Mowin' in 2010...

My neighbors must have thought I was crazy... "What on earth is that fool doing mowing his yard in January???"

Well, I had a reason. Actually, several reasons.

Normally we have a fairly windy winter here in Dallas. That means when my leaves fall from the trees, they blow elsewhere...

This year, not so much. I had a TON of leaves sitting on my lawn, covering the sidewalk, and making the yard look just craptapular.

The other "reason" I wanted to mow was to see if I could do it. I hadn't mowed my yard since early April. Once the knee went kablewie, I hired a service to mow it weekly.

So I wheeled out the mower... filled it up with the little gas I had in the jug... and started cranking. And cranking. And cranking. And waiting. And pushing the starter button even more... and cranking... and getting cranky...

Finally, with a blast of smoke, the mower started. Then it stopped. A little more effort and it finally got going again. I got behind it and started pushing...

Wow! It felt great... and weird! I haven't really had to push anything like that over the past few months. It was a strange sensation of "I'm so glad to be doing this again" and "I feel a bit uneasy walking on this unstable surface!"

After a few rows, the mower died. "What the...???" Well, my spark plug blew out. Once I got it screwed back in, it now worked just fine. I mowed the entire front lawn... and realized I need to go to Home Depot to buy some filler dirt! I have quite a few pits in my yard that will probably cause me to fall one day...

Anyway, it was a momentous occasion. I think most of you know how much I enjoy working in my yard... knowing that I can do this just makes me look forward to 2010 even more!

(Although, it sure was nice to be sitting inside with the A/C blasting during August watching people mow my yard!)