err… an embarrasing day at ron’s

That’s right, the other day I was doing some yard work at the beautiful home of Ron Luce (you may know him) and was asked to do the simple task of weed eating the back yard (that means trimming all the weeds with a motorized engine built for the job). 

To give you a picture here, it’s a very lovely back yard with pool, lake, and playground… nothing fancy, just a normal house, but with a beautiful back yard.  Now, mind you: I didn’t earn a bachelors in weed eating, but I did know enough to get the job done.  As I was helping with mowing the front yard, I was asked to help relieve a friend of mine on weed eating.  A little nervous about handling a weed eater, I was eager for the task and was shown the few plants and flowers to watch out for… well, except for one.  

So, here I am weed eating everything in creation in this back yard.  Ok, so it wasn’t perfect, but I could handle it well enough for it to look very sharp.  As I was going around the pool deck, I noticed some weeds around the shower pole that needed trimming as well.  No problem, those weeds had it coming, they were going to die… except, i was going to clip something that would eventually be a tragic mistake.

Well, as I started to weed the shower pole, I noticed i clipped a non-weed item.  Oddly, among the weeds, I clipped a single root.  I then looked up and noticed what I clipped.  My heart sank.  On this shower pole, there was a beautiful natural fern or lovely green plant the wrapped itself up this shower pole 11 feet.  I never had seen a plant so bright green, it was lovely!  Yep, this plant alone made the back yard look sharp and I clipped… get this… the only root giving it life.  

My heart wasn’t the only one that sank… when the guy that asked me to help found out, his heart obviously also sank.  In fact, it was quite obvious that I made a tragic mistake.  My employer told the first guy that was weed eating about this fern, but didn’t tell me.  He told me not to worry about it and that he wouldn’t even state my name when he told Ron, but that only embarassed me more.  Sheesh.  I finished my job around the yard and went home plum exhausted, but felt as if I killed the family pet or something.  I know it’s just a plant, but it was such a beautiful plant… and worst of all… it wasn’t planted… it was a natural fern that grew naturally from the ground!  I killed the Lord’s plant!    I dont think I can ever go to his house again without thinking of that fern!