the Lawn wars,
Now Playing: Outshined By Soundgarden
Topic: Rambling on


The yard is too big for us to mow with a push mower, but it's too hilly to comfortably use a drive on lawnmower with. I nearly rolled it down the hill this morning, lost my cell phone out of my pocket & then had to go looking for it in the grass. Lucky for me my daughter texted me at the same time I was looking for the phone & so I was able to follow my ear (I'm deaf in the other & have a lot of trouble telling the direction sound is coming from so I was walking in circles for a few minutes- listening for it & trying to tell where it was at) Then when I went to start the lawnmower it would not start for anything, it kept flooding & I'd have to go sit in the house for 15 min (longer really, because I couldn't go in the house & not mess around on the computer) & then try it again. I finally quit in disgust & Chrissy Mowed the lawn today. She says she likes to do it & that it was no big deal.. More power to her. I can see this is going to be a constant battle for me unless I perhaps drop some weight or something. It's obvious that lawnmower was not made to carry someone as big as I am.
I have always had way too much lawn to mow. the first was growing up, my yard was aproximately 1 acre large, a big back section & 2 large sections on either side of the driveway, at about age 11 I thought it would be a good form of exersize, my dad was one of those go around in squares around & around the yard type of people (my ex told me that this is bad for the lawn it will make it look terrible) & all we had was a push mower, no ride on here - so I figured a bunch of laps around the yard was just what my body needed. My Father disagreed, he felt I was a) too young, b) too uncoordinated & c) he actually liked mowing the lawn & didn't see the need for me to do any of it. Well I made it around the yard two times. both times as I mowed beside the neighbors fence I stepped in dog sh*t & after wiping my blue satin sneakers with the heart imprints on the treads (With rainbow laces yet) I summarily quit. Much to my fathers relief.
Then at 15 when I lived with my Uncle & Aunt I had, as part of my jobs (besided watching their kids 30+ hours a week & cleaning a 12 room house) I was supposed to mow the lawn. (hell, I was happy, I still had a lot of free time & they didn't even ask where I was when I went out on my own when they didn't need me) I have always been car crazy & at 15 with out a learners permit riding the snapper was the closest to driving I could get. it was probably nearly 3 acres all told that I had to mow & the 4 out of 6 months that the lawn was growing while I was there I mowed it all the time. 4 years later when my Uncle & Aunt moved out & my Grandmother & I moved in I was not quite as enthused, I was working 40 hours a week & still expected to mow weekly (my grandmother couldn't do it - she was 79 at the time & had never had a drivers licence,) I did find though that certain, shall we say, herbal smoking things made spending the majority of 1 of my days off on the lawnmower at least a little more enjoyable. I lived there off & on for the next 8 years, my ex & I lived there with my grandmother for a few of those years & we alternated parts of the lawn. often 1 of us would do the close work with a push mower & weed whacker while the other drove the big mower around & alternate weeks as to who did what. The last year we were there though my ex lost interest & basically ignored the whole lawn thing in favor of playing in awful bands (well, 1 was ok the other incarnations sucked) & I was back to doing the whole thing while caring for a 6 year old & an infant. The next fall we moved to Virginia & for the first year, though he did change jobs a lot he did work at least most of the time & I mowed the lawn (because as a stay at home mom I felt it was the least I could do since he was our sole support- such as it was) with an ancient lawnmower he purchased from a all the time yard sale type place for 15 bucks. for some obscure reason he & his best friend painted different parts of the lawnmower different colors & named it #24. (it is telling that ex is a Wallace fan & the friend was an original Earnheart fan. I could never get them to tell me if it was some obscure insult to the lawnmower or what exactly the deal was. It was a colorful lawnmower to say the least & it broke down constantly- which gave me an excuse to do only part of the lawn at a time. At the trailer the ex's & my relations were broken down to such an extent that I basically said 'If you think I'm going to mow a lawn while watching a 9 year old, a 3 year old & an infant you've got annother think coming' & he mowed the lawn grudgingly for the 15 months he lived there with us, the remaining 5 & 1/2 years were a constant struggle, He took the lawnmower with him when he left (he moved to an apartment so I'll never understand why) & I had to borrow neighbors lawnmowers for the next 2 years, then I got myself together enough to by a used lawnmower for $35 bucks I've paid annother neighbor about that much in the last 3 years since then keeping it running & last year with this huge yard I have now I nearly killed that poor lawnmower. I was determined that at tax time I would get a big lawnmower with my earned income credit (hey, being the sole support of 3 kids has it's benifits) & then everything cost more than expected & I didn't do it. so I got a loan against my 401K & bought this one. (after spending too much to look prosperous when my ex was here- but when he looked in the cupboard & the fridge - & he did look- they were chock full of food & that was what was important-)
So now this one seems to be a difficulty, not strong enough for the job & of course it was used so it's not like I can return it or anything- oh well, between 16 & Chris I guess the lawn will get done, even if I'm reduced back to mowing with the push mower & the weed whacker again!