Mowing the Lawn

Our new housemate moves in tomorrow, and his chore will be to mow the lawn. It was kinda long already, so I decided to mow it today, so that he would not have to do it first thing upon moving in. I don’t have a lot of experience in this department. I might have pushed our mower two or three lengths as a child, but I probably got out of it most of the time as I do not really recall it. My dad was tasked with this chore, until my brother was old enough. Steven was born to be a gardener / farmer / outdoorsman. It’s in his blood. (That doesn’t exactly explain how it is not in my blood. I don’t even have one green finger.)

Mowing the lawn today was a brave decision, as my only memorable encounter with a lawn mower was not favourable. I was mowing College House lawn in 2005. The extension cable was not quite long enough. Actually, it was 2 extensions joined together, and in the furthest corner of the lawn, the cable would stretch to its ultimate length and the join would come undone. That was too much for a hot and sweaty teenager already in a bad mood. I don’t remember exactly, but somehow I became “garden leader,” and I think I delegated that task for the rest of the year.

Since moving here, I have been introduced (from a distance) to our neighbour’s wireless lawn mower. The sharp blades whir and somehow do the job. It seemed almost primitive compared to the electric versions I grew up with, but it is the more popular kind here. It worked alright, plus the lawns in Vancouver are much smaller than the gardens in the suburbs of South Africa. Not too long ago our house was spoiled with the gift of an electric lawnmower from a nearby neighbour who was moving away. Haha, leagues ahead of any old-fashioned mowing machine!

With the determination to replace a bad mowing memory, and a brand new extension that could reach even further than the edges of our lawn, I set about it. You would think a left-brained person would have a plan and a rectilinear grid for going about it, but alas, my approach was more like a sine-curve art-piece than a straight line. That’s alright, I told myself, the job is being done, and I have the pleasure of massacring the remaining dandelions in the process! All was going well until I mowed, not the lawn, but the cable. It was the absolute worst thing that could happen. Just before beginning, I had made a joking comment about trying not to mow the cable. What a disaster! I tried not to get mad at myself, but eventually dissolved into tears in front of my empathetic house mates. I’m ok now. Sometimes a good cry clears my perspective and I can see how it’s not the worst thing in the world. I actually finished the rest of the lawn with another cable – it’s patchy but I did it. Needless to say, after today, the lawn mower and I have agreed to disagree.