Sprung Spring

I'm not really one for manual labour, as much as I enjoy having a lawn out front I doubt that if I owned a home I'd be good enough to keep it very neat. My family - well, my parents - love having a lawn and garden and tend to work very hard to keep it looking great. My mother in particular looks after the gardens, with myself and my little brother there to assist.

Now, of course, this is a little different with my neighbors. Nextdoor lives a little old lady, a widow who has been a friend of the family for some time. After her husband died, my older brother - who was living with us at the time - got her permission to use her garage to park his car. In exchange he was on call for whatever she needed, and at her age that includes things like changing a lightbulb but goes all the way up to cleaning the eaves.

When my brother moved out, she continued to rely on the support of my family. We tend to do the odd things for her - I often shovel her driveway during the winter, help with taking the garbage out for pick-up, and things like that. Nowadays, her older son has returned to live with him. I've only met him on occasion outside, but he's pretty preoccupied with his recent ex-wife and his work (or search for it), so he doesn't get around to doing yard work much. For the past while, it's gotten to the point where my neighbor is more comfortable with hiring a company to mow the lawns rather than wait for her son to do anything.

Anyway, I was once again called upon to help, this time in the form of trimming hedges around the property. It's been a good growing season so a lot of them have grown too far out from where they should be. It took a few hours to get it all cut, but it was what I was doing Wednesday and Thursday. I'm bound to be compensated, my neighbor will often force money onto me for the smallest tasks, but I often try to at least get her to pay me less. Frankly, not getting paid for anything I do around the house makes yard work and the like seem like jobs not worth getting paid for. Her and my mother tend to do these transactions behind my back now. I guess I just can't accept the money for the easy work face to face anymore.

Oh, just an odd side note: You know when a bar you can fill in gives suggestions for prior searches or titles? Well for whatever reason mine is giving me a lot results I'm sure I've never typed in before.

Weird.

Well, that's all for today. I might put together another one of those anime overviews if I find some good shots.