my lawn mower, my friend

Eight years ago, I was pregnant and we were searching for a house to buy. The market was crazy at the time, interest rates were high.. but we took the plunge anyway. When it came down to it, we had to decide between two houses. One larger house on South Street in Lincoln, NE with absolutely no yard, garage or driveway, or a much smaller house on a large corner lot with a very large detached garage about ten miles west of town. Allan said..'I like this one, it'll be good for the dogs'.. about the latter, and I had to agree. Every time we'd visited the birds were singing, children were playing outside in the neighborhood, and neighbors waved from car windows as they passed by. South street was just that. A street. The house was nice, but when you walked out the front door, there was the street with 4 lanes of traffic two feet in front of you. Probably not good for dogs, or for our little one on the way. Anyway, we settled on our house, and after much weeping and gnashing of teeth, everything was settled and we moved in.

This is where the problem started. When we had talked about how nice the large yard would be, I'd completely forgotten that I had married the polar opposite of anything resembling handy. It isn't that he can't be handy when he wants to be, it's that he rarely wants to be.. handy. Soon, our grass began growing up around our ears, and Allan went to purchase a mower. Seeing as we'd just plunked our very meager savings down to buy the house, we went with a very simple little push mower for which we paid a little over the hundred dollar mark. Problem was, I couldn't start it. Allan mowed the first time, and when the grass started to grow, I decided one day to mow. So, I'm standing in our front yard, 8 months pregnant, pulling the stuffing out of the darn thing to no avail. I heard a large truck behind me and turned to see the Schwan's man coming up my sidewalk. 'Should you be doing that', he asked. 'Probably not, but I need to. Do you think you could start it for me?' 'Umm, sure, just be careful.'

And thus started my first day of mowing. Later that week, I mentioned to my doctor that the reason I had a sunburn was because I'd mowed, and he scowled at me and wrote out on a prescription pad... "Allan will mow the lawn'. I took this home and showed it to Allan and I think it embarrassed him a little.

The following summer, Allan decided that rather than mowing the yard in a traditional fashion, he would mow a maze into it. He kept reminding me that he is the graphic designer in the family and any objections I had were because I didn't have any creative vision. All I knew was that people kept driving by our house, slowing down and staring at our yard. Finally he mowed it down.

After that, I decided it would be a good idea to find a mower that I could actually start on my own. That way, I could mow the yard without having to nag anyone about it. I hate to nag. Prefer doing things on my own. Plus, I figured that I could mow a little at a time every day while the kids were outside playing. This worked for a long time. Until last summer, when the realities of neglect happened upon my mower.

Philip Gulley talks a lot about the importance of maintenance in a few of his essays. How you should drain the fluids, wipe it down with gasoline, have the blade sharpened- all before you store it for the winter. This is not something we've ever come close to doing. Actually, the mower has been lucky for the past several years if it gets fully shoved into the garage before the first snowfall. Therefore, my mower went kaput. In a big way last year. People kept saying things like, 'They don't make them to last like they used to' in order to soothe my troubled spirit.

Well, this year is different. A good portion of our yard is in use as a large vegetable garden, and therefore, much less mowing will be done. However, it will still need to happen. For years, I've been tempted to try an old push reel mower and if you don't know what that is, it is an old fashioned motorless mower like you can see in the opening credits of Leave It To Beaver. But, I'd bended to the opinion of everyone I come across that 'They're hard to push'. Well, after doing some research, and finding out that the people saying this had never, actually, technically used one- so therefore were unqualified to make this statement, I've taken the plunge. Last night, Allan put my new mower together. It came in a rather small box, and took him about 20 minutes to assemble (see, he can be handy when he wants to be). Then, I mowed the front and side yards. It was fun! Like giving the grass a haircut. Made a gentle swooshing noise. You could technically get up and mow at 6am if you wanted to, and no one would care! I can mow the lawn while still being able to hear the kids! I get better exercise, too. It was certainly not hard to push, and in some cases, I actually found it easier than the large one I had before. It doesn't slip sideways down into the ditch, for instance.

So, the point is, sometimes it's good to listen to your inner voice. In the selection of a lawn mower- an item that I use at least 4 times a month- I needed to pick what was right for me. I am a hard worker, but when I'm working I prefer to not have to worry about whether or not something is going to work or not. We waste a lot of time that way. Buying things to make our lives supposedly more simple- sometimes has the opposite effect.

And.. at least in one area of my life, I'll be able to give the finger (so to speak) to the oil companies! Ha!! Take that!!