November 8, 2021: Leaf Day -

Saturday was Leaf Day in my neighborhood, a date of enormous local import. NextDoor has been buzzing with rants, and lectures about civic duty, and grumblings about taxes, and complaints about the timing of Leaf Day this year (and every year).

Leaf Day either brings neighbors together, or sends tempers skyrocketing. The City of Portland dispatches trucks to scoop up piles of leaves from the streets; the secret is to get ALL the cars off the street, so that the trucks can get right up to the curb,  in a twenty-block by eight-block rectangle. Some of us have no off-street parking, so we have to move our cars out of the rectangle entirely, clogging up neighborhoods nearby.

We returned from the UK late on Friday night, and unfortunately, on that 23-hour journey, we ate something we shouldn’t have.

During our layover in Atlanta, Friday afternoon, we got a text from a concerned neighbor. He had noticed that our cars, parked outside his house, hadn’t moved in two weeks, and he wondered if he could perhaps move them for us before Saturday. Leaf removal crews start at 6 am.

Nice guy, sweet offer, also having our cars moved is something he would very much want. I hadn’t known when Leaf Day was scheduled, when we left, or I would have let him know what was happening, maybe even have given him a key. We weren’t sick (yet) in Atlanta, and we said No, no, we’ll move them when we get home, but thanks so much.

We spoke too soon.

But it all worked out. The food poisoning hit in waves, with pauses in between. We got the cars moved by 7 am (plenty of time, the 6 am warning is a bit extreme) and home again by 7 pm, streets clean, friendships intact.  The second, and final Leaf Day is right after Thanksgiving. (More ranting! There should be three! It’s too soon! Etc.!!) A LOT of leaves have yet to fall. We’ll be here.