Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Clip, Clip Here. Clip, Clip There.

I'd consider our yard an average looking yard. Not too fancy, just well kept. I think it's safe to say that I got the "lawn bug" at an early age. I attribute this to inheriting the gene from my father. I remember long ago being outside with my dad while he would mow the grass. Although I didn't have an actual mower, I'd stay next to him with my bubble mower.
Looking back, I was probably a pain in the ass to my dad, but I enjoyed it. (Thanks for putting up with me Dad!)

Upon acquiring a home of our own we started to add lawn gear. Thanks to my parents we soon had a shed full o' stuff. I was ready to go. I don't think the lawn bug ever went away, just subdued for a bit. I headed into my yard work with a vengeance. I mowed weekly and used the trimmer to edge weekly. If a weed presented itself you'd find me out with my Weed Hound. If the grass grew at all I could feel my anxiety rise. There were many of times where my parents would have to say, "Heidi....chill, if you keep cutting your lawn you'll burn it out." For those days I'd head out with my hedge/edging scissors, cutting here and there. And when my used lawnmower went kaput I almost had a nervous breakdown. It was safe to say that I was having some OCD issues.....as with so many things.

As stated in previous posts, over the past 6 months I've changed some. I'm not sure what's come over me, but I've found that some things just aren't worth worrying about. I'm not totally non-OCD, but I've had a "chill" come over me. The chill can range from how I dress, my cleaning, participating in functions....I could go on. I'm thankful for this and have found that my "chill" has even stretched itself to lawn tending.

There's no doubt that you'll still find me outside mowing weekly and weeding to keep things under control, but I'm not so obsessed. This is the first year I didn't lay fertilizer (gasp!). I attribute that to the fact that it's not real healthy for the Earth, it's expensive, and mostly that the dogs have run of the backyard. Having run of the backyard means fertilizer's not too healthy for them either and the yard is full of yellow spots or mud/dirt pits. This is also the first year I didn't plant any flowers and we haven't put our patio furniture out yet. Not sure if we will or not. It's still early.

So.....I'm still a lawn freak, just not to the extent I was before.

With that being said, I've still got this weird attachment to my trimmer. I use it a lot and needless to say it's beat up. It's literally on it's last leg. I can't believe it considering it's not that old. I must admit, this is my third one. Crazy, I know, but let me explain. The first one went after 1.5 years. It's started to arc and ceased. I went out, got another one. I was using it, a pertinent piece of hardware flung and it was worthless. Thankfully it wasn't that old, I still had the box and receipt, and it was replaced. So, that leads us to where I am now. It's guard has cracked, the tap n' feed no longer taps and feeds, and the cutting blade that cuts excess line went flying tonight. Gah! I spent the evening unplugging, unwinding, winding, and cutting the line to length...yeah, like 10 times. And it's not like it's a fast fix. Quite frustrating. So either it's time to get a new trimmer or you're going to be finding me out with my edging scissors doing the whole lawn. Maybe the next door neighbor will even say again, "Hey! You want to come over and cut my entire lawn that way?" Maybe I'll be able to think of a quick enough comeback this time....hopefully before I shove the scissors up his ass.

I know it will never happen but this is what I want. I haven't ever done research, so I don't know if this is the specific brand or model I'd get......but on those lines, I want one. How many women do you know that have a gas trimmer on their wish list. Ha! It's only a wish, but I can always dream. And hey, if we're dreaming, I might as well dream that my neighbors will cut their grass more often. I'm not asking them to edge or weed, just mow their grass before it hits a foot high. But considering the city doesn't abide by those rules, why should they? Once again, I can always dream.

(Side note: I'm not trying to paint David in a bad light.....I don't do all the yard work. He helps a TON. Fortunately for him he doesn't have the yard bug and is quite content with just a plain ol' mowed yard.)

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