Kintropy In Action

"Rain is coming tonight." Robert turned the page of the paper.

I was racking my brain over things that needed to be done today. I had a nurse for Hannah and Gabriel was home. I didn’t really want to do laundry. I was getting far on illustrating for a book I’m working on. I thought hey maybe I could muscle through the laundry and keep going on the book. This statement stopped that thought process. Yes, I know it rains here in the Northwest a great deal. The thing is, today it is sunny. My house’s gutters need work. This was made abundantly clear to me last week when several birds were using the gutter outside the family room as a birdbath. I’m wincing now; as I also want to report that it sounded more like hunting prey in our gutters. My mind wandered over perhaps it was tadpoles. (Wrong time of year)

So, today became about the gutters. It was sunny and the sunny days most likely will be gone as soon as October 1rst hits. I had a nurse, no other set plans it was now or never.

I opened the doors to screens and told Gabriel he could come out and play around where ever I was. He is not suppose to bug the nurse. I went to our shed and pulled out our tall ladder. We live in a one-story ranch style house. I collected a spade and multipurpose buckets. Up I went. Gabriel came out played in the tree. On a trip down to move the ladder; I handed him his fishing pole from our shed. It had a weighted plastic fish attached for him to practice casting.

"Hey Mommy! How does the button work?"

He had the pole upside down. I turned it around and cast it to show him and the line broke and flew across the street. He went back to the tree.

I fetched the fish. I untied it from its line then took apart the spinner mechanism and fed out more line and re-setup the pole. I tried it and it worked. "Is it fixed?"

"Yes." I handed it back to him. I pulled out a clear tub and filled it with water and set it out and told him he could use that as his fishing pond.

I moved the ladder climbed back up. Scrape, Scrape, Scrape. Then I would dump the dried leaves, roof tile pebbles and nutshells into the bucket. It was filling the air and I started worrying about my eyes. So, I climbed back down and grabbed my work goggles/glasses. (My hands were in surgical gloves inside the work-gloves.) I moved the ladder, adjusted my glasses, climbed up.

"Mommy, the water is dirty. Can you clean the water?"

I look down at him. "How about you grab the pinecones and see if they sink or float?"

"Ok, can you get them for me?"

"They are all over the driveway. I think you can get them yourself. I’m cleaning the gutters."

Then there was silence except for my scraping in the metal gutter.

"Mommy, can I dump the water?"

"Sure" I was moving to the ramp section of our house trying to find the right seating for the ladder. He dumped the water and reveled in the patterns across the driveway. I marveled over the amount of stuff in my gutters.

"Mommy, can you get my slippers. My shoes are dirty."

I look down his shoes are off. "Go look yourself. Your flip-flops are in the van."

"But Mommy, I’m barefooted."

He said that like it was a problem. "You can do it." I shovel more dirt into the bucket.

He found his flip-flops. He changed his mind and disappeared into the house. I had finished the first section. There were five more sections to go. I looked at the next section. I had never gotten to it because I had always done the gutters in the rain and that section is above a shrub. There was no way to put a ladder safely there. I looked at the roof in front of me. The ladder’s top was directly below the edge of the roof. I decided it was time to climb on the roof. I made it. It was easier than I thought. I walked over to the edge and sat down. Right when I was about to start cleaning out the three inch deep of moist spongy plant matter, Gabriel comes out.

"Mom, where are you?"

I waved "Hey Gabriel, I’m up here."

"Wow, you’re on the roof. Mom, can I play Super Why on the computer?"

"Sure give me a minute to finish this section and then I’ll be down to help you."

"Awwww"

"Relax, I’ll be there shortly"

Needless to say the rest of the gutters I did from the roof with spontaneous interruptions from Gabriel. I don’t know if removing the algae encrusted slime from the back gutters was a good idea. I think we were helping create ozone. All I could think of was the primeval soup of the original oceans. The slime in the back gutters was wondrous to behold. It was green, marine plant-life looking with bubbles dotting it surface. In the sunlight the green glistened in multifaceted colors. I think it could have sustained tadpoles. (I did find a few seedlings)

--Mom