Submitted by megan on Thu, 05/13/2010 - 09:34
As you know, I was all excited and proud of having mowed my own lawn. Well, not the actually having done it, perhaps. But I was pretty happy about having found the impetus to do it.
Push mowers, if you don’t know, aren’t the most efficient mowers. Especially if the grass is long, it seems.
What I didn’t write below, because I didn’t think it mattered, was that when I finished mowing the lawn, it was appreciably shorter, but still longish. And it wasn’t the even velvet that a gas or electric mower leaves behind. It was a bit uneven, and some of the tougher weeds remained proudly unscathed.
Looked fine by me. It was a bit wild still, but I liked it.
When I got home from work the next day, it was to the velvet nap of a power-mowed lawn.
My neighbour, whose 4 feet of very short grass under the lilac bush joins our sun-kissed and wilder 12 feet, had mowed the whole damn thing.
Again.
I stood agape for a few minutes, thought about knocking on his door, then moved on up my own front steps instead.
Comments
7 comments postedMow a happy face in his lawn next time it is long enough to do so...
Damn those well-meaning neighbours!
Woodsy: If it gets long enough under the lilac, I will! Brilliant.
XUP: I'm not entirely convinced he's well meaning. It's hard to say, yknow? I mean he's doing me a favour, right, and it's really nice of him. And he mowed the lawn all last year and I didn't care.
But I get a bossy paternalistic feeling from him, like he thinks I'm some kind of young female, by which I mean stupid and inept. And too, I feel a bit as if he thinks I'm not meeting his standards. It's helpful, but it's a kind of helpful that manages to somehow denigrate me at the same time. It gets my back up, for certainly.
Obviously, I hope: that I think he categorizes young females as stupid and inept, not that I think they are.
Lord, save me from people trying to save me from myself! Amen.
A tip about the reel mower:
If the grass is longish when you cut it try mowing it in one direction first then mow in a perpendicular direction. I've found that gives you a more even cut without having to resort mowing the lawn twice a week or something.
Gotta love not going deaf cutting the grass though, yeah? Or you hands not vibrating from the mild nerve damage!
That's a good tip, Dave! Thank you. Yeah, I like it, I have to say. Helps that the lawn is pretty tiny too.
Post new comment