Gardner Leaves

Wednesday is gardner day, much to my chagrin. So we pick up from last week with another huge pile of leaves dumped along the road. Seems like it's my gardner's way to express his creativity. Christo wraps bridges, my gardner does road pastiches with leaves. Unfortunately though, my municipality fines home owners $250 for gardner road art. I approach him inside his pick-up, he's scowling and surly. You're not leaving the leaves in the street like that? I say more than ask. Those fucking leaves are not your problem, they're not from your house, he snaps unable to contain himself. You don't have to swear, me then says, just do your job and clean the leaves. Last week I had to do it myself. But it's too late, he's already cashed my check for November and has already been alerted by the gardeners whom I asked for a quote. (These guys actually dissed my gardner on his snow removal services because he lives so far away from our neighborhood. They even drove past my house to figure out what to charge me. Meanwhile when I told them I didn't want to discuss my reasons for pricing gardner services, they tried hard to draw it out of me. Pathetic). Anyhow he then proceeds to quit on me, which is good on one hand. I never liked the (insert your own favorite derogatory term here) in the first place, from day one when he took over his father's run. The downside is of course, that I will have to deal with another cement-head. Note to myself: One mo' reason to move to a condo.