We haven't mowed our lawn yet and it is already freaking May 17th.
Our neighbors have.
Other people I know have mowed their lawn.
Twice.
Ours isn't doing well. I think the killer Scottish-accented grub from the Grub-X radio commercials (sounds a lot like Fat Bastard, of Austin Powers fame) may have had all his wee friends over after they got sick of Haggis and double malt scotch this long winter.
But Doug just fired up the mower to hit the places that have indeed grown large. We're thinking about what to do for the not doing to well areas, We've got some holes to fill in (dug by the dog and the boy). So there is a lot of work to do here today.
We only own 1/3 of an acre. But whey you just don't feel like being a lawn wrangler, it seems like 100 acres. And to think, I wanted to buy a house with many many acres.
Many many of them wooded and self-sufficient.
I don't understand people who spend all day both weekend days manicuring, polishing, grooming and preening their lawn. Get out and take a walk or something.
My daughter's best friend's mom is an avid gardener. She's a stay at home mom, and she has created a floral sanctuary beyond compare. This I respect. It's the grass preening and worship that I just don't get. Sure, a nice bed of green paradise under your bare feet on a summer day is sweet... but it really shouldn't take that much time. And I see guys out there working it and working it -- all for what? So they can sit on the deck and drink a beer and look at it, and yell at the kids when they run across it.
I also don't like using chemicals on the yard. We've got the dogs and the kid, and the kid and the dogs, and the barefeet and the licking. And the glavin and the mavin, nice lay-deee!
Sorry, I morphed into Professor Frink there for a minute.
The vast majority of you know that I'm registered republican. So you'd think I'd be all up in the yard with chemical warfare and the like.
No.
We've both got the same mindset about chemicals and grass... they don't mix. No matter how "safe" the chemicals allegedly are, we won't use any of them unless it's dire end of the world or else need, which after 7 years of living here we may be up against so I'm cringing and reluctant.
All I need is one of my dogs walking in all this stuff for weeks and licking his paws clean, and then he's got oral cancers or something. Not to mention -- the boy. He is the king of bare feet on any surface, and I don't want him walking out and about on unsavory substances.
Doug developed his dislike for such chemical compounds while in graduate school. He read a lot about speech therapy needs for rehab on guys who had oral cancers, not from smoking but from golfing.
They'd hold their golf tees between their teeth or kiss their golf balls or clubs... and years later, they've got no lower jaw and no tongue due to the spread of insidiously wicked cancers and they're in communication therapy so they can learn to communicate with people without their voices...
So -- if you're a golfer, keep your mouth off your club, m'kay?
And if you know one, let him or her know.
A lot of golf courses have gone "organic" in the past several years, using chemical free or organic compounds on the greens, and they are leaving the fairways to just do their natural thing. It isn't as pretty and lush to do it that way, but it's a lot more environmentally responsible.
But not enough golf courses do. I knew I guy when I worked at my last company, and his parents were scientists who invented a safe and organic fertilizer for use specifically on golf greens. They were working their asses off to market the stuff and sell it, but so many golf organizations didn't see it as an issue. They went at it from an environmental safety issue, and when I told Todd about the oral cancer issue, he informed his parents and they researched it, and added that to their marketing scheme. I wonder how they're doing with their product these days?
Anyway -- I digress. As usual.
We don't rake or or clean up the mowed grass when we're done mowing. We leave it there, in little rows, all over the yard. The wind takes care of it, and spreads the grassy seed love around. Doug's dad hates when we leave the grass clippings in the yard. I think he thinks we do it just to bug him.
By the end of summer, the yard looks magnificent... just by cutting it and letting nature do her thang. Know what I'm sayin? Never ever say we're lazy. We love the earth y'all! (She says as she gets into her big Dodge Truck that gets approx. 18 mpg. Mwuff. Sorry).
Geoff Update
 | The past couple days have settled down for us. Geoff did have to go back to the orthopedist to have his cast put back on. He was in school yesterday and pulled his hand out of his cast. The doctor's office said they'd never seen anyone do that before. They called him Houdini. We figure his arm had been swollen, and the swelling subsided enough that he was just able to yoink his hand out of the cast. |
They panicked at his school.
They weren't sure how badly the bone was broken (it isn't broken all the way through), and he exhibited no signs of pain or distress, and they didn't think they could yoink his hand back in, that would probably hurt. So they got ahold of Doug and Doug left work early to go grab him and bring him back to the doctor.
"Listen," said the doctor as he recasted the arm, "you will leave this one on, or I'll give you another one that goes up to here," doctor marks just below Geoff's armpit and shoulder with the circling of his fingers, "and I'll make it pink."
Geoff's first cast, which I signed and didn't get a picture of, was a very pretty blue. This one, as you can see, is Incredible Hulk Green. It makes me dizzy just to look at it. He likes it though, and he's being very serious about it. The doctor made quite an impression on him. I had to wash his hands for dinner last night, and he got all crazy with me when I tried to wash his left fingers. He was worried that I'd get the cast wet, and the "doctor said if I get it wet it will STINK and I don't want to STINK!!!"
I see a trip to CVS to buy a fingernail scrubber and handi-wipes of some sort in order to keep that left hand clean. I see that trip sometime today.
I guess that's about it. There is really no other news to talk about today. I know I'm procrastinating getting out there and getting my feet and hands and ass all dirty sitting around preparing the garden and the flower beds. Sigh. I feel like I could crawl back into bed... but there is so much to do.
Part of me doesn't want to put in a garden or rake where we got tons of winter sand and dirt (front of the house). I've seen everyone up and down my street doing it all spring, and I keep saying "yeah, we have to do that..." but I feel so unmotivated to get started. Part of me still thinks we're going to sell this house and move (I know, I know, we probably aren't) and I just don't feel like making an effort for someone else to enjoy the bounty of in August.
This spring has been long and cold and dreary... I feel like the little flowers will never show themselves. And I don't feel I'm the Mary Sunshine to bring them out. Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it all goes... if it goes at all.
Sigh.
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