Sneak preview of upcoming novel.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Rainy SaturdayI 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.
Labels: stories
11:02 AM #Comments:
Nice story. I felt relaxed just reading about a Saturday at home. I'm at work unfortunately. But good news. I will be working M-F very soon. Yay!edges - la orilla
hedges - seto or seto vivo
# posted by
Letty : 2:22 PM
"I wouldn't want this cute guy working on my lawn more than once or twice a year."
Ha!
# posted by
Marigoldie : 11:18 AM
Hi Gwen,
Are you sure you don't want him back when it hot and he has to take his shirt off to work?????
Janice~
# posted by
Janice : 10:23 PM
*BARF* Oops, I threw up in my mouth a little.
I wish I could get some hot girl in a bikini to mow my lawn during the summer months. I'm all about equal-opportunity employment.
# posted by
Datty : 10:55 AM
Did he edge just the front or your entire yard? Hope he didn't charge you an arm and a leg. As I said before, I'm bringing my weed eater with me the next time I come to see you (but I'll have to leave the bikini at home)!
dot...
# posted by
dot... : 3:03 PM
Hi Gwen
I think you're being very restrained re usage of cute guy on lawns. I also think he probably didn't do that great a job. Nice shirt though.
I actually wanted to ask you more on the writerly theme as per the previous post. (See how I effortlessly move into alliteration? Obviously a writer.)
Reading what you have to say about rejections for book proposals, I wanted to know...when do you give up. (Not you giving up, I mean 'one') The hard thing I think is when you've actually had some success and then...nothing. I'm depressing myself here so I'll stop but you know, it's something I'm wondering about. This year it occurred to me that I was getting really tired of all the NOs out there. It's not like I think it should be easy but...actually no, I think partly it should be easy in the way that writing sometimes is effortless, still hard work putting it down etc but the flow, that bit's effortless...
I should say the NOs are from all the cute and not so cute boys who run the theatre companies in this country.
stopping now.
alright, I'm raving now. I love your blog, I have no idea how you do all the things you do
# posted by
Ova Girl : 6:41 PM
Letty: Thank you. That came in handy the very next day. And congrats on your imminent return to a normal schedule.
Marigoldie: [wink]
Janice: Yes, but he'd still have to do a good job.
Datty: I can mow your lawn in my bikini, I guess, but we'll have to schedule it a few months in advance. My time is money.
Dot: He mowed, edged, raked and bagged front and back, for $35. And he cleaned out the weedy, pine-needle-y flower bed in front, too. That sounds exploitive, but I swear it only took him an hour and a half.
Ova G: Cross post! Thank you. I'm answering your question now, in a new blog entry. Thanks for it...
# posted by
Gwen : 6:53 PM
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