Green Sneakers and Ham

What a strange title . . . I started out with just "Green Sneakers" and I naturally needed to add "and Ham" despite the fact that the ham part is totally irrelevant. I think I'm getting deliriously tired these days.

Anyway, I'm talking about green sneakers because yesterday was my first attempt at grass cutting with an actual push mower. In my whole life, I don't ever recall cutting the grass with a push mower. OK, my tiny little reel mower doesn't count and I only used it 3 or 4 times around the fish ponds in Andover. This was a real lawn mower that you walk behind, rather than sit on and drive!

And I don't know what the heck I was thinking when I originally told Karlo that I didn't need a self-propelled model. Thank GOD we ended up getting the self propelled job and even with it . . . it was still a ton of work. For some strange reason I thought it would be a good idea to pitch in and help Karlo with the lawn from now on. After sizing up the lawn I figured it would take him a half a day to do it on his own and let's face it . . . I don't have the patience to sit around and wait for that. So we bought a push mower and a second weed whacker so I can help out. Last night we cut non-stop (in turbo mode) for 2 hours and almost finished the lawn (not including the grass in the front of the house). And I'm betting we have another good 2 hours of trimming to go. uuuugh.

I pushed my little heart out and the self-propulsion doesn't exactly work on the hills. It required good old fashion pushing. I was exhausted and sweaty. Yes, sweaty. I never sweated in Croatia with all that heat and biking, but yet I sweated cutting the darn grass. And now my perfectly white tennis shoes are completely green. Why didn't Karlo warn me that would happen? And to top it off, my right arm is killing me. All day I couldn't figure out why my arm feels like I got a tetnis shot. It finally dawned on me that it's from pulling the cord to start the mower. How barbaric. Can't they just make an on/off switch? I'm not sure how much mowing I'll really do, but at least my intentions are good.