Unblocking Gutters ✓

“Classic,” she muttered, climbing the rungs with a putty knife clenched in her teeth.

The downspout was the real problem. Water had pooled there, heavy and still. Lena poked a stiff wire down the pipe—once, twice—until, with a gurgling gluck , a dark snake of muck slid free. The backed-up water shuddered, then began to drain with a satisfied sigh. unblocking gutters

She thought of the email she’d drafted to her boss on Friday—the one about stepping back from the overnight shift, the one she hadn’t sent. Too messy , she’d told herself. Let it sit. But like the gutter, letting it sit had only made the overflow worse. Her sleep was stained; her patience was rotting. “Classic,” she muttered, climbing the rungs with a

She’d been ignoring the telltale sign for a month—a small, optimistic maple seedling sprouting from the downspout corner. Now, as she hauled the aluminum ladder from the garage, a fat drop of water landed on her nose. The sky had decided to stop threatening. Lena poked a stiff wire down the pipe—once,

She pulled out a soggy clump of oak leaves, and suddenly remembered her father, ten years ago, on this very ladder. “Gutters are like arguments,” he’d said, scraping alongside her. “You ignore the small blockage, and next thing you know, the whole foundation’s flooded.”

As she scraped and scooped, her mind began to unclog too.

Sometimes unblocking the gutters was just about unblocking the gutters. But sometimes, Lena thought, it was a place to start.