lawnmower man

there's only one problem having a house with a lot of land. someone has to mow the damn lawn. in practice, this is why god invented teenagers. except when i was a teenager, i hated it. as some of you know, this is a hatred which burns like an ember in the depths of my soul to this day. but let me tell you how much more fun it is (or at least how much less it sucks) when you get to use a riding lawnmower.

because i have a Y chromosome, i've always been fascinated with riding lawnmowers. when i was a kid, mom used to leave me in the section of sears with the riding lawnmowers while she went shopping. they were about the coolest things i'd seen when i was 6. and unlike cars, they were even almost kid-sized.

the lawn here at Mason Manor has needed mowing for...a little while now and i figured that there was no putting it off any longer. so i went into the garage, scoffed at the regular push mower, and tried to figure out how to start the riding mower. yes, i'd been given instructions right before the people left, but the problem with instructions is that they involve all that remembering. fortunately, combinatorially there aren't too many configurations of levers and pedals. soon, i was on my way.

one of the first things i noticed is that a riding mower is WAY more powerful than a regular mower. i had thrown a decent amount of cut grass onto the house from a fair distance before having to turn the mower around so that it all went into the yard. but the turn radius is fantastic and there's even a cup holder, presumably for your beer. i only did part of the yard before it got dark (why do riding mowers have headlights? for the night classes at auburn) and decided that i'd finish later this weekend. it's kind of fun and certainly beats the hell out of push mowers.

if only the closest superette weren't so far away...