It’s getting to be that time of year…the rain is falling, the air is fresh, the birds are singing and that grass is growin’.
Since moving ‘out to the boonies’ which we affectionately call our dwelling (although it’s really not all that far from anything, just depends on what you compare it to), we inherited Italian Stallion's dad’s driving tractor/lawn mower.
It’s his “baby”. I’m not quite sure what it is about a driving mower that causes such pure devotion, but it does. Other men, that don’t have one, come over and salivate over it. The men in the neighborhood stand around and discuss their mowers…do you have the riding John Deere or perhaps those lever/two handled/look like you are in construction type mower? To see the looks on the faces of those men as their turn the key for their “babies” and take to the open….grass?
Every spring, it’s the same thing…it’s like they’ve been waiting all winter to get out there and mow…and mow they do…and often! Anthony is not excluded.
I used to think it was a horrible chore…I mean, he’d come home from work and say, “Oh Honey, I gotta mow the lawn tonight” (read: exhausted, lamenting tone) I thought, oh my poor darling husband…so tired from a long day at work…and he’s going out to mow the lawn…to take care of our house, our family…etc etc…I would make him up a big jug of ice water and come out and check on him every 15 minutes or so. I felt so bitterly sorry for him…that is UNTIL…
There was one week where I just felt so overwhelmed with sympathy for my poor husband that I told him that I was going to learn to drive the tractor and take over some of the work for him. He was so “protective” of me…He didn’t want me to “have” to do that…but, I insisted…I’m not going to let my husband take the brunt of taking care of all this yard by himself…
So, I got on, learned the buttons and took off…
Wait a minute…all I’m doin’ here is driving back and forth…where’s all the sweat and tears? I’m sitting there waiting for the aches, the pains, the hard turns…I’m not sure what I was expecting, but definitely not this…
Turns out…Mowin’ the lawn on a tractor ain’t all the bad…infact, it’s quite peaceful for about the 2-3 hours it takes to cut all the grass in our yard…NO WONDER he protected that job so ardently. My goodness, it’s like a little bit of heaven out there on the open green, just mindlessly going back and forth…sippin’ on that cold water, not a care in the world (except to maybe watch for any toys or rocks that are hidden)
Honey…I’m callin’ your bluff! May have to get me some “tractor time” this summer! But, I will leave the bulk to you…you deserve it after all that you do for us anyway…but I do reserve the right to tease you about it!!!
