Summer Yardwork
Matt Seinberg

There are certain things that need doing outside the house before summer starts. A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of using Round Up on some weeds

in the lawn. Many brown patches appeared soon afterward.

Our landscaper seeded, covering it with peat.

I asked Michelle, my daughter, to rake those areas so I could put some seed patch on them so they would fill in. I saw our landscaper one day. He put some seed down. Then I put peat moss over that. The grass is now starting to come up.

There are still a couple of areas that need filling in. I'm hoping to get that done next week. Marcy, my wife, showed me that part of the gutter on the back of the house is ready to come down, so that's the first thing that needs fixing. I hope it won't rain on Tuesday, which is the first opportunity to get it done.

Then I'll probably put some weed and feed down on the lawn to make it look better. Since I stopped doing all those chemicals myself and had the landscaper do it, I have several bags of lawn products just waiting, in the garage.

One other thing that needs doing is fixing the area of grass where we buried Daphne, out cate, two years ago. The ground has collapsed, do we have to pull up the grass, throw some dirt down there, tamp it down, and put the grass back on. That is a chore that I am looking forward to doing.

My wife, Marcy, likes to garden.

I leave all the gardening to my wife. She likes to plant various vegetables in the back bed, and flowers in the front. I do not have that green thumb. She can do whatever she wants.

The other job that I really dislike is power washing. The areas that really need to be cleaned are the back patio, front stoop, parts of the vinyl fence and the front vinyl siding. I usually wait for a hot day to do this. With the water flying all over, I'll usually cool down, but dirty. I don't wear nice clothes for that job.

My wife said tonight that she wants to organize the garage a little bit better. Ok, go ahead; I'm not stopping you. I'm not lifting anything heavy that will hurt my back. I'll stand by and supervise, which is the hardest job of all, keeping the workers in line.

One thing I really want to do this summer is straighten up the basement. As it stands, the basement is an unholy mess, with clothing and other assorted stuff all over the place. My computer corner also needs cleaning and dusting. I also need to put away my CDs.

I also want to put music on my phone, so when we do some travelling, during the summer, I will be suitably entertained without having to bring any other appliance with me. Michelle and I are visiting my father in Syracuse in a couple of weeks. I'm still deciding if I want to record any air checks.

Last year I brought my portable Tascam MP3 recorder and recorded hours of different radio stations. This year, I'm not so sure I want to invest the time.

I hope to collect more radio sway in Syracuse.

I will visit my various radio friends, which I made over the years. I hope to collect more swag. I'll take whatever they have, from bumper or window stickers to tee shirts.

At work, I wear a suit. Everywhere else I wear shorts and, most probably, a radio or Disney tee shirt.

Have a great summer!