We’ve never had a brand new power lawn mower before but we have one now. The old one we got from a neighbor on his moving day was diagnosed as being “beyond repair” late last fall. We had all winter to mourn its passing.
We shopped for the new lawn mower one evening after work. First we headed to the neighborhood mower shop but they didn’t have anything in our price range and little in our size range anyway. Imagine having enough land that you’d need to ride your mower! We soon found ourselves in the familiar aisle ways of our local department store, comparing the shiny new models, talking to the salesman, and picking up a big box to take home with us.
I took the new mower out for a spin this weekend. I’m pretty good at following the new appliance instructions so I went step by step in the unpacking, assembling, oil-adding, gas-filling directions.
And, voila! It started on the first tug.
I hesitate to state this too enthusiastically: brand new beats hand-me-down in the mower department. I didn’t strain my shoulder or wrist trying to start it. I didn’t need earplugs while cutting the lawn. My teeth didn’t rattle nor did my hands go strangely numb from the vibrations. It was an entirely new lawn cutting experience.
Still, the biggest thrill was the bagging attachment. The first time that the bag was full (which didn’t take long for the first cut of the season!), I had the realization that I wasn’t cutting grass as much as I was efficiently harvesting green mulch! We have long used grass clippings to mulch between plants and keep down the weeds. Now we can gather the green mulch more easily than ever, bag after bag, it turns out, even with our modest lawn. That is why, in addition to not aching so badly, I’m in lawn mower heaven.
