Lessons From a Novice Lawn Mower-er

Because I moved into my new house near the end of fall last year, I had a good five or so months before I even had to consider the prospect of yard work. In fact, I don't believe the thought of yard work even crossed my mind during those five months. However, spring came, and it was around the time that I noticed there were weeds half as tall as my house that I decided something must be done with my yard. Since I am often at home on weekdays, I began to notice that most of my neighbors had hired people to get their yards into shape. Out of fear of being disowned by my parents, who actually find great pleasure in doing their own yard work, I quickly ruled this option out. I knew that I was going to have to purchase a lawn mower, and that I was somehow going to have to learn how to use it. I enlisted my dad's help for this task. While in Mobile a couple of months ago, my brother very graciously allowed me to use his lawn mower and cut his grass for practice. With my dad there to guide me, I successfully cranked the lawn mower and cut my brother's grass without any trouble (aside from the extremely sore arms I woke up with the next morning). A few weeks later, my parents drove up to Birmingham to assist with the big lawn mower purchase and with my first lawn mowing session at my house. Following my dad's expert lawn mower advice, I became the proud owner of this:



Yep, that's a NON-self-propelled push mower. Again, with my dad's guidance, I was able to cut my grass without any trouble. In fact, I even kind of enjoyed it. Something about being able to see my progress as I mowed and being able to make those straight lines up and down my lawn really satisfied those OCD tendencies I hide way deep down inside of me. By the time my parents left to go back to Mobile, we were all confident that I had the lawn mowing thing down.

A few weeks later, that confidence was shattered. As I was mowing my front yard and admiring the straight lines I was making, I noticed a neighborhood walker laughing at me. I tried to brush it off by smiling and waving at him, but he just continued to gawk and laugh at me. I guess he had never seen a girl cutting her own grass before. As much as I tried forget about the incident, it really cut deep. Being the strong-willed person I am, after much thought I decided that I would show that man who's boss in this household. Afterall, Colby has never once offered to cut the grass for me. I began cutting the grass more often. If the lines in the grass weren't perfectly straight, I went back over them until they were perfect. I wanted to show that man that I have lawn mowing skills.

As a result, my lawn mowing skills have greatly improved since that incident. Just the other day, I got a little brave as I was mowing and decided to cut the grass at a diagonal, instead of my usual up and down or side to side. I was quite pleased with the result:





Take that, Mr. Neighborhood Walker Man.