We do our share of raking and leaf blowing in the Fall but mostly we process leaves. I run over them with our lawn mower. The mulch sits there all winter as it decomposes. In the summer our lawn looks brown and if we’re lucky I will only have to mow once.
With the yard under control we planned to go downtown but our car wouldn’t start. The computerized dash kept cycling through a long list of things that were amiss. We called AAA thinking we might need a tow. The AAA guy told us even though our battery looked new it needed to be replaced. He jumped it and we headed up to AutoZone. The battery was still under warranty and the cashier, with fake nails an inch and a half long, grabbed a tool kit and the new battery and carried them out to our car. Peggi popped the hood and the cashier installed our battery wearing gloves that allowed her nails to protrude. She tested the new battery and told us we still may have a problem with the alternator. So we drove our car over to B&B Automotive on Saint Paul.
They were super busy, as usual, but said they would take a look. Peggi and started the long walk home. We stopped at Monte Alban for some Mexican food and just as we were finishing Brian called from B&B called to say there was nothing wrong with our car. So we headed back to the shop. I took this picture of a bittersweet bush behind the House of Guitars.
Back home we scooped up two wheelbarrow loads of the leaf mulch from our lawn and took it down to the garden where we scattered it on the garlic bulbs we had just planted. I’m listening to Cal Zone’s show on WAYO as I write this and overjoyed to be hearing Ornette Coleman’s “Trouble in the East” on the radio. The song was recorded live at NYU in 1969. The music critic Martin Williams, who was in the crowd that night, wrote, “It felt spontaneously ordered in all its aspects, and had the timeless joy and melancholy of the blues running through it. It had its feet planted on the earth and it spoke to the gods. It is one of the most exciting, beautiful, and satisfying musical performances I have ever heard.”
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