Today I took one more step into geezerhood. I’ve been clearing some of the low-hanging branches on several huge pine trees out front. The trees have begun taking over a portion of the driveway, also making it dangerous to back out since you can’t see cars coming down the street, and they pretty much can’t see you either. These are really big trees that are long overdue for trimming, and the project is in its fourth day.
Anthony from next door and his two cousins from down the street, Dom and Philip, appeared in my front yard today wearing work gloves – “Can we help?”
“Oh, uhhh, thanks, guys. That’s nice, but you don’t have to…”
“Yes, we do. Mom said to come over and help you because she could hear you breathing all the way over at our house.” Wheezing is probably more accurate…
Tammy and John are my new neighbors – they just built a new home on the previously empty lot next to our house, and it’s the first time in 20 years that I’ve had to be concerned about someone hearing the sounds my body makes when I’m doing yard work.
We each grabbed some long pine boughs and began dragging them around back to the ravine. I knew I had taken one more step into geezerhood when, after our first deposit, I looked up to see the boys sprinting across my backyard, heading back to the trees out front, leaping and waving their arms wildly in the air.
Three 5th grade boys eager to haul more branches. In one glimpse I got of them, all three seemed to be in the air at the same time, no feet touching the ground! Reminded me of that song we did in a kid’s musical years ago – that one with the refrain, “Walking and leaping and praising God! Walking and leaping and praising God….!”
I’ve got a deep backyard that ends where it drops off into the ravine. I had barely made it halfway across the yard, and the boys were already coming around the side of the house with more branches.
“Just stay back there, and let the boys bring the branches to you,” Tammy called from her yard. I tried to answer, but all I got out was, “Iiii heeeee ahhhhh. Ohhhhoo Kheeheehee. Thanksssss.” How humiliating…
The boys totally embarrassed me – in ten minutes, the job was done and…I took one more step into Geezerhood…
It isn’t that I couldn’t have moved those branches around back on my own, but I think Anthony’s mom, Tammy, may have been getting worried about me. Did I mention that she works at the hospital?
My routine the previous days had been to drag several branches around back, break them down, pile them up in the ravine, sit down in one of the chairs at the top of the trail…to enjoy the view of course, walk up to my backyard, sit in one of the chairs there and catch my breath… Not the fastest process in the world but a process nonetheless. On some trips I’d cut through the garage and take a bottle of water from the fridge…just to keep hydrated. In ten minutes today, the boys accomplished what had taken me an hour and a half or more on previous days.
In the back of my mind I recalled growing up in the old neighborhood and how we frequently helped our neighbors, especially the older ones. Didn’t even have to be told; we just jumped in, arms waving wildly, running, leaping and screaming!
What great fun! How those old coots back then must have hated us…!
The Last Word:
Diane wasn't satisfied that my breathing problems on this project were merely the result of the onset of geezerhood, so I eventually had to visit the doctor. When you're in your late 50's, male, overweight and tell them you have shortness of breath, they get you in quickly...as in "Come over right now!" After a number of tests, including biopsies of some enlarged lymph nodes, a pulmonologist concluded that I was "recovering" from pneumonia (which we didn't know I had), and antibiotics were prescribed. Feelin' better...