The joys of summer chores no more

Now that cooler weather is (temporarily?) upon us, let us give thanks for more time in between lawn mowing intervals.

You know what I’m talking about.

Instead of weekly clippings you can now go about 10 days–and that’s three whole days more of not mowing the lawn (which is an added bonus as far as time given back by the universe).

Some people can power through lawn mowing in practically no time. I, too, can attest to rapidly mowing the lawn on some days compared to others.

But, the problem with mowing too fast is that:

You place additional wear and tear on your machine by pushing it so hard; and
You totally need to take a longer shower to wash all the sweat off you from mowing so fiercely

So, while mowing more quickly may save time on the front end, the longer time you take in the shower afterwards on the back end may result in about the same time expense overall, compared to if you had mowed at a more leisurely pace.

Not saying you don’t need to shower after mowing at a slacker’s pace, but you might not need as much time washing off the dirt layers if you sweat less because you took more time mowing.

Another reason why I don’t recommend mowing fast is the state of the wheels on my machine. They’re pretty wobbly. If I went too fast, the wheels might come off in which case I’d really take a long time to finish mowing the lawn when you factor in the time for taking the mower to the shop for a look see.

When it comes to cars people have had for a long time, saying something like, “I drove the wheels off that thing!” means they had the car for an inordinately long time.

If you take care of your mower you can keep the wheels from falling off. Accordingly, I heartily encourage you to do precisely that. For if you were to do completely the opposite, the wheels might fall off prematurely–most definitely not a sign of someone who has had their lawn mower for any great swath of time.

The onset of cooler weather also signifies the return to less frequent weed whacking.

Once 90-degree temperatures are no more, I set a personal goal of weed whacking only every other time that I mow the lawn.

This is because not only is the grass growing less quickly, but so are the weeds.

But, my reason for striving for an every other lawn mowing frequency interval on the weed whacking front is the preservation of my remaining sense of hearing.

Gas powered weed whackers can be pretty loud. Especially, if like me, lately you’ve taken to not wearing hearing protection. I know, this is pretty horrible. I truly need to start putting in ear plugs again, but so far I’ve not been able to return to wearing them since when I stopped mid-summer or thereabouts.

It can be pretty disorienting for me to use ear plugs. For example, I may be whacking wildly near where the grass and weeds run out and the blacktop begins. It can be dangerous when cars whiz by. My tendency for occasionally being lax about the potential for passing cars to side-swipe me is only exceeded by the adrenaline rush coursing through me when they almost do.

Ah, the joys of summer chores.

Ah, the joys of summer chores no more until next year.

That about sums it up.