Home Alone: Day 2

My attempt at "helping out" with the lawn work by mowing our ridiculously overgrown backyard last night didn't go so well:

Um yeaaaah. Our landlord told us that we could get $35 off our rent for each time we mowed the lawn. We (The Prof) did the mowing once this month. We skipped the backyard that time because our upstairs neighbor was working on growing grass in the area seen above, which resembled a dust bowl mere weeks ago. We got a few days of rain and -- poof! -- suddenly the back lawn could only be described as "lush."

Then The Prof left for his business trip and I decided after work last night that I was fully capable of mowing the grass, even though I've never mowed grass, or even started a lawnmower for that matter, before in my life. How hard could the whole thing be, really?

After 10 minutes of pulling the cord to no avail, I went inside and looked up How To Start A Push Mower. Has anyone else heard of this "prime button" thingy? Anyway, I pushed the "red, squishy button somewhere on the mower's body. Push it between 3 and 8 times in order to force the gasoline into the lines." I pulled the cord. The mower shot to life, and I felt both fear and elation.

Since I had the mower positioned exactly in the center of the yard, I started there and cut a straight line across the grass. When I got to the fence, I looked back (note that, at this point, the sky was basically dark.) The grass looked so...short...and dark...almost like, um, dirt. Suddenly, I had the worst thought: what if I had the mower too close to the ground and basically tilled a patch of dirt across the entire width of the yard?!?

AAACK!!!

I shut off the mower and investigated. All turned out to be well, the cut grass felt short and there was no dirt. I went back to the mower, hit the prime button, and pulled the cord. Nothing. Push, pull, repeat. Nothingx2.

"How To Start A Push Mower, step 2: Make sure you have enough gasoline."

Hmmm.

The upstairs neighbor confirmed that I had, indeed, run out of gas. So now The Prof is going to handle finishing the whole operation when he returns on Thursday. Until then, our yard is sporting a reverse Mohawk. Too bad I couldn't get at least one or two more "strips" done...then we could say our lawn has a bi- or tri-hawk which, let's face it, just sounds cooler.

Comments

[General Disarray]

You didn't do a very good job hiding the evidence. I can clearly see the lawnmower sticking out of the shrubs.

[The Professor]

Come on people... how resourceful is my lady? Everyone in FL loved this post, CG. I'll continue the mow upon my return. Maybe I'll go for a random spike rather than any 'Hawk' variety.

[dairy queen]

hilarious. . . I'm around for lawnmowing tutorials if you need (I'm an old pro. . . we had a lot of trees growing up that we had to deal with too!)

but maybe you can get like $3 off your rent for this job?

[Lil Kim]

I love this post and the thought of you running in the house to check the good ole' internet about how to start a lawnmower. Why do I love it? Cuz I totally can see myself doing the same thing!