the Manny machine

The other day I noticed my neighbor's palm trees were looking extra spiffy, as evidenced by a big, neatly tied off pile of trimmings on the sidelwalk in front of his house.

Apparently having noticed that my landscaping was looking something like one of those alien planets on Lost In Space, I asked him about it, to which he replied (redneck accent), "I was gonna mention that to you... my daughter's boyfriend is a handyman and he does it for us. He's Mexican, but he's a real good guy." (Nice! My neighbor is more of a racist than I am, because he wasn't trying to be ironic). "He's a real nice guy, I bet he'd do yours for $75 or so... I'll send him by."

So yesterday, Manny-the-Mex...landscaper, came over and did a stupendously good job of trimming my palm trees (I have about six of them, one is huge, the others are real small). Took him HOURS. I didn't have change for $75, so I gave him $80. I should've given him more. 'Til now I thought my entire landscaping situation needed to be reconfigured, but just trimming the mess made a world of difference. Between my car (which may as well be a Lamborghini in this area) and my nice new landscape, my neighbors must love me. Anyway, I took this opportunity to snap some outdoor "beauty" shots. The rose and whatever-else-those-are bushes are largely dead and I'm told you need to wait to hack off the dead parts, but that whole area smells amazing right now. I'll see what it takes to fully resuscitate them.

I think if I just swapped out the rocks in the front bed for something less sun-faded, it would look real nice. There are lights all over too, and most are on their side with wires all over. Some work, some don't, and they're ugly as sin (of course). That's another project- maybe some green and blue ones? That'd be sexy. There's also some kind of sprinkler system action in there too, which doesn't work. It never ends.

This cat is not one of mine. Don't think I don't see you! YOU ARE TRESPASSING, KITTY!