I can wield shame like a cudgel
We bought a big, powerful and loud gas-powered lawn mower a few weeks ago. After last summer’s debacle of trying to manage our grass with the old reel push mower, we opted to upgrade to a bigger gas mower. The reel mower didn’t do a very good job and frankly our yard was too big for it.
This year our condo neighbors agreed with us that we should upgrade and three of us hopped into the car to visit the giant orange box store of despair. I looked at a nice electric that didn’t do everything I hoped our new mower could do. Then I looked at the gas-powered machines. Our neighbor had “done some research” and made some suggestions about which mower to buy. Deeps chimed in and we bought a big self-propelled machine that will mow and mulch.
When we got the machine home the men set about fiddling with it. They seemed quite pleased with themselves. And they both commented on how much faster the lawn mowing task would be – mere minutes compared with the nearly hour-long task it had been with the reeler mower.
They both said they’d be more inclined to mow the lawn now that they could do it in less than 15 minutes. Both said it would be something they could easily do after work. Neither of them ever did anything. So I had to start my slow guilt campaign.
I didn’t actually care that they didn’t mow the lawn, it’s just they made such a big deal about that mower that on principle I felt they should do some lawn care and maintenance. I’ve shamed Deeps into doing it twice. It’s harder to shame the neighbor since he’s not around a lot and seems somewhat impervious to my shame – after all I’ve done all the yard work to date and dug up the whole back yard to reseed and overplant it for the lush green lawn we have now.
I figure a good few minutes loudly struggling with the mower should do the trick. Then I can spend some quality time with the Weedeater.
There
Wait until it's been in storage over the winter and won't start because it seems to need a new part that will invariably be covered in black grease and located at the very core of the engine, surrounded by many other oily parts that take hours to dissassemble, fall neatly into the cracks in the garage floor and strip out if over-torqued during re-assembly. Negative Joy.
Gas Mowers are the Devil! Even with the cord, I prefer electric.
My husband bought a RIDING mower. We have a largern than average yard, but puh-leeze! A riding mower?? Oh, and my father and brother own two lawn companies. So, we get our lawn care for free. I'm still confused why we have a tractor-in-disguise in our garage. Perhaps my daughter can drive it to school. Gah.