News Views

BY GARY GERARD Times-Union Managing Editor

It seems trite to write about the weather, but honestly, what in the world happened here in Indiana this past week?

There were thunderstorms, tornadoes, wind, rain, snow and 50-degree temperature swings.

It was driving me crazy.

A week ago, on Saturday, my wife went to Indianapolis with a friend.

Their daughters - one from IU and one from Ball State - met up with them for shopping and dinner.

So, having the day to myself, I headed to Logansport to meet up with some old golf buddies.

It was a beautiful day.

A little breezy, but really mild - with temperatures in the low 70s.

Of course, my golf score wasn't in the low 70s. I shot 87. That seems to be where my golf game is these days, and I'm not happy about it, but what do you do?

I didn't break 80 once this year. I usually post aÊcouple rounds in the 70s. I guess I'm just not playing enough. That's it. I need to play more golf.

That's probably not going to happen until next year now. It's a sure sign of winter approaching when I take theÊgolf clubs out of theÊtrunk of the car.

That happened this week.

But I digress. This is about the weather.

Last Saturday was a beautiful - albeit windy - day in November.

Arriving home late Saturday evening, I didn't pay particular attention to the yard, although I slogged through some pretty deep leaf piles getting to the front door.

Sunday, it became apparent I had a significant leaf problem.

You see, there are six big trees on my 80- by 80-foot lot. My neighbor across the street is a seasonal cottage kind of guy. He has named his cottage "Six Oaks."

I think you get the picture of my neighborhood.

The winds Sunday, which by now were howling around 25 mph with gusts to 40, were in the process of creating a giant leaf drift in front of my home.

So while the temperatures were actually pleasant Sunday, the wind speed made it virtually impossible to deal with the leaf problem.

I was putting off dealing with the leaf problem anyway because I have this one particularly stubborn maple tree.

It still has - to this day - half of its leaves attached. Even after all the wind and wild weather. It's insane. I kept waiting because I didn't want to rake leaves more than once.

But after work Monday, with rain in the forecast and temps in the 60s, the thought of an enormous pile of wet leaves in front of my home was too much to take.

With the wind abated, I attacked the leaves, even though the maple tree was not yet bare.

By now, leaves had drifted waist high across the front of the house, forming a huge V-shaped pile out into the driveway and front yard.

I raked them onto a big tarp and dragged the tarp over to the hillside to the south of my house. It took six trips.

Then I burned them. Was that wrong? Is there a statute of limitations on leaf burning? Am I risking prosecution for writing this?

Anyway, the whole process took me well past dark. I looked up at the roof on the way back into the house and noticed the gutters were full of leaves. A pile of leaves had collected on theÊroof over the front porch.

I told myself I would take care of those the following day.

But on the following day - Tuesday - rain precluded cleaning the gutters and clearing the roof.

There's always tomorrow, I thought, since, afterall, the temps were still in the 50s.

Wednesday after work, it was 29 degrees. But I could no longer procrastinate the gutter/roof fiasco.

I gassed up the leaf blower, set up the ladder and climbed up on the roof.

My roof has two levels. You have to start on the top level and blow all the leaves down to the lower level. Then clean off the lower level.

So I put the leaf blower down and pulled the ladder up on the first level. Then I set the ladder up to the second level, grabbed the leaf blower and made my way to the second roof level.

I pulled and pulled and pulled, yet the leaf blower wouldn't start. Choke, no choke. Throttle, no throttle. I tried everything. No luck.

By now, I have broken a sweat from yanking on the rope, even though the temperature is in high 20s and the wind is howling again.

And I'm on my roof.

I reverse the whole two-level ladder process, climbed back down, got a screw driver and removed the cover from the tiny leaf blower carburetor.

I went to the yard barn and grabbed a can of starting fluid. Ah, the smell of ether in autumn.

One quick squirt and voila, the leaf blower springs to life.

I replace the carburetor cover with the blower still running and reverse the whole two-level ladder process.

Finally, I start blowing leaves out of the gutter on the top part of the roof. They don't move. They're frozen. They're stuck fast in the gutter.

I curse the weather in Indiana.

Now I have a project on my hands. I put the leaf blower down.

I reverse the whole two-level ladder process and climb back down to the ground.

I tell myself I'll drag the hose up there and spray out gutters. Duh, the hose is frozen.

So I grab one of those white, five-gallon buckets out of the garage. I use a pitcher to fill it with hot water from the faucet in the kitchen. I haul it up to the first level. I move the ladder. I haul it up to the second level and pour it along the gutter.

Success. The leaves thaw almost instantly and I am able to blow them out of the gutter.

I repeat the process on the lower level.

Of course, after all this nonsense, there is a huge amount of wet, disgusting leaves and gutter goo blown all over my car, the driveway and the deck in front of the house.

While cleaning up the mess, it dawned on me that this whole miserable process could have been avoided if I hadn't procrastinated the annual leaf cleanup.

But it's not my fault.

I'm blaming the Indiana weather.

And that maple tree.