Storm; Lear; Rake; Title and Taxes; Petrol; Root, Limb and Grass Cutting; Inventions/Needs

The TV would have me believe that a catastrophic, tree-crashing, limb-tearing, window-shattering thunderstorm is coming from the west.

They actually cut out the first three minutes of "CSI," so they could show doppler-radar images of the approaching cataclysm. And about 25 minutes in, they switched to the weather room for the latest intel.

During the entire show, there was the station id in the lower right corner, the weather map in the lower left corner, and a crawl between the two warning of everything from the possibility of broken dishes to the destruction of reinforced concrete buildings.

I've always found weather alerts to be a nusiance. What am I supposed to do, immediately turn off the TV and hide in the closet for the next hour.

"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulfurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
Crack nature's molds, all germens spill at once
That make ingrateful man!"
"King Lear" - Act III - Scene II Another part of the heath

Yesterday, I was out bright and early with rake, pitch fork, and garbage bags to finish cleaning the debris along the south side of the property. I worked for about an hour, then came in to clean up and go run errands. Of course, after lunch I had to spend another couple of hours doing the same thing. But at last, it was finished.

It seemed like such a simple task at first. But it has taken hours and hours of work and 32-gallon container after container and 42-gallon-3-mil-thick bag after bag. I'm sure the garbage truck guys have hired a hit man.

I trotted off around 10 yesterday to the courthouse with the right group of papers (death certificate, car title, and last will and testament), this time, to have the car registered only in my name and to pay the ad valorum taxes. It was only about $35, but then it is an 11-year-old car.

I don't understand how folks with expensive cars afford the taxes and insurance. But then I don't understand how people have the money to buy big-ass, road-hogging, gas-guzzling vehicles anyway.

There's has to be a special level of Dante's Inferno for the makers and buyers of SUVs. It should be near the one for those who make land mines, automatic weapons, and info commercials. No wait! It's actually closer to the one reserved for most of the members of the Bush administration.

Now that I have to be very careful with the few kopecs I have, I've been scoping out places with the cheapest gas prices. Last week, I bought $15 worth and got slightly more than 5 gallons.

I vaguely remember hearing something about Pilot. So I stopped there yesterday for petrol. It is a behemoth place with about 20 pumps for cars and a hugh section in the back for 18-wheelers. As I pulled in, I felt like I was going to be squashed at any moment by one of the trucks. The medium-grade petrol was $2.69 per gallon. For the first time in ages, I was able to fill up the car for less than $25.

This morning, I hit the yard again. This time I wanted to finish raking the tangled roots out of the prior fern/bird bath bed. Another supposedly simple task that took about two hours. Some of the soil, I was able to use where I'd uprooted the mulberry stump.

After my standard buffet lunch, I cruised by Lowe's to find a replacement blade for the reciprocating saw. I was sure they were going to cost $20 up. But I found just what I needed for $3.

Once home, I dragged the power extension cord, blade and saw to the front of the yard to work on another stump. This was the one where I managed to snap the blade on Tuesday. It struck me that I needed to start a cut with a hand saw then insert the reciprocating saw blade in the cut. That way there is less likehood of the blade jumping or twisting. Worked wonders! Took me about ten minutes to cut out the stump. I was also able to cut up a 4-inch diameter limb that had fallen last week.

All this effort has been leading up to making the front yard easier to mow. And indeed it was easier, but gosh was I tired after I finished. But it does look nice. I still need to trim the drive. And there's a six-foot section to the north of the drive that I didn't touch. The primary reason is that pine straw has been raked up against the hedge for years. Maybe because it is only pine straw, I hope, it will not be as difficult to clean up as the south side. So that wee task is on my agenda for tomorrow.

I was glancing last night at James Burke's book "Connections." He mentions that as nomads settled along the Nile in 5000 BCE, there was a need to plant crops. The first efforts were done by hand, then someone came up with the digging stick. At some point the digging stick morphed into the scratch plow. "This simple implement may arguably be called the most fundamental invention in the history of man, and the innovation that brought civilization into being, because it the instrument of surplus."

Burke's discussions center on how inventions fill needs. And then someone comes up with an idea that expands greatly the versatility of the original. There's a fascinating section on how ships sail. From the square sail to the lateen-rigged sail to the use of both with the addition of a sternpost rudder.

As I've gone through the yard-cleaning process, I've found myself doing something in a similar fashion - having a need and trying to find an invention to meet that need. First I used hand clippers to snip limbs and quickly discovered the limitations. Next I used the long-handeled pruners. Still there were problems. So I tried a thin saw. Then a broader saw. And then I jumped to the reciprocating saw. (Nope, I don't think I'm ready for a chain saw.)

The same process worked for raking. First I tried a leaf rake. And realized that was going to have little impact on the root-embedded debris, so I tried a bow rake that allows you to dig into the soil. Then I thought about adding a pitch fork to make it easier to dispose of the debris.

PAX!