The other day my wife came home and told me she had bought some big garbage bags. We have plenty of the normal size garbage bags, so buying the big ones meant one thing and one thing only. It’ll soon be leaf raking time around the Lewis household. I don’t even complain about it anymore. No matter how much I stomp my feet and act like a baby when it comes to raking leaves, I still have to do it.

Fortunately, the majority of the leaves were raked up in the fall.

There are some jobs I enjoy doing around the yard. I enjoy mowing the lawn on a nice hot sunny day. I enjoy going up on the roof blowing the leaves from the eaves with the leaf blower. I enjoy standing by the flower bed with a hose in my hand making sure the flowers are getting all the water they need.

There are jobs I do not enjoy doing. I do not enjoy shoveling the sidewalk when it’s 30 below and I definitely do not enjoy raking up and bagging leaves. I prefer to take the lawn mower to them and let Mother Nature take care of the rest.

Arguing about raking is an exercise in futility. Actually, arguing about doing anything around the house is an exercise in futility. I never win and I always end up doing whatever it is my wife thinks has to be done. The best I can do is put things off for a while, but when push comes to shove, eventually all these chores will get done whether I like it or not.

So, I just nod and say, “Hey, that sounds like a good idea.”

Now all I can do is hope that my wife doesn’t look out into the yard for a while and forgets all about those darn leaves.