Thoughts on lawn mowing

I think that this will probably be my final blog entry for this semester. I might do one more, but I don't know yet. I am sitting here, typing this, thinking about what I want to say and listening to the lawn mower. It is not a self-propelled one, and my husband is out in the front yard, pushing the mower through grass that is not terribly high, but it still looks like he is putting a lot of effort into shoving the mower through the grass.

That is the one chore that I ask him to do around the house. I do everything except take out the garbage (and I do that sometimes, if necessary) and mow the lawn. The garbage is supposed to be dealt with by my son, but that doesn't always happen, sometimes we get busy, sometimes he is sick, sometimes we both forget about it. When those things happen, either I step in and do it, or on the occassions when we both forget, it just doesn't get done. But mowing the lawn, now that is a bit harder to forget. If you forget to mow the lawn, the grass gets really tall and the neighbors complain and call the city on you, and they come out and give you a nasty notice and seven days to cut it or they take you to court and fine you. If you forget to take out the garbage, yes you kitchen might start to smell, but no one is going to take you to court for it and fine you.

But, there are some similarities between un-dealt-with garbage and unmown grass. They both keep growing whether you deal with them or not. They both get higher and higher until finally, they both get fuzzy and kind of shaggy looking. They both also blow around in the breeze if there is enough of them.

If you let grass grow long enough, it becomes a wonderful hiding place for vermin. Garbage acts much the same way. Vermin like large piles of trash. One major difference, though. Your grass won't start smelling wretched if it gets two feet high. A garbage pile will harbor the most awful smells. Vegetable garbage and grass clippings both make good compost, however, and compost heaps can smell pretty fragrant, so I guess that rotting grass is in fact similar to rotting garbage in the smell category.