Changing Leaves

We’ve been having some REALLY sucky weather this past week – mid-to-high 90′s, muggy, ugh. So, I’m really looking forward to this weekend. The temperature will drop twenty degrees between today and Sunday. Yay!

I’m ready for Fall this year. Last year, it took me by surprise and I didn’t want it. Last year’s Summer was so pleasant I never wanted it to end. So, Fall came too early (not really – it was right on time) and Winter seemed to last forever (which it didn’t, Spring came a little early this year.)

This Summer hasn’t been awful but it’s been the second worst since we moved to Maine (the worst was our first Summer). And actually, I’m glad the Summer was a littler rougher than last year. I was starting to lose my appreciation for winter. Last year, I didn’t even enjoy Halloween and didn’t do much decorating at all. This year, I’m already planning to convert the vegetable garden into a graveyard complete with a Grim Reaper.

But first, we have to get through the next two days of heat, humidity and rain…oh, and a possible hurricane.

Summer Field

Signs of Fall

Anyway – his transcripts of conversations with his pets should be made into a book. I also read his blog and today it made me laugh out loud. You’ll need to be a gamer (role-playing, not video) to get this, but here’s the best line:

“Yeah! It’s totally my bag of dice!” I paused for a moment, and added, “but he’s not opening it. Because if he opens it, and touches my dice, I will fucking kill that monkey.”

Go read the whole thing for a good laugh.

Part 1: The Confession

This little essay will probably disturb a few of my friends and acquaintances and it will no doubt upset my mother but it’s something I feel that I need to get out there.

I am an atheist.

Phew. There, said it. It’s something I’ve known for a while now but have never really come right out and flatly said.

This is not something I arrived at easily or quickly. I suppose it started way back in college when I was heavily involved with the Church of Christ group set up to service the college students at my university.

When I’m in a bitter mindset I see those years as a waste of time but in reality, it was not. I learned more about the Bible and various Christian religions than ever before and knowledge really is power. That knowledge led me to where I am today. I know what the Bible says and I know why I don’t believe it anymore. This realization was a gradual thing.

Part 2: Growing Up Christian

I was raised by a god-fearing mother. She wasn’t a regular church goer but her belief in God was never in doubt. She was (still is) a Christian but I don’t remember her talking about Jesus as I grew up. Maybe she did and I just don’t remember. I had no interest in religion before high school. The only time I went to church was when I didn’t want to be left behind. Wherever my mother was, I wanted to be.

When I was twelve we moved to Southeast Texas. Anyone who listens to the news nowadays can probably glean that Texas is a rather conservative state. This never bothered me at the time. I was a rather conservative person, especially in the area of personal conduct. Premarital sex was not right; drinking was a definite no-no and all good people believed in God. I was your stereo-typical goody-two-shoes.

I tried several churches while I was in high school, mostly Baptist. Mainly, I was following boys around. The first church I regularly attended was the largest. Before I could become an official member, I had to be baptized. Even at the time this bothered me. I was told what baptism was with a couple of short sentences and then dunked in water in front of everyone in the congregation. No emotion, whatsoever. It was just something I had to do to become a member of their club. And of course this had to be done before the service, which meant I had to spend the rest of the night with wet hair. Not my most flattering look.

I had crushes on several boys at that church and I stayed there for at least a year. (Yeah, I know that doesn’t sound long, but when you’re in high school a month can feel like an eternity.)

I next attended a Pentecostal church – once again following a guy I was crushing on. Finally, I had found REAL religion. I first attended during a week-long revival. If you’re not familiar with the term ‘revival’ in this context what it basically means is a special event in hopes to ‘revive’ faith and bring new life a vitality (and hopefully new members) to a church. When you believe, they can be very affirming and it’s very easy to get caught up in the heightened emotion.

I certainly did. At this particular church I was told that in order to be saved I had to speak in tongues. To be completely fair, I don’t remember who told me this and I could very well be remembering that statement out of context but at the time, I believed it.

And I couldn’t do it. My best friend – who did all those ‘bad’ things I wouldn’t including drinking, having sex, etc. – claimed that she had. I didn’t personally hear her but she never lied to me. On top of that, she started dating the guy that I had gone to the church for in the first place.

This didn’t diminish my faith, however. One thing about me, I can be beat down emotionally but I just keep coming back for more. Usually this isn’t a good thing and it was a very bad thing for me in high school.

I was baptized again at this church but this time it meant something to me. The baptism was a private affair with just a few of my friends in attendance and it felt right and good. As far as I remember, this church didn’t even have an official membership roster so it wasn’t something I had to do to be blessed by their fellowship. With those people, I had it no matter what.

My time at this church didn’t last long, maybe a few months.  The whole speaking in tongues thing was still bothering me. My mother, who had been raised Pentecostal, assured me that someone had either lied to me or just misdirected me. Even though we were having our differences at the time, I believed her.

I was also starting to see the ridiculous restrictions put on believers, especially women. You were always supposed to wear a dress, never cut your hair and make-up was a sin of vanity. I didn’t recognize it for this at the time, but I balked at the misogyny of the whole thing and finally left the church. To the members’ credit, they were always the same with me even after I left. Not once did someone rebuke me for leaving.

After leaving that church, I didn’t go to any church regularly for a while. I might have gone back to the previous Baptist church occasionally but I honestly don’t remember. I do remember switching to another Baptist church my senior year – again, to follow a crush. I vehemently denied this fact when confronted with it but even then I knew I was lying to everyone and myself.

I tell you, though, I really liked that guy. I even sang in public for him which is something I could never do today.

My senior year was…interesting and mid-way through was the last time I attended church for another two years. I moved from Texas to Arkansas and finished the last half of my senior year there, although I officially graduated from my Texas high school – Marching Band did not count as a PE credit in Arkansas, which is just insane. Do you know how much physical work goes into regular marching rehearsals and shows?

But I digress.

Part 3: The College years

One of my favorite people in the world is the woman I was paired up with in the college dorms my freshman year of college. She was very good for me in many ways. I was quite introverted and pretty browbeaten by about everyone. She was not. She helped bring me out of my shell and I started standing up for myself, even with my parents. It may not seem like much but I felt very proud of myself the first time I told my step-father to ask me to do something, not tell me.

Leslie was also a Christian but neither of us attended church regularly. I remember trying a few out with her but none of them really struck a chord and regular church attendance seemed to be out of my life. While I often felt guilty for this, it was never overwhelming and I didn’t worry about it too much.

My second year of college changed my life in many, many ways and it pretty much can be attributed to one person and yes, it was another man. I was always known for my ridiculously emotional crushes, but nothing compared to what happened with Robert. Except for my husband, I don’t think I’ve ever been closer to anyone and this was both good and very, very bad.

He was a year younger than me and a French horn player. My college roommate was also a French horn player so I came in contact with him through association. You see, he asked her out first but it was me he became close to. About a month after we started hanging out, he invited me to the Church of Christ Student Center, a place where he spent a lot of his free time and a place of which I was, quite frankly, jealous.

Of course I went.

I spent the next five years of my life in that place. Except for my college roommate, my best friends in college were made there. I attended church regularly, even though I often missed Sunday mornings and there were times when I was depressed and avoided everyone and didn’t go, but these times were few and never lasted more than a few months.

I also learned that Bible. I wasn’t a die-hard scholar, but I was determined to learn what it actually said. The first year or so I was okay with it. We sang songs based on the ‘good’ parts of the book, emphasizing the positive aspects of Christianity and it felt right to me. I was baptized AGAIN, but this time I was sure it ‘took.’

I never was in complete agreement with this Church’s teachings, even in the beginning. I have found that each Christian denomination has at least one belief that sets them apart from everyone else. For the Pentecostals it was the speaking in tongues, for Baptists it was the excessive fellowshipping. For the Church of Christ it was the fact that they believed using instruments in worship was a sin.

Being a music major and having played my clarinet in church services before (I believed I was glorifying God) I never accepted this.

This gets kind of complicated so I hope I can make this clear. The Church of Christ I attended taught that both the Old and New Testament were relevant, but that the New superseded the Old. Any commandments, rules, etc. made in the New overwrote any inconsistent commandments, rules, etc. in the Old. Also, if it wasn’t in the New, it wasn’t law.

For example, the Old tells us not to eat unclean animals such as Pork. In the New, Jesus made it okay for us to enjoy bacon again. Yay Jesus!

So, even though David told us in the Old Testament to worship with instruments, because it wasn’t mentioned again in the New Testament, it was wrong.

Even then, I knew this was ridiculous.

One Sunday, the minister of this church gave a sermon, teaching us about an expected behavior in all Christians and used Old Testament scripture for proof. I can’t even remember what the subject of this sermon was about, but it bothered me so I searched the New Testament for more information about this subject. Lo and behold, this subject is never even alluded to in the New Testament. I confronted the minister about this and never got an answer. I doubt this was the first seed of doubt laid in my mind, but it was a big one.

But even then, it wasn’t a doubt in God; it was doubt in men (as in humans, not just males) and the Bible itself. At the same time, I was having real difficultly with the teachings of Paul. His attitude toward women, homosexuals and sex were things I could not accept. Even though I was rather prudish by society’s standards, I had no problem with sex itself. I was rather looking forward to it. But Paul talked about it and marriage as if it were a necessary evil and something to be avoided whenever possible.

I started having private study time with the Student Center minister, a man who I still admire even though I no longer agree with almost any of his beliefs. He was extremely intelligent, knowledgeable about his chosen field and he was a pop-culture geek.

I learned a lot from him and he did his best to keep my faith intact but my mind works differently. In many areas I was very emotional. When it came to relationships I was so needy, I’m embarrassed to think of my passive-aggressive behavior. But when it came to knowledge and learning, I was pretty logical.

Part 4: After College

After graduating from college I had some financial problems and moved back to North Little Rock with my parents. This was one of the worst times of my life. Looking back I can see how much of a wreck I was, even more clingy and passive-aggressive than before and it’s no wonder to me that after I moved I didn’t hear much from the people I loved so dearly. My church was an hour and a half away and I stopped going, although I tried to keep in touch with my friends. But they had their own lives (two of them were newlyweds with a new baby) and it just wasn’t possible to be as close as before.

This was heartbreaking for me. I was mourning the camaraderie I had lost and it truly felt as though my friends were dead. I could no longer see them daily, or even weekly, and they were all that had kept me going.

Eventually, I started to heal. I had a new job and was making new friends – my first real friends outside of a church environment since I left high school. There was no guilt, no high expectations, and no disappointment in failing any trivial Christian test. I didn’t realize all of this at the time, of course, but it was true nonetheless. I couldn’t see this at the time, but my secular friends were more accepting of me than my Christian friends had ever been.

Don’t take this as beating up on those Christian friends, that’s not what I’m doing here. As a Christian, I understood that my brothers and sisters in Christ were supposed to hold me accountable for my actions – or inactions – and that’s something I still understand.

Part 5: Changing Attitudes

What I’ve never understood is when Christians start trying to make other people live up to their own standards by trying to pass unconstitutional laws. Even when I was heavily involved with the Church I was a firm believer in separation of Church and State. I understood what so many Christians just can’t seem to grasp – that ever-so-important amendment doesn’t just protect the heathens, it protects the believers as well.

I could see the dangers of government involvement in religion. Historically, fleeing government meddling in personal matters was one of the reasons the Europeans even came to this place. Logistically, it would be a mess. How do you decide which religion is the one the government will support? It can’t support all of them since so many of them are fundamentally different.

And, to come back to that first point, religion is a PERSONAL matter. I know human beings are, in general, nosy busy-bodies but there are some things that just shouldn’t be the concern of others. And even if you just can’t keep your nose out of other people’s business, that’s no reason to try to make the government as intrusive as you.

Remember that Robert fellow I mentioned before? Well, turns out he was gay. I saw the signs from the beginning but chose to ignore them because I did not want to fall for yet another gay guy. It was a pattern with me up until Robert. (After Robert, my taste in men changed dramatically and I haven’t had this issue since.)

While we were in college, I clung to the belief that homosexuality was a sin. Robert was more devout than I was and I sincerely hoped his faith would ‘cure’ him of his inclinations. I never even threatened to withhold friendship from him, but I know that I helped convince him that he was in the wrong for his feelings.

This is something I still feel ashamed of. I can’t really blame religion for it. I was a feminist even when the Bible told me that I should submit in all things, but I used those anti-gay passages to keep my hopes up for a relationship with Robert. It was a cruel thing to do to myself but an even crueler thing to do to the person I claimed was my best friend.

The romantic feelings I had for Robert took a very long time for me to change into something different. It didn’t help that he used my feelings to try to rid himself of his own feelings. I don’t hold any of that against him because I know how badly he wanted to be the man his family and friends wanted him to be. But still, it wasn’t fair for either of us.

When those emotions started transforming into nothing but platonic feelings, I started seeing things much more clearly. I know sexual inclination is not a choice, and even if it were who cares? It’s none of my business if Jane wants to hook up with Sally. And even when I did think it was wrong, I never wanted to pass laws to make it illegal.

Part 6: The Upward Spiral

The loss of faith was gradual. I didn’t even notice it until the fourth year of my marriage. I consciously became aware of it when I was sitting in my office one day and I glanced up and saw the Bible that Robert had given me years earlier sitting on the shelf. I remember thinking, “I don’t believe in that book anymore. The only thing I should even concern myself with is what Jesus said. Nothing else really matters. Paul was a bigoted, homophobic asshole. He just followed Jesus around. Doesn’t make him Jesus’ spokesman.”

From there it all just kind of snowballed. I eventually realized that ‘the word of God’ was nothing more than ‘the word of men who want to control others and therefore tell the world that this is the word of God.’ Even I, a rather gullible person at times, could no longer buy that a book that had been translated over and over again throughout the years was immune to politics and the base nature of men and that God made sure that his intent remained intact. How could anyone believe that when the intent of that book is so heatedly debated among people who worship in the very same building week after week?

So, from there I went to not believing in the Bible at all but still believing that God was there. However, I saw him as an indifferent God. I mean, how could anyone blame any deity for ignoring the human race? We suck.

So, why did I still believe in God up to about two years ago? Basically, I couldn’t get my head around how we all got here – how the universe was created, how we gained sentience, how to explain the great diversity of life on this one little blue planet. I’ve since made a point to read up on what other atheists believe, I’ve started reading science blogs. While there will never be a definitive answer to all of it, I’m satisfied that it could all have happened without some ephemeral being muttering ‘Let there be light.”

It was personally difficult to accept that this was it. That this life was all we got and there was nothing beyond it. It is still something I struggle with and, quite frankly, something I honestly hope most scientifically minded atheists are wrong about. I don’t want to just end. I don’t want to live here forever, but I don’t want to blink out of existence either.

But in the end, it really doesn’t matter. When it’s over, it will be over. I won’t be conscious to care anymore. So, if this life really is all that we get, then that’s all that we get. I personally hope our consciousness goes on in some form. Back when I believed in God and the afterlife, I hoped that after death I would be allowed to meet all the greats that came before me – Mozart, Lincoln, George Harrison, Fred Astaire, etc. – and after that get to float around in space and see all the wonders out there.

I still hope for that but it’s not something I believe in anymore. And yes, that makes me sad sometimes but I have always been one to want truth over stuff made up to make me feel better. That was one of the things I hated about Christianity even when I was a Christian – I could never tell who really liked me and who was just being nice because it was their Christian duty. I hate hypocrisy and especially loathe it when I see it in myself. It’s everywhere but, in general, truth seekers and those who don’t use a deity to excuse their behavior are less hypocritical than most.

So, now I am an atheist. I do my best to not be obnoxious about it and respect the views of my still-faithful friends but to be honest, it’s sometimes very difficult. I find the concept of an all-loving and all-knowing God guiding our lives to be naïve. When things go our way it’s through perseverance, our own work and sometimes a lot of luck. Coincidence is not a miracle in disguise – it’s just coincidence.

The reason I feel the need to ‘come out’ and confess this is because, as I mentioned before, I don’t like hypocrisy. I haven’t lied to anyone about what I believe in, but I feel that I’ve been hiding it from people I care about who are still believers in God. I do still care about those people – that hasn’t changed in the slightest – I just don’t think the way they do anymore and I want them to know that. Sometimes hiding something is just as bad as lying about it and I don’t want to be a liar.

I can only hope that my faithful friends can be as tolerant of my disbelief as I am of their belief. Only time will tell.

We, at the World Atheist Conference: “Gods and Politics”, held in Copenhagen from 18 to 20 June 2010, hereby declare as follows:

• We recognize the unlimited right to freedom of conscience, religion and belief, and that freedom to practice one’s religion should be limited only by the need to respect the rights of others.
• We submit that public policy should be informed by evidence and reason, not by dogma.
• We assert the need for a society based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. History has shown that the most successful societies are the most secular.
• We assert that the only equitable system of government in a democratic society is based on secularism: state neutrality in matters of religion or belief, favoring none and discriminating against none.
• We assert that private conduct, which respects the rights of others should not be the subject of legal sanction or government concern.
• We affirm the right of believers and non-believers alike to participate in public life and their right to equality of treatment in the democratic process.
• We affirm the right to freedom of expression for all, subject to limitations only as prescribed in international law – laws which all governments should respect and enforce. We reject all blasphemy laws and restrictions on the right to criticize religion or nonreligious life stances.
• We assert the principle of one law for all, with no special treatment for minority communities, and no jurisdiction for religious courts for the settlement of civil matters or family disputes.
• We reject all discrimination in employment (other than for religious leaders) and the provision of social services on the grounds of race, religion or belief, gender, class, caste or sexual orientation.
• We reject any special consideration for religion in politics and public life, and oppose charitable, tax-free status and state grants for the promotion of any religion as inimical to the interests of non-believers and those of other faiths.  We oppose state funding for faith schools.
• We support the right to secular education, and assert the need for education in critical thinking and the distinction between faith and reason as a guide to knowledge, and in the diversity of religious beliefs. We support the spirit of free inquiry and the teaching of science free from religious interference, and are opposed to indoctrination, religious or otherwise.

Adopted by the conference, Copenhagen, 20 June 2010.

Please circulate this as widely as you can among people and groups who advocate a secular society.

I’ve really been digging the new “Doctor Who” episodes. I’m warming up to Matt Smith even faster than I warmed up to David Tennant (whom is one of my top three favorite Doctors).

But I’ve noticed something about some of the props and story lines and it makes me wonder if maybe that non-cannon Doctor will finally be brought into the proper canon of the series. I’m talking about Peter Cushing’s Doctor, of course.

Peter Cushing starred as Doctor Who (they even called him that) in two feature films – Dr. Who and The Daleks (1965) and Dalek’s Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966) His Doctor was nothing like the television series Doctor. He was much more grandfatherly and even a bit of a bumbler. However, it was Peter Cushing so it was played perfectly. (Yes, I have a bias. Can you tell?)

In this 5th season of the new run of “Doctor Who,” it has been made very clear that past continuity will not be ignored. I loved the first 4 seasons, but Russell T. Davies – the show runner for seasons 1-4 -  was sometimes very self-indulgent and the stories often tended to ignore what came before Chris Eccleston as if it didn’t matter. If Davies didn’t come up with it, then it wasn’t pertinent.

Now that Steven Moffat has taken over, that sense of ‘oh, let’s just forget about all those other doctors’ has vanished. The first episode of the 5th season even featured film clips of all 10 doctors that came before Matt Smith. Yes, this happened during one of the Tennant Christmas specials, but this time it seemed more epic – like we were being reminded of his past incarnations for a reason and not just something to keep the fans happy.

I have a theory.

(But be warned – my theories rarely ever pan out. Almost every theory I’ve had about “Lost” has been completely wrong.)

It’s clear that the Arc Story of season five is this crack in space that Amelia Pond found in her bedroom when she was a little girl. It’s unclear whether this crack is everywhere, or if Amelia is creating it whenever she visits different places and times. What is clear is that it seems to be causing amnesia of some pretty important historical events – she doesn’t remember the Dalek attack on Canary Wharf for one. Unless she was vacationing with Donna Noble, it seems pretty hard to believe that she would just forget about something like that. And no one could forget seeing multiple planets in the sky when the Daleks once again tried to destroy Earth at the end of season 4.

There’s this issue of the new Daleks. They’ve very colorful. The series has had different color Daleks before, but not Technicolor. The only place that has had rainbow Daleks (that I can recall) is — in the Peter Cushing movies.

Movie Daleks

Series 5 Daleks

Yeah, but so what? you ask. It could just be an hommage to the Cushing films. And you’re right, it very well could be.

But then I found out today that the new design of the TARDIS is very close to the TARDIS design from the films.

Here’s a quote from Moffat himself:

It’s not only the Doctor who’ll have regenerated in the new series. The Tardis has also undergone a significant makeover.

“There is a plot reason for it,” Moffat confirmed. “I always liked the Tardis from the Peter Cushing [Dr Who] movies, and wanted to make it more like that.”

Cushing's TARDIS

Smith TARDIS

Sounds like more hommage stuff going on, but what if it isn’t? What if Moffat is trying to reconcile not only past series contradictions but is also trying to bring in Cushing’s Doctor as well? Cushing has passed away, but that doesnt’ mean he can’t be mentioned or referred to.

Yes, just more wild speculation but there’s a big part of me that hopes I’m right. I don’t know how I would feel about there being Doctors in parallel universes but that’s one possibility of bringing in the Cushing Doctor.

(There have been two parallel universes that I have seen – one with John Pertwee and one with David Tennant – and neither of those had a ‘mirror’ Doctor. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one, but I had always hoped that the Time Lords were immune to the multiple universe theory.)

So, there’s my off-the-wall theory for the day fueled by my love of story continuity and admiration of Peter Cushing.

The word linkage reminds me of sausage! Never cared much for the links, preferred the patties! But breakfast is a real good idea! – Gordon Cole (David Lynch), ‘Twin Peaks’

I know this is going to sound dramatic, but twenty years ago today, my life changed.

Yeah, that does sound pretty dramatic, especially considering that this post is about a television show.

On the evening of April 8 in the year 1990, ‘Twin Peaks’ premiered on ABC. Being a fan of Kyle MacLachlan, I decided to watch the two-hour pilot.

Up to that point, I was a pretty mundane viewer. My tastes were so mainstream, I find it a little scary to look back upon. Before ‘Twin Peaks’ my favorite television program was ‘Family Ties.’

Leland Palmer was a far cry from Steven Keaton.

Leland Palmer

After those two hours were over I decided that I would follow this show and not miss an episode – but not for a teenage crush on a cute actor. I decided to follow it for the story.

This was something completely different for me. Since the eighth grade I had been a pop-culture junky, but I normally gravitated around personalities. I’m still like this for certain performers, but story means much more to me than almost anything else.

Damn Fine Coffee...and hot!

Despite its meandering plot, the story-lines in ‘Twin Peaks’ were intriguing. The insane one-eyed wife of the gas station owner who was having an affair with his high school sweetheart whose husband was in jail for a murder he didn’t commit so that the murdered man’s widow could have his insurance money but more importantly gain revenge for her previous lover. Oh yeah, and then there was that murder…

For me, the murder was the least interesting bit of the show – and it interested me quite a bit. Even at the tender age of 17 I knew that solving the murder wasn’t what was important about ‘Twin Peaks’ – the murder was the catalyst to get the ball rolling and keep Agent Cooper in town long enough to get him embroiled in the local creepiness and shady doings.

I have always blamed the impatient fans for the lull in season 2 – those painful episodes following the conclusion of Laura Palmer’s murder case.

I read the Scarlet Letter in High School

But I am nothing if not loyal and I made it through the bad times to see it return to form in the last third of the season. Unfortunately, I was one of very few who had toughed it out and not many witnessed some of the best writing and acting that the show had to offer.

So, to David Lynch, Mark Frost and all the cast and crew of ‘Twin Peaks,’ I thank you for opening my eyes to something new, expanding my horizons and making me ‘think outside the box.’

In Maine, you don’t start any serious dirt digging until mid-to-late April. When I first started gardening I was told not to plant anything until after Memorial Day. While this rule of thumb is prudent, I just can’t wait that long.

It’s going to be harder to wait this year. Spring seems to have arrived about two weeks early. Considering that last year we had excessive rain and it never really felt ‘warm’ up here, I welcome the over-eagerness of the season.

But I will not be planting anything into the ground for at least another month. That doesn’t mean I haven’t started getting ready, though.

Last Saturday was yard clean-up day. Our home is on a large piece of land and the front of the property is lined with beautiful Maple trees. We clean up the leaves in late Fall, but over the Winter branches and twigs break off. So, I spent several hours raking up all the loose branches that I could find – three large wheelbarrows worth.

We also live on the major highway that goes through Belgrade and you know what that means – trash. I was raised never to litter and to always be considerate of others’ property so it never fails to infuriate me when I find cups, fast food chain bags, discarded lottery tickets (all losers, dammit – but that’s fitting, since their former owners were obviously losers), and other other types of debris scattered about our lawn.

To be fair, compared to other places I’ve lived (Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and Florida) Mainers keep their state tidy. But there are always those that find consideration way too taxing and therefore use my yard as their personal trash can.

We also have a crumbling driveway so loose asphalt is always an issue in the Spring. This is the worst part because finding those little black rocks is rather important so that the lawn mower’s blades don’t hit them and send them flying.

So, the yard is clean now and my father-in-law (who actually owns the property) is happy. He’s even more picky about the yard’s appearance than I am.

This weekend or next weekend will be flower bed cleaning day, but that depends on whether or not this relatively warm weather is forecast to continue. Our house is old and we line the bottom of the house with bags of leaves in the Fall to add more insulation. These cover my flower beds, of course, and have to be removed before any real maintenance can be performed.

But I think it is time. The tulips are already sprouting and I’m sure my Iris and Hosta are doing the same under all the black bags.

Also, I absolutely hate the way my house looks in the Spring. No matter how neatly they’re lined up, black garbage backs just make the place look, well…trashy.