An Insolent Southern Man

 Borrowing a cup of sugar, a shovel, even my lawnmower is one thing... Borrowing my camera is another.

Lately there's been a rash of folks asking to borrow photography gear from me. Now before I go off sounding like an a$$hole, let me be upfront - I will loan out gear to friends in need. Heck, I've borrowed a few items from other photographers myself. But here lately, it's been getting out of hand. Add in the fact that money is really, REALLY  tight in my house right now, and you've got me feeling a little on the stingy side. So, I'm sorry if I come across as a douche when you ask to borrow a list of my expensive camera equipment that I barely had the money to buy in the first place, and I tell you "no."

I used to have a plan. It was only a couple of years ago, but it seems like it was forever ago. Nonetheless, I had a plan.

A couple of weekends ago, I did my first backpacking trip since last year’s broken leg. At first, Marcus and I were going to go to the Smokies, but the recent rise in gas prices had us looking for somewhere closer. We ended up going to the Panther Creek trail, which is in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Habersham County, GA. I’ve walked this trail a couple of times from each end, but it has been at least a decade since my last trip here. (When I realized this, I suddenly realized how old I’m getting to be.)

If you live in Georgia, then you probably know that we had a cold front move though earlier in the week. It's been really windy since it went through too. Before the front came, my yard was buried under a sea of leaves from the nine enormous oak, and four mature pecan trees that are located on our lot. You may or may not know that I've been nursing a broken leg since the end of September. I'm getting around better now, but I'm not ready to get out and rake leaves. Even if I were, I'd still not likely get out and actually rake them. Run over them with the lawnmower is more like it, but not rake the whole yard into piles in which to burn, bag up, compost, or whatever.

My neighbor across the road however, doesn't share my contentment to let nature take her course leave the yard covered. She has a couple of white pines in her yard, which they keep the needles neatly raked up around the trunks of the trees. She's an elderly lady that has a grandson, who is older than I am, living with her. I've been living here since 2001, and I've never known him to have a job either. Yet, she pays a man to come and mow their grass and keep the yard neat and clean every week or so. To make matters worse, they own a John Deere riding mower -and her grown, unemployed grandson still doesn't cut her grass! ( I've actually seen him do it once. That was earlier this year. And that was the first time ever in the almost ten years I've been here.)

Since they live to the east, and these post front, super strong prevailing winds have been out of the west, guess whose yard is now covered in leaves? Not mine!

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