Tetsu has a three day weekend and then works the rest of the holiday. And he is spending this Sunday morning weeding the street gutter. What a lovely way to spend a holiday...
We live at the end of a long street. There are three other houses along the street and then a long stretch of empty lots. The neighborhood is old and when it was built no one thought to put in covered gutters... And gutters in Japan are recessed drains along the street that trap leaves and washed in dirt and debris. The houses all have drainage from their sinks and washing machines into the gutters so the water trickles along continually making it a great place for weeds to grow and mosquitoes to thrive. Yuck. (Can you see that black speck at the end of the curve? That is Tetsu starting his gutter cleaning.)
The four houses along our street take turns monthly cleaning out the gutter. During the spring months there is a lot of weeding to do, in the autumn months the fall leaves clog the waterway. Neither job is pleasant and we all have special tools for shoveling up sludge and vegetation. If I must say so, Tetsu takes his job seriously and does a perfectionist job, removing road grates and setting in grills... He has been at his job since 6:30 this morning and here it is 8:00 and he's not finished yet. I don't think anyone else is so meticulous in gutter cleaning...
Most Sunday mornings (or Saturdays) Tetsu will carry along trash bags when he and I and Choco go for a walk. It has been our routine for years to pick up garbage along the roads one day a week. It is amazing how much stuff gets thrown by the way during a week's time. I find it very depressing because most of the people who use these back roads are neighbors or farmers or people working in the community factories. Don't they care more about the area they live in? I guess not. And it is such a beautiful place if we would all keep it clean. Well, Tetsu is doing his part... again, perfectionist that he is.
My hero. Perfectionist and all. Maybe I could just say that Tetsu is celebrating Green Day a bit early.
14 comments:
Bless him for doing it, I wish more people would! We have ditches around here and boy do they collect the trash. We used to have one guy who would throw away all his fast food wrappers into our ditch. Love that last pic of Tetsu!
Aahhh, the satisfaction of a job well done!
I think this is the Best.Picture.Ever. of your handsome husband!
What a job. Good for Tetsu for being the perfectionist he is. :)
what a wonderful photo of Tetsu! He looks satisfied with life.
Lovely photos and if only more people were like your husband and cared for their community.
I grew up hiking with a bag and remember my dad saying, Homo Sapiens, the only animal that soils his own nest"!, as we picked up clutter. I was shocked to come to Japan and find that, although you keep the street in front of your house clean, people think nothing of dumping junk in public places.
Great guy. Taniwa, there were 65 Japanese quilts (out of around 400) in the Paducah show this week. They were gorgeous and very recognizable.
There is great satisfaction in doing a job outdoors. I see a happy man!
Best regards from Gail in Wa State
A responsible man. What a treasure to keep. Right Tanya?
I can't understand the littering thing either. I have to pick up paper and bottles out of my yard every morning because I'm on the corner of a fairly busy street where, evidently, people clean out their cars as they drive! I just wish I could trace the trash back to whomever threw it in my yard and take it over to theirs, to see how THEY like it.
It was intriguing to read how the "gray water" waste(sinks and washers) drains into the storm drain system instead of the sewage system like here. That would relieve the water processing plants of a great volume if we did that, but I wonder about soap/chemical residues going in the river untreated.
Great job, Tetsu!
Enjoy your tea and the holidays! Golden Week is a real treasure...only in Japan!
Yea rah for Tetsu..hard-working man, who is satisfied w/ his work...and has a great smile, by the way...hugs, Pat in IN
Nice portrait of your dear husband. Cleaning gutters would not make my day at all!
When I was a little girl in the 1960's our sink water went into the ditches behind our house in the back lane. We used to play in the ditches and I always loved it when soap came bubbling out! But then the city paved the lane and covered up the ditches, and that greatly cut down the mosquito population!
Post a Comment