Weed freakout

I just spent most of the morning pulling weeds (trying to accomplish as much as I can before it gets too hot out there to do anything except lift margaritas). Our backyard establishment offers a fine selection for the weeding connoisseur — an extensive weed list with something for every palate. So I had plenty to work with.

This particular session was not one of those meticulous, on-your-knees, inch-by-inch, everything-must-go weedings. It was more like wandering through the yard with a shotgun and taking out the heavies. Giving all the Audrey Twos both barrels right in the yapper. Clearing all the dandelions that were on the verge of mutating into sunflowers. Demolitions work.

In two hours, I yanked three bags' worth, and it looks like I barely made a dent. That's okay — I feel like I took out the weed leadership, the capos, the Heads of the Five Families. We'll mop up the soldiers soon enough.

Here's the weird thing, though (and maybe this is totally common, but it's the first time I've ever noticed it): Afterwards, when I was cleaning up, I'd close my eyes and I'd see a weed — not imagine a weed, but actually see it. A very clear image. Specifically, I'd see that point where the leaves and stalks and stems coverge into the root... the exact point where you stab your weeding fork into the ground to pry the bugger loose.

I saw the damn thing when I was washing my face, when I was in the shower, and even now, an hour later, I close my eyes and there it is. And it's not like I was out there staring intensely at these weeds all day. I suppose that after repeating the stab!pry!kill! subroutine every time I saw one those stem clusters, several hundred times over, my brain must have bookmarked that image, and now is unable to stop serving up this photo-trigger like some kind of screensaver.

The only time I've experienced anything remotely like it would be about 15 years ago, when I was playing Tetris for days on end. I'd close my eyes and the game would keep going; I'd see shapes floating down could even turn them with my mind. Saved me a fortune in quarters.

Does this happen to everybody? It makes me shudder to think what proctologists see when they close their eyes.