A New Friend
Man is known to have a lot of friends. Dogs, beer, buddies, boats and so on. All of them equally important and all get in the way of chores that we're supposed to be doing instead of having fun. However, I think I need to elevate a new one. The lawn mower.
Along the
way when we combined houses I declared that there was no longer any need to have
somebody come in and cut the grass because we can save money if I took care of
it. Of course I would need a good lawn mower because my John Deere tractor was
over at the other house (the one with a dirt yard). So I hunted around on
Craigslist looking for a self-powered Honda that I've wanted for years. Now,
truthfully, when it comes to push mowers, I usually buy the cheap model with
the knowledge that they usually break down sooner or later as they seem to have
a built in short life. So I never change the oil, treat the gas or sharpen the
blades. The one I have now from my old house is six years old. It sounds like
it's running on half a piston and blows smoke like crazy when it first starts.
But it won't die. I've used it over at the house being built with the dirt yard
when it wasn't all dirt to keep the grass down to jungle height.
But being a
guy and seeing an opportunity, I told my better half that we're going to need a
really good lawn mower for the new house. She gave me that look that only a
wife can do, you know the one where their eyes get squinty, they cock their
head look at you out of the corner of their eye and you know their brain is
thinking "he's scamming." And I was. But I had her convinced that we
needed this Cadillac of push mowers and we might as well get it now. So I found
one on Craigslist that I had to travel about an hour and half for but it was a
great deal. Even more so after I got the price down even lower. This is a Honda
Model HRX 217 self-propelled mower. And it's great. It starts with one pull and
moves along effortlessly while bagging grass clippings like a charm. Mulching
is as simple as shifting a lever. I've never had a better push mower.
And this is
where the new best friend part comes in. One day, after I had put off cutting
the grass longer than I should have, my better half decided that she would give
it a shot while I was out. She discovered (and so did I) that she enjoyed
the way the lawn mower cut the grass and found that she didn't mind doing it.
At first I would feign insult that I wanted to cut the grass and would throw
out that phrase that every women hates by saying "It's a man's job."
Heh heh. That always works. For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction…
I had her
hooked. More often than not she would cut the grass this past summer. She even
started claiming that she could do a better job than me. It was a competition
that I secretly let her win. So now I have to elevate the lawn mower up a bit
higher on the friend level.
Who knows, I
might even change the oil on this one.
Enjoy your weekend
