He Should Know Me by Now

Since Mr. Fixit has been undergoing treatment, I have been trying to take on some of the chores around the house.  There has been a new division of labor—his job is to get well and my job is to do what I can physically do to make it easier for him. There are exceptions, of course. I don’t go under the house for any reason except to rescue him if he’s doing something under there. I won’t go into the attic. The access door is small, and let’s just say that a rotund lady of certain years should not be crawling through a small attic door. I do have some pride.

This summer I mowed a few times and trimmed the bushes with the chain saw. Now that the leaves have fallen the yard was a covered in about a three inch layer of oak, maple, and pecan tree leaves, not to mention pine needles that have to be raked by hand.

Mr. Fixit attached the thing on the lawn mower that catches the grass and leaves instead of spitting them back onto the yard. I don’t know the technical term for that. I began a few days ago picking up and bagging the leaves for pickup by the city. The problem is that I have little time in the mornings, and if I don’t get things done  early, by afternoon I am useless. I worked in the yard a couple of days, and yesterday (Saturday) he went to help one of the sons work on his car. I decided to work some more on the leaves without his supervision.  I did most of it, but there were places I left uncleaned. I get nervous on that mower going over protruding roots and navigating through the dips and low spots in the yard. He finished it when he came home.

This morning he said, “Did you notice that when you use the brake on the law mower on a slant that it doesn’t hold too well?”

I thought about it and replied, “I don’t think I used the brake except to stop on level ground to empty the leaf containers.”

He rolled his eyes and walked away. He’s known me for 50 years. He should have known my thoughts about using brakes.