Friday, September 3, 2010

Thanks, Dad!

I called him last night to say the same thing. When I was a kid, I can remember rolling my eyes to the point they should have stuck that way and thinking to myself "I will never need to know this when I grow up." Well, as with SO many of those instances, I can put a check next to one more that I did need now that I am grown up.

Lawnmower care.

I hated mowing the lawn. I only did it for a few summers...just until Garren was old enough/tall enough to do it. But during those summers I learned about starting different lawnmowers, checking the oil and gas, priming the engine, etc. Good thing.

Chris and I used to pay a guy $25 a week to mow, weed-whack, edge and pick up the dog poop. WELL WORTH IT. This yard is smaller and we were hoping subsequently cheaper, but nobody has put a flier on our door, and our seller left her lawnmower for us. Probably both signs that we are supposed to do it ourselves.

Chris had pretty severe asthma as a child and cut grass was always one of his triggers. He's never even seen a lawnmower close up before. It was up to me to tackle the machine.

Last night, after picking up the poop, adding oil, priming the engine twice, checking the gas, and pulling on that cord what seemed like a million times, I mowed the lawn for the first time in what must have been 20 years. And Chris ran for his inhaler. Guess he hasn't grown out of that one!

I'll take pictures of our lawnmower for a later post. She's a beaut! Back wheels falling off, saggy bag, rusty top... WOW... I also just described the woman I saw in the Walmart parking lot the other day!

3 comments:

  1. Gee, keep it until it poops out...so to speak and then go to that nice Ace hardware we went to and buy a new cheap one.
    You acted like you were not listing to your parents but you were. Dad also broke you from having the last word. Bet Chris is glad about that.

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  2. I too hated to cut grass, until I started thinking of it as exercise.

    That said, I hate to cut the grass here on the river. Actually, I am afraid of the river. We have a self-propelled mower. Once while mowing on the river's edge, I panicked and for whatever reason, I could not let go of the control and away it went, into the river.

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  3. Thanks for the laugh! I've seen "ladies" like that at Walmart too. Jessica is afraid of the mower...I'm afraid of Walmart!

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