Tag Archives: writing

So there I was, a closed garage door, a sick husband,  and an overgrown lawn.   Did I mention my husband was ailing?  Do I need to mention that this is the second part of Thursday’s post?  Do I need to apologize that I am making it early Saturday morning instead of on Friday? Have I asked enough questions for one paragraph?

Where was I?  (Oops,  another question.)  Ah yes, in front of the garage door.   That’s right,  I decided to have a go at it all by myself.  And what do you know, I succeeded.  Oh, I guess you already knew that, since I talked about getting lawn work done.

So I started with the manual push mower and the front lawn.  For one reason, the front lawn is the one everybody sees.  Oh, don’t tell me not to care what other people think!  It is more pleasant for everyone to see a well-kept lawn instead of a weed jungle,  and I am all about making life just a little bit better in any way I can.

I found that by going over the same little patch six to ten times, I could make a difference.   Phew!  Am I ever glad our front lawn is tiny!  Additionally,  I could skip the patches where the daisies, lilies of the valley (Lilies of the Mohawk Valley?) (just had to throw that in), and — new this year — forget me nots had taken over.

Still, it took me over 40 minutes (I kept looking at my watch, because I promised myself I wouldn’t spend more than an hour on it; it was a holiday, after all). I was sweaty and tired!  I opened a beer, which I felt was the proper beverage for the situation,  and sat down on the back deck.

This gave me a nice view of our overgrown back lawn.  Damn.  I knew my work was not done.  There was no way I could duplicate my efforts out front on our backyard.   It is a normal-sized lawn for our house and neighborhood,  but in terms of labouring behind a manual mower over grass that length,  it seemed vast.  I hauled out the power mower, checked the oil, and added gas.

Then I proved to myself once again that I cannot start that motor by myself.  I just can’t pull that cord with enough force.  What to do?  Finally I knocked on our neighbors’ door.  We don’t really know them, but say hello when we see each other.  They are a nice young couple, with two kids and a dog (I would like to pet the dog, of course, but he does not seem interested in me).

The nice young man came out and started my mower with one pull.  Woo-hoo! This was much better!   Some places — actually many places — still required more than one pass.  Also, it took some effort from my middle-aged body of meager muscles to push the mower over our uneven ground.  But I did it!  I felt like much woman, as my sister Vicki would say.

OK, I set out three days ago to write about Thursday’s efforts.  I am now two posts in, and I am still on Monday.  On the brighter side,  it has been many, many words since I have whined about not being able to write a blog post. I think that calls for a “Yay, me!”

In the meantime,  I am over 550 words.  I generally don’t go in for long blog posts, so I will end this one here.  Will I ever tell about Thursday’s lawn efforts?   Or will I go back to whining about my inability to blog?  Will I post later today or remain two posts behind?  A little suspense adds interest to my Saturday.