Spring Cleaning

Today the summer drapes went up, the mudroom got cleaned of all winter coats and hats and the”Ice Melt” that’s safe for the dog’s paws.

Everybody in my neighborhood was outside doing some kind of yard work today.  It felt like late May rather than mid-March.

Every day I walk Boomer past a house on campus that rents to students. There’s always garbage piled up on the porch and red plastic cups  litter the lawn every Sunday morning. Boomer loves this house because there’s always some half-eaten food in the shubbery. One day, much to my horror,  I saw a box of rat poison on the lawn.

It’s a kind of “rat poison” house, if you know what I mean.  But it’s also a nice house in many ways. There’s a great deck on the back; it’s painted nicely; and the owners put fancy new front doors on it last year. It’s a house about which I always think: “If someone would just take care of this place…”

Today there was a kid raking leaves at this house. I think he’s a new tenant because I’ve never seen this kid before. He was raking all the dead leaves out from under the shrubs, and on the lawn there were about 6 bags of mulch  that he clearly was going to spread after he cleaned up.

I was so happy to see him doing this!

Inordinately happy.  Because really, what do I care?  But for some reason I do care. I love it when people tend their surroundings and take care of their homes. It says something about what they value: order, neatness, and also aesthetics. And it’s particularly laudatory when the people are just renters, and especially when these renters are college students.

As Boomer and I passed, the kid looked up and said,”Hi.” I said, “Hi! Nice job!  He said, “Thanks!”

Happily, I don’t think this is going to be the “rat poison” house anymore, and I think Boomer’s smorgasbord has just ended.

Poor Boomer.