Hooray for Electricity

[http://www.skippy.net/blog/wp-content/electricity.mp3]

Since I bought this house in 2002, I’ve used a push mower to cut my lawn. The mower works well enough, and I’ve generally liked using it: it’s quiet, it has no fumes, it’s small and easy to maneuver. But it doesn’t cut tall grass particularly well: it simply pushes the blades over and never cuts them. We’ve had rather a lot of rain, lately, making the grass too wet to cut for an extended period. The result was extremely tall grass. My push mower was almost completely ineffective.

I borrowed my neighbor’s gas mower this weekend, in order to actually cut the grass in my back yard. I had forgotten how well a gas mower cuts, and I’d forgotten what a really smooth, even lawn looks like on my own property. I went to the store, resolved to buy a new gas mower. I walked out of the store with a new electric mower.

The electric mower was about $100 more than the gas mower I would have purchased. I don’t know that I’ll ever save $100 in gas by using this mower, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll save $100 in frustration by not having to remember to go to the gas station to refill the mower, or spill gasoline, or curse out loud as I yank on the starter cord…

I cut the front lawn as soon as I got the mower home, and was delighted at the result. I was so pleased at the result, and the time saved, that I rushed off to trim the bushes using an electric trimmer I purchased some weeks prior. The job was done in a fraction of the time it used to take me, and my arms weren’t sore.

I’m looking forward to mowing the lawn again, soon! ;)