I Miss Sammy

In June of 2009 I lost my job. Well, that isn’t entirely accurate. I didn’t lose it as much as it was taken away from me. I worked for a small, family-owned homebuilder for the previous 5 years and had an incredible time. The family was great, the company was awesome and I loved working for them. Unless you have been living in a cave for the past 3 or 4 years, you are probably aware of the recent monumental collapse of the homebuilding industry. Well, try as we might, we weren’t able to survive the turmoil and our California division had to shut down.

Now, I am no stranger to this. About eight years earlier I was a diligent Enron employee when it collapsed. I was at my desk when they walked in, handed everyone on my floor a small cardboard box and said, “27th floor, I am sorry to say that you are being let go. Please grab your personal possessions and exit immediately”. Nothing like being part of a mass layoff to make you feel like a valued member of the team! Back then, I wasn’t really worried because I didn’t have too many responsibilities. This time is different because I have a family, a mortgage and actual honest to goodness adult responsibilities. Needless to say, this has been a particularly stressful time, so trying to live NOW has been a daunting challenge.

While there have been many casualties in my war on gainful employment, perhaps the biggest loser has been my lawn. You see, during the “good times”, I had Sammy on my team. Sammy was the strong, silent type, letting his mower and blower do most of his talking. Whenever he came around, I would offer him some water and a handshake. Our only common language was my lawn. Oh, we would try to talk, but after struggling mightily to understand one another, we would invariably give up, point at the lawn, give each other a thumbs up and smile. It was a wonderful time.

But $60 a month is $60 a month, so I had to let Sammy go. I figured I could hold things together for a week or two. I mean how hard could it be? Well, that week or two has turned into 6 months and it turns out Sammy was not a “lawn guy”, he was a genius. It has also become painfully obvious that I am not fluent in the language-of-the-lawn like I thought I was.

If you look around the dying grass and the bare patches, you will see the only healthy thing I have been able to grow in my backyard – crabgrass. 

Fridays are the worst. That’s when Sammy works on my neighbors yard. I try not to stare, but I can’t help it. I peer at him through my blinds and watch him work his magic.

That’s Sammy parked next to what would appear to be the lawn from the Garden of Eden. He loves what he does and man is he good at it!

I didn’t appreciate Sammy when I had him. “Oh yeah, I have a lawn guy,” I would casually say. He wasn’t just a lawn guy, he was a magician. I took him for granted. What do you have in your life that you are taking for granted? Take it from me, someday it will be gone and all you will be left with are mountains of crabgrass.

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