We took advantage of Wednesday’s warm sunny weather to chew up some leaves and move a stack of firewood closer to the house. We have an electric leaf blower, not as loud as a gas-powered one but loud enough for ear protection so we each put our Home Depot noise canceling headphones on. Peggi blew the leaves from the driveway and patio onto the lawn and I prepared to chew them up with our mower, a “mulcher” with two blades, but the pull cord broke on my first tug. A couple of Youtube how-tos later I had it successfully rewound. I only mowed the lawn once this year. We have so many trees our ground cover is just scattered weeds and chewed up leaves from years past.
I don’t like listening to neighbors mowing but I like mowing myself. We used to go to my grandmothers’ on the weekends and my father had me mow her lawn while he helped her around the house. My family had a yellow push mower and because that was something I had to do I remember not enjoying the experience. In Bloomington I mowed lawns for the University. They owned rental houses all over town. I had a near religious experience on that job when a woman leaned out her window and called me over to hand me pairs of her dead husband’s socks. I left the office in the morning with my gas powered mower, mowed like a madman, hid my machine in the bushes and rode home to the trailer to hang out until quitting time. I bought my first when Peggi and I moved into a rental house together.. It was a Sears special – 100 bucks! When we moved here I mowed our rental and three or four of the surrounding neighbors’ lawns. Like Pete LaBonne, “I Mow the Lawn.”
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