Family, gardening, Nature, Seasons, Uncategorized, work

Leaf Vortex Conspiracy

41 Comments

YA and her boyfriend raked the leaves yesterday. If you live in the Twin Cities you’ll be saying to yourself at this point “the last yard waste pick up was two weeks ago – why did she wait so long”.  Well, I’ll tell you why.  I live next door to the tree that waits until every other tree in Southwest Minneapolis has dropped its leaves to start shedding its own foliage.  Every. Single. Year.

In addition, we live in a leaf vortex, right in the middle of the block. My neighbors to the south routinely have 5-6 bags of leaves, my neighbors to the north 4-5 bags.  My house this year – 20 bags.  I really think that my neighbors have figured out a way to get their leaves to blow into my yard at this time of year.

It doesn’t help that I detest leaf raking. Actually that’s not quite true.  I don’t mind the raking part.  It’s the bagging part I don’t like, especially now that we have to use paper bags; the paper bags are so unwieldy and hard to fill.  This is kinda how I feel about yardwork… I don’t mind the work, I just hate the clean up.  A perfect gardening day is when YA follows me about and bags up all the weeds and detritus from my work!

Anything you’re sure of, even if it doesn’t make sense?

 

41 thoughts on “Leaf Vortex Conspiracy”

  2. I am sure that people in my state will be upset when state employees get raises, even though they want the services we provide.

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    1. Everybody complains about paying taxes, yet very few people can actually tell what they pay in taxes, nor do they stop to think about what they get for them. I’m sure you earn every penny you’re paid, Renee.

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  3. Work related. If a job is in Dayton and you live in Dayton you will be assigned to the job in Cincinnati. If the job is in Cincinnati and you live in Cincinnati you will be assigned where? Dayton for sure. It makes no sense.

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  5. I’m sure that year after year, the seemingly least qualified people in the world (politicians) are elected to jobs that involve GOVERNING (for which they seem to have ZERO qualifications. What makes no sense is that “We the people” know this but we have chosen to continually play the game that the Ds and Rs foist upon us year after year.

    Talk about the perfect definition of “insanity’!

    Chris in O-town

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    2. I have a question for you, Chris, if you don’t mind. I wonder what “governing” looks like. How can you tell if a person is good at it? If I want to identify a good pitcher in baseball, I can consider such things as ball speed and control to identify a good one (although the Minnesota Twins can’t seem to do this!). What would help me spot someone good at governing from a field of people running for office? By definition, you seem to exclude all the folks who have governed before, calling them “politicians.” Do you think the smart way to pick a person for governing is to start with the pool of people who have never done it before?

      This is not a trick question, nor a hostile one. I just genuinely wonder what process you think is appropriate for picking folks who will govern well.

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      1. Jose Berrios (Twins pitcher, for those who don’t know) has flashes of brilliance, Steve. And then, of course, there are the other days when he seems definitely ordinary.

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        2. He works hard and is young (24, I think), so I have hopes he will only get better. Barring injury, of course.

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      2. When I was asked to run for the townboard and asked what qualifications I had, I said I had a chainsaw and I knew how to use it. Because one of our responsibilities is clearing trees off the roads.

        I was first appointed to the board in 1999 to fill a vacancy. Then elected in 2000. Roads were and remain, the biggest issue to our residents. They’ll raise their own taxes if it means we’ll keep the roads in better shape. We have 32 miles of roads in the township. Most are gravel. The only blacktop roads are within the subdivisions. Course we have county hard surface roads too. We’re not that “rural”…

        We spend more time now on zoning issues. Water quality issues. But I still get my share of cutting up trees and picking up garbage.

        Good governing is listening.
        We just had an issue of a proposed development on the edge of residential / rural area. The people didn’t want the development and are trying to keep the area like it was 20 years ago.
        And we voted the development down on a 3-2 vote. But it’s not like it was 20 years ago. The area is changing. We’re too close to Rochester. The road will be turning into a major thoroughfare sometime in the next 10 years or so.
        Then this area with the proposed development may turn into way more houses than was proposed now. So was it smart to turn it down now? Hard to say.
        The residents, for now, appreciated us turning it down. And when you say this could be worse next time around, they say ‘yeah, well, I’ll be gone and it won’t be my problem then’. which is a pretty crappy way to look at it. So I’m still not sure we made the right call.

        I guess that’s part of “governing”.

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      3. Great question, Steve. I’m not sure I have THE answer, but I hold up politicians such as former congressman Ron Paul as people capable of governing well. I don’t mean to automatically exclude all past and current politicians from being capable of governing because many were caught in a broken, corrupt, dysfunctional system that no longer allows for statesmen and stateswomen to debate, compromise, and pass laws that at least do no serious harm. How many people have we elected who have gone to DC as earnest, well-meaning, naive folks who intend to reform things, shake up the system, break the gridlock, etc., only to find that one or two terms later, these same people have BECOME part of the problem they were trying to eliminate?

        To me, governing consists not of passing laws just so we can “get things done” or show the electorate that the politician is “working for you.” I HATE those trite political phrases. Get “what things” done? What kind of work? Are you going to mow my lawn? I’d much prefer that over having you increase my share of the national debt by tens of thousands of dollars by declaring war on a non-entity (terrorism) and starting two major wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) that may never end without raising any tax money or cutting spending in order to pay for those wars.

        Governance is enacting laws that ideally help each citizen succeed to the best of their ability. It also means getting rid of laws that favor one person or group over another, which hopefully levels the playing field to allow each person or business to succeed or not based on their own abilities and hard work, rather than allowing the rich and powerful to maintain and increase their advantage over “the 99%.”

        Governing is NOT spending money we (the taxpayers) don’t have and haven’t even earned yet (check out the national debt and annual deficits). Governance is NOT cutting taxes but also NOT cutting SPENDING. Governance IS being fiscally responsible. Governance is NOT legislating morality in either direction (conservative or liberal). Governance IS passing legislation that allows each individual to pursue their own particular version of happiness or success in any way they choose as long as it doesn’t infringe on any other person’s right to pursue THEIR happiness or success.

        Governance is respecting and preserving the environment and passing laws and enacting policies that reflect that respect.

        Governance is not only proclaiming we are a peaceful nation but working to avoid wars that don’t directly affect our freedom. Not trying to force democracy or the American way of life upon people who don’t want it or aren’t ready for it. Not trying to build nations just by drawing lines on a map and demanding multiple tribes, cultures, or ethnic groups respect those lines and begin to abruptly and magically, peacefully coexist.

        That’s my view in a nutshell and poorly organized off the top of my head after bingeing on turkey and dressing today. But the simple answer is, I’m a Libertarian and we believe that minimal government is far better than extensive, represssive, and overly ambitious government.

        Chris

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  7. Speaking of baseball, the Minnesota Twins will be rebuilding for the future for the next decade and will never again reach the postseason. Or, if they happen to be the wild card team, they will play against the Yankees and be crushed and swiftly eliminated.

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    1. have you watched or read mineyball? the analytics used when applied to baseball is a wonderous thing to behold.
      i predict lighting fast turn around with a manager who gets it and a general manager who will have a handle on the whys you choose someone

      maybe as the question is posed we should plug analytics into politics and find people’s history of integrity and purpose as the premise for selection

      as part of the local grassroots politics in eden prairie i know what a challenge it can be to find recruit help and support people to be involved

      if the political parties viewed it like a team it would be handled differently

      there is a marvelous article about a getting out to vote campaign that has been successful in vegas published in this month mother jones
      i will try and remember to link tomorrow (traveling to chicago today to bring daughter home for thanksgiving) it talks about finding people who can do the work needed and how they are hired away from their regular jobs to work a full year before the election yo lay out the groundwork needed to make a difference

      what if we could fix both the twins and the government wouldn’t hat be sweet

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        1. My belief in the Twins continued failure is just part of my belief that I can’t have good things. Which is confirmed by other things, but the Twins are easy to pick on.

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        2. the twins just threw out the last remnants of the past with paul molotov and allowing joe mauer to fade away quietly
          they are ready to turn the page
          maybe you too?

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  8. I just had a senior moment: is it leafs or leaves? Is there such a word as “leafs”? I honestly had to scroll up to the story to assure myself that I knew which one to write. Oh my –

    As I’ve written before, my first year out here was my last for bagging leaves because there were 70 bags, and each one cost $1 to have picked up. This fall, they just kept coming and coming. Having learned the hard way that waiting for all the leaves to come down before blowing, I now re-blow 3-4 times. Each year, it’s the same race: Leaf clean up before the snow but after they’re all down. This is the very first year that it looks like winter won the race. My three gigantic piles are compressed by two slight snowfalls, and the vacuum truck is 40 jobs behind.

    Oh my –

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    1. this year i bagged all my leaves in my lawnmower, emptied them into a monster garbage can and pulled them around back to a corner of the fence and emptied. probably 6 or 7 cans total after the leaves get ground up in the lawnmower before going in the can, the pile in the corner ended up being more substantial than i would have grossed but i will report back in april as to what it condenses to
      the size of a vw bug right now with the tires flattened

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    2. Leaves if you’re talking about more than one leaf. However if you use it as a verb — “He leafs through the magazine while waiting for his haircut”….

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  9. Chris has probably not checked back on his post and so has not seen my question. He doesn’t lurk on this site as much as some folks.

    I’ve been wondering about how we can pick good leaders for some time. My pondering was partly inspired by all the folks who thought Donald Trump would be a good president because he was a successful businessman. There seems to be controversy now about whether he was good at business, but let’s put that aside.

    This country has had seven presidents who came to the office after establishing positive reputations in business. Most recently we had George HW Bush and then George W Bush. The first businessmen to be president were Harding, Coolidge and Hoover. As a group, former businessmen have not done well as president. Ironically, the two with relatively good ratings for their service were the two Democrats, peanut farmer Jimmy Carter and haberdasher Harry Truman. Harding, Coolidge and Hoover were considered especially mediocre by their peers, but this is America and we don’t pay much attention to history.

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    1. Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia before becoming president so he at least had some governing experience before the presidency. Unlike the guy who is currently in the white house.

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    3. I’ve always felt that business experience is poor preparation for the presidency. Businesses are not democratic. Neither is the military or religious institutions and individuals who have risen to prominence in those fields have no special qualification to lead a democratic society.

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      1. Many presidents who had been in the military were mediocre politicians. Andrew Jackson (one of Trump’s heroes) is an example. I grew up thinking Dwight Eisenhower was another example of a good general who was a second-rate president, but to me he now seems to have been competent and thoughtful.

        A surprising number of presidents were planters . . . farmers, if you will. And that profession gave us some pretty good politicians: Washington, Adams, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, JQ Adams and Carter.

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    4. Sorry I was late on my reply, Steve. I don’t check in at TB every day, and when I do, it’s usually early so I miss many comments posted after about 9:00 am.

      Since a president is mainly a figurehead plus an administrator, it’s natural to think successful business people (CEOs, etc) can be effective POTUS’s. But since government is not a profit-motivated or profit-dependent entity, it necessarily operates much differently than a for-profit business. Successful CEOs might make great Treasury Secretaries or Office of Management and Budget directors, but I think a POTUS must be most adept at leading by example and hiring the absolute best people for each job in the administration who will be effective in solving the country’s problems.

      Chris

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