there.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Saturday afternoon.