Literally

The severe storms of late June and early July of 2012 reminded me to be grateful for many things. Right now, I am grateful that our household regained Internet access today.

The whole adventure renewed my appreciation for the depth and richness of the English language. Many of us who spend a great deal of time online use phrases and clichés without thinking about what they mean or how they made their way into our language. Dealing with the aftermath of the storms exposed me to a few literal examples of some old phrases.

My son and I were grocery shopping when the first storm hit. We had to deal with some non-operating traffic lights getting home. When we got to our block we encountered felled trees blocking the streets. Our neighbor's tree had knocked down the line going to our house and our electrical mast. The top of the big spruce in our front yard had blown into our other neighbor's yard.

Several of the neighbors were already working on clearing the streets. I wanted to help my neighbors and make it easier for electric company trucks to have access to my street, so I grabbed my ax and my hand ax and pitched in. The next day I chopped up the top of the spruce that had blown into the neighbor's yard. I piled the branches at the base of the spruce. A few days later I chopped up the part of the trunk that had detached from the spruce and set the logs at the curb, hoping that one of the city crews would pick them up.

My next plan for my axes was to use them to chop up the tree in the back yard. I realized that I would need to have the blades sharpened, so I went to the hardware store down the street from my office. When I walked into the hardware store, I literally "had an ax to grind." All of the activity had weakened the handle of my long ax. Shortly after I got started chopping up the tree in the back yard, the ax head literally "went flying off the handle." I was able to finish what I had to do, but I had to keep putting the ax head back on the handle.

Today I noticed that the spruce branches I had piled up in the front yard were getting brown and dry. I know that evergreens can be quite flammable, especially when they are dried out. I decided to water down the branches. I have a garden hose, but rarely water my lawn. I consider doing so a waste of water. In order to use the hose to wet the spruce branches I had to untangle it and I had to literally "work out the kinks."

Axing downed trees has given me a deeper understanding of the clichés I mentioned. The experience should give me a deeper understanding of other clichés when I read them or use them.