Where Have All The Leaves Gone?

Of all the burbs here in the s'bay, we must be the most leaf free of all the ritzy enclaves. I like the look and feel of fall. Including the leaves on the ground, but for some odd reason the homeowners within the 95030-32 zips have an aversion to leaf litter. Walking around as of late should be a multi sensual experience of brisk air with warm sunshine and crunching leaves underfoot-but any given day of the week "gardeners" can be found blowing the leaves from one side on the street on Monday, only to be re blown Tuesday to the other side of the street. As the week progresses, the patchwork of blown areas resembles a Red State without a single Democrat. No grass blade is left untrimmed, neat and tidy is the look embraced. It's the Brazilian bikini wax of yard work for the Smith & Hawken crowd.
On the bright side all of these compulsive disorders help keep property values high (oh, that was last week.)

While on the subject of compulsive disorders, I bit the bullet last week and hired a new cleaning person. The last non-cleaning cleaning person I had for a little more than a year. She was a sweet woman who moved things around to give the allusion of clean. The new house cleaner did an uber amazing job the first two visits. It was a breath of fresh air-literally...But this week she returned sporting magnificently manicured digits. Not any kind of manicure mind you, but the full on acrylic nail/dragon lady look.. Yes, I too asked the same mental question of how in the world does one clean-really clean with talons. So the moral of the story: should you wish to hire a new housekeeper note to self, ask about future cleaning plans or perhaps party plans of the hired help. I felt like I had the duty to ask the new hire just how she expected to do the agreed upon work without breaking an expensive nail. No guts no glory I bit my tongue and imagined the conversation I would indeed have. Shoulda coulda woulda had. Guess there's always next week.