i just mowed the grass. yay. woohoo. three cheers for me. seriously...give me three cheers please. i am so tired i can barely type. i know people all over the world mow their own grass all the time. i am sure that many even do it with a self-propelled/push mower. i am not one of those people. today makes twice in my life that i have ever mowed the grass. it will likely be the last time.
you see, my sweet husband's birthday is tomorrow. all he asked for was that we spend some money and time mulching the front yard and planting a crepe myrtle. so today, i thought i would surprise him and mow the grass so that a: it will look good with the new mulch and myrtle, b: he won't have to mow it himself, and c: when his family comes over no one will make fun of our grass. he knows that i hate to work in the yard and i hate being hot...so when this idea came to me i thought that it would be a really great way for me to say "i love you" and "happy birthday".
now...you need to understand that our mower is a little bit finicky. it's rigged to run a certain way and there's a little lever with a rabbit picture at one end and a turtle picture at the other. i gave my father-in-law a call and he walked me through how to start the darn thing. i set everything properly, thanked him for his help, and hung up. and then i remembered the pull-cord starter thingy. the first time i mowed many years ago, i was totally unable to get the mower to start; i just wasn't strong enough or quick enough (this would be reason numero uno for why i haven't mowed the grass since). but today, i decided, would be redemption day...and it was...for a few minutes. i got it started on the first try, began mowing, happily thinking of how pleased jeremy would be when he got home, and then it died. not to be deterred, i located our gas can and poured some gas in the tank. this sounds simple enough, but as you may or may not know, i am deathly afraid of fire, so the mere thought of pouring gasoline in a machine that already kinda smells like it might be burning gave me the heebie jeebies. not wanting to seem foolish in calling my father-in-law again, i gave dear old dad a call to make sure i wasn't doing anything stupid. he suggested i let it cool off a bit before i tried to start it again.
fast-forward one hour to mowing attempt number two. i managed to get it started again (sooo proud of myself, thank you very much) and mowed for a while. eventually, i decided i was about to pass out from being hot, sticky, and sneezing my head off. i cut the mower off (move lever from rabbit to turtle...ah, this makes sense!!!) and went inside for a break. once i had cooled off a bit, i went back out for session number three. only this time there was no starting mr. mower. i yanked. i pulled. i might have even said a few things i shouldn't have. and i almost cried. the front yard was done but the back yard only had a big strip down the side... i just HAD to finish it!! i tried several times and even called a friend of ours to see if he could come help me (no way was i calling dad or father-in-law again...i have my pride, people!); he didn't answer.
so the next logical step was to at least make the front look as good as possible. i have never used a blower or a weed-whacker...but i am proud to say that i now know how...sort of. i whacked some weeds along the edge of the sidewalk (did you know that thing can whack huge holes in the ground!?) and then used the blower to make it all nice and clean and pretty. by this time i was near death, so i took another break and had a little talk with God. i let Him know that i really, really wanted to finish the yard for jeremy, but that i was needing a little bit of help, so He either needed to send me someone to start my mower or i needed a little more oomph to make it happen. i went out, gave the mower one of my best "this yard ain't big enough for the both of us" looks, and gave the starter the biggest, hardest pull i could muster. IT STARTED!!! i said thank you to Jesus, laughed out loud at myself, and spent another hour mowing.
now i am clean and happily curled up under the covers, with some ointment on the blister on my hand, a hot water bottle under my feet, two Aleve in my tummy (washed down with a prayer that they will work some magic), and a towel on my head. he better freaking love it.
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