As spring progresses toward summer, and alternating days of rain and shine are the forecast, naturally town has become Mow Town.
Like the music from that record label I like so much?
Not exactly, 9, but those would definitely be good tunes to play through headphones while one was mowing the lawn.
Isn’t that a boy thing?
Not at my house. Why? Because I actually enjoy mowing the lawn.
Why am I not surprised?
Think about it, Lily. What do I do for work?
Writing. And I’m still unhappy with you for giving up acting.
Even more so when you consider I first gave up acting for accounting. But I digress.
The nice thing about mowing the lawn, aside from being outdoors and getting some exercise, is I can easily and immediately see results of my efforts. This is part of why I freaked out when I realized the bolts had fallen out of one side of the Ryobi’s handle and I didn’t even notice it!
Old Mower: The wonky handle should have been my first clue!
Mow Town Mystery: The missing bolts! Gone, wherever you see attachment holes. . .
I guess they’re lolling around in the grass somewhere. For a couple of weeks I could get the mower running if I held the handle just right and at a high angle so the electricity could make get through. I’d had a similar experience with a vacuum cleaner several years ago, one that I used for more than a year after it was repaired with- -I kid you not- -a C-clamp and a piece of plywood screwed into the body’s plastic. Much hunching over and contortion was required to operate it. Though the realization came slowly, I at last understood there was merit to plunking down a couple hundred dollars to replace it.
It didn’t take me nearly that long to order a new Ryobi 40 V online. I picked it up at Home Depot yesterday and completed the small amount of assembly required. But I didn’t realize the new one is self-propelled (the old one wasn’t), and that it seemingly has a mind of its own when in action, like an energetic dog tugging on a leash.
After a brief period of acclimation and figuring out how to adjust the deck height- –
Mow Town violence: An experimental patch scalped by the lowest deck setting. . .
How could you miss something so obvious?
For one thing, it was on the right side and not the left like the old model. For another, it was snugged up between the right rear wheel and the mower body so it took me a while to find it, let alone figure out how to adjust it.
Today, it is “all good” as the cliché goes. I am once again in independent lawn mowing mode, once again paired with a battery powered, quiet mower that does not require hauling canisters of gasoline across town in the back of the Subaru. Calm and dignity are once again restored.
As much as they ever were.
Having two mowers is like having an old horse and a young one in the same pasture.
Mow Town Duo: Old to the left, new to the right.
What are you going to do with the old one?
Shhh! I feel so guilty, retiring it after five years of loyal service. But during that interval, quite a few neighbors have switched from gas mowers to Ryobi battery powered ones. Maybe it’s a good idea to offer the old one to my neighbors for parts?
Like an organ donor?
EW!
Kind of like that. We’ll see if any of them read this blog, and if any of them bite. There’s always the roll it to the curb and put a sign that says “Free” on it, but. . .
Call me sentimental, but I feel guilty about replacing machines. Part of it is my hatred of built-in obsolescence, one of the big drivers that keeps our out-of-control consumerist economy chugging along and destroying the earth in the process.
But the other thing? Unlike the current US Secretary of Health, I believe in science. This includes the belief that we- -meaning everything in the Universe- -are made out of the same star stuff. We are all children of the Big Bang. How weird that we presume to dispose of (or hate, ridicule, etc.) the other progeny of star stuff just because they’re “not like us”?
Because the way I look at it, you never know: maybe the next time you come around, you’ll live the life of a battery powered lawn mower.
