A Reel good time

About six weeks ago, or perhaps a little more, Rob and Kris decided to divest themselves of some possessions before strolling out to Arizona. As part of this trimming down they apparently felt that they would not need their mowers in the desert. (Go figure.) Having always been a little jealous of them owning a particular mower I jumped at the chance to part with a few bucks and take possession of their old style Reel mower. (It looks something like this.) Gleefully I took it home and immediately parked it in the basement to gather dust and cobwebs.

For about the same stretch of time I have steadfastly avoided mowing my lawn. At first this was a reasonable strategy since it was hot and dry and the grass was not growing anyway. But over the last couple weeks rain has once again entered our world. The grass started to grow like there was some sort of race between the blades as to which one would be the tallest blade in the yard. Fearing the wrath of the almighty homeowners association I decided it was time to end this particular competition.

So this morning I found myself facing the wilderness grass preserve I used to call a lawn. I wanted to mow before the temperature became hot but being the nice guy that I am I also did not want to wake the neighbors. What could the solution possibly be? The quiet person powered Reel mower of course. These mowers while extremely cool (in my opinion) are not exactly made for tall grass. And since the grass was standing tall it was also still damp from the evening dew. Wet grass is another negative for this type of mower. Not being one to worry about the proper use of something with blades I decide to give it a try. It did a horrible job but far better than I expected. For the most part my lawn is now a lot shorter. However it looks like a blind person came along with a pair of scissors and tried cutting my lawn. In some places the grass is nice and short while in others it is almost as long as it was when I started. But mostly it is just a combination of short grass with random blades stretching up as if defying me for having tried to cut it. Oh well. I really had a lot of fun doing it and I still think the mower is awesome. Later this week I’ll probably pull out the gas mower and level it off but even if this is the only time I ever use the Reel mower it was well worth the price.*

Thanks Kris and Rob, another memory made and you did not even have to be in the same state. I miss you.

* I think that I may have actually gotten the mower for free.