Suburbanites
I’m becoming a suburbanite… again.
I grew up in the suburbs.
Though Wedgewood Park didn’t really feel like the suburbs. With the forest surrounding our neighbourhood
and our own separate garbage pick up and snow clearing… it felt like we were
just living in a little town rather than a suburb.
But it was officially a suburb. Every house on a similar size track of land
with lawn mowers running in the summer and kids jumping through water
sprinklers in the evening.
In my mid to late twenties, I left the burbs. Heading to the edge of downtown to live in a
line of row houses. I was a short walk
to the heart of downtown. Childhood
trips to the museum or Captain’s Cabin restaurant used to feel like great
outings. Getting in the car and driving
into the city… leaving the lush trees and lawns of home and entering the
concrete world of downtown… it was an adventure.
But after I moved, I lived a short walk from these things,
and St. John’s took on a whole new life for me.
Moving to Ottawa, I very much entered the suburbs
again. First, at Uncle Lee and Aunt
Ruby’s… I was a good week before I began feeling as though I could
differentiate one street from another. I
used to worry about going for a walk and not being able to make my way back
home in the sea of sameness.
Moving from their place into my own, it was another suburban
enclave. But I was slightly removed from
suburban life. Across the street were
the townhouses. Those with their lawns
to mow and sprinklers to run through.
I’d look out and see neighbours tinkering in their garages and sitting
on their front stoop. And I’d happily
turn from this… returning to my Terrace Home life… with no lawn to mow and no
shoveling to be done in the winter.
And now, having moved again, I am a full-fledged
suburbanite. I shoveled this
winter. Pausing to chat with the
neighbour as he shoveled too. Making
small talk about the weather as suburban neighbours would.
And low and behold… the lawn appeared. Sods rolled out over the scarred earth create
a suburban paradise. Sprinklers arc
water gently through the air to glisten upon green blades. Neighbours lounge upon lawn furniture as
neighbourhood dogs yap at each other and toddlers smack at their world with a
found stick.
Yesterday I found myself sitting in a lawn chair on my front
stoop… sipping an ice tea wearing plastic flip flops upon my feet. And later in the day, back in those flip
flops, I’m standing aside my strip of front lawn, watering it down meticulously
with the new spray nozzle on my hose… and picking new mushrooms out of my
little green paradise. And from there… I
was tinkering in the garage… spraying dirt off the floor with the hose…
watching it pool out in the driveway all mucky and with blades of grass
floating… making the suburban soup.
Still, mine is not a prototypical suburb. As with the neighbourhood I grew up in, I’m
surrounded by a forest. It actually made
my stoop sit a pleasant one as I wasn’t peering across the street as a nose
neighbour as much as watching the birch trees sway in the breeze while
listening to the sounds of birds and squirrels.
But it is odd being back in the suburbs as a full-fledged
member. I feel as though I need to get a
dog to join in the backyard yapping. I
feel as though I need to also get a family.
For it would have to be a wife tending a backyard flowerbed. And I’m much too old to be running through
the sprinkler on warm summer evenings.
SUNDAY…
--- Day shift on little sleep. Slow Sunday though. Some Sunday night TV follows.
MONDAY…
--- Still not great sleep.
And I get a call from the doctor’s office and will have to go in and see
what there is to see on Thursday. Tired
of it.
--- Ball team gets killed tonight. A frustrating game.
TUESDAY…
--- RCMP ball before work… a bit of fun. Work is very busy. Nights are often more busy than days now and
I’m at it non-stop until 2ish.
WEDNESDAY…
--- Slower night but still at it until close to midnight
before the die off.
THURSDAY…
--- Doctor’s appointment is actually good news. Enzyme levels dropping… Doc says “I’ll see
you for a physical in March”. I’m good
to go.
--- Walk after lunch.
Almost an hour and a half out… find the smallest frogs I’ve ever come
across and startle a deer as well.
--- Water the lawns in the evening and finish up about
twenty minutes before the skies open with a thunderstorm. Oh well.
FRIDAY…
--- To Lee Valley for lawn stuff. A hose… mower… nozzle… rake.
--- Small walk after I get back and put the mower
together. Half hour walking.
--- I guess no going in on eaves troughs with my
neighbour. Tuesday he said he’d text me
later that night to say what he and his wife decide. Nothing from him since then and I even saw
him today but he just acted kind of weird.
Is it so hard to just do what you say you’re going to do? In the day and
age of instant connections via twitter, facebook, e-mail, text… so many people
are unable to understand how to actually communicate.
SATURDAY…
--- Help Sheila move her stuff out of my basement and over
to her place. Watch some baseball on TV
after that. BBQ dogs… water the lawns… a
suburban Saturday.
