You know who else loves it? Every stinking blade of grass in the yard. Even more, every weed in the yard! And I think I would be content to live in the midst of the prairie grasses, were it not for some sense of responsibility to my neighbors to fit in with their lovely coiffed lawns. Oh, and the part where the city could come and fine me if it gets too bad. (Not saying that I was close to that bad, by any means!)
So, bright and early this morning (that would be 8 am - it seems rude to mow much earlier, even if both my neighbors were already up and at 'em), I rolled out of bed, stumbled to the garage, and wandered around behind the mower for a good 45 minutes of grass shearing. It looks good. It took me another 45 minutes for my body to cool off once I got back inside, and the trimming is awaiting tomorrow morning.
Two things I really love about my house:
- The huge hill to the back of our houses on my side of the street. The sun rises over it - which means that even though it's already light and pretty warm at 8 am, I still have a good 25 minutes before the sun itself starts beating down. And I've learned to mow in the order that preserves shade for the entire job. My house in Oklahoma had no shade whatsoever, and hot is much hotter without shade.
- The size of my lovely lawn. Yes, my neighbors are much closer now than in OK. MUCH closer. But the side benefit to that is being able (even puny, slow, old me!) to finish mowing in under an hour. Between the size and lack of shade in OK, I used to spread it over 4 days - before I just gave up and hired the kid down the street.
- Every time I mow myself, I think about the $35 I'm not paying someone else. And I no longer have to feel spoiled and lazy while sitting inside in the AC while someone else slaves over my responsibility. (I know that wasn't completely accurate - I did pay the kid, and he wanted the job - but there's something uncomfortably bourgeois to me in paying someone else to so something I can do myself but just don't want to do. I guess I'm a proletarian at heart. Proletariat, unite! (Letting some of that Marxist out before heading off to Youth Conference :)
3 comments:
You are a good homeowner and neighbor. I hope you have a cool down there soon. I'm ashamed to tell you what we are having here. And the sod that got laid at the back of my place is taking hold well and makes it look and seem and probably is, cooler. Quite nice.
Only you could make a political staement out of lawn mowing. Of course, Dad does it here.
I absolutely love your mom's comment.
And you can feel free to come visit me if you get too hot. Wellington experienced its coldest day on record yesterday: it got down to 2.6 degrees Celsius (36.7 F). Seriously, that's the coldest it's ever been, in the entire recorded history of this city. I love winters here.
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