Mowing The Line

There have been so many things in the news recently that I wanted to write about. Unfortunately, I have been warned time and time again (especially in the last few weeks) that social and political bloggery could be interpreted a certain way, and the upshot would amount to a one way ticket to unemployment.

Since I happen to like my job, and I especially like receiving a paycheck, I'm left with the topics of dogs, cats, spiders, general stupidity, driving hazards, having a teenager, and cicadas.

Speaking of cicadas, they peaked two weeks ago. That photo of the bug-covered shed from my last post is nothing compared to what it looked like when it peaked. And the noise... ugh.

According to NYMag.com, their noise can reach over 100 decibels, like jackhammer levels. It also states they taste like corn, or asparagus (urp!). This apparently means my dog likes vegetables.

The brood hatched around 1 billion per square mile, although I'm fairly certain that's just in my backyard alone. I tried sucking up the corpses and shells with the lawn tractor bagger thingy, and it didn't work very well. Once we got a heavy storm, it knocked all the bug shells off the trees and other vertical surfaces leaving me with piles of rotting, stinky bugs.

The article also tells you not to mow during the day because the sound of the mower can confuse them into thinking it's a mating call. Which would explain why they were landing on me by the dozens.

Speaking of. Since Hubby had been traveling, that was also the weekend I finally had to mow the lawn. The grass had grown too tall to ignore, and Dog would sink. All I could see were ears and tail.

Now, I was told how to operate the mower/tractor about six years prior, but promptly forgot all of it. I never used it, so my brain marked the information “inactive” and locked it away, never to be found again.

Between Daughter and I, we got it running. I started on one small patch. After making my first pass, I realized nothing was happening. Cutting, I mean. Oh yeah. I probably should drop the blade, right? Shut up.

So I dropped the blade. I did not realize it had several levels - not just “up” and “down”. So what did that mean? It means I dropped it all the way.

After going about ten feet I stopped to check my progress and saw that I was basically tilling the earth. I wasn't overly attached that patch of grass anyway, and it'll grow back, right?

I played with the blade handle and found a setting somewhere between “doing nothing” and “goodbye grass”.

Once I got the gist of it, it was really fun.