Mother's Day

Today in the US, it is Mother's Day. Things started out normally enough for us here. DS, DD and I got DW some nice plants for the garden and she had some nice cards to open. I got up early, cleaned the kitchen and made a nice breakfast with scrambled Egg Beaters, fakin' bacon, toast, fresh melon and strawberries, coffee and a nice mimosa.

Still, this afternoon, we had to do our usual weekend routine. This involved a trip grocery shopping and then some yard chores for me. My major chore for the afternoon was mowing the lawn. At this point, all of the women reading this blog are about to declare me a chauvinist pig. I had my wife mow the lawn for me on Mother's Day.


Really.

I showed her how to use the mower and let her go on her way. Now the interesting thing from my point of view is that she's never mown a lawn.

Ever.

For a woman who comes from a country that seems to take great pride in their gardening skills and a beautiful green countryside, I found this to be rather unusual. She claims that her father always did the mowing.

While she was mowing the lawn for me I went around and pulled out all of the dandelions that I could find. I had fleeting thoughts of going into the house, grabbing a beer and sitting on the deck with my feet up while she was mowing. Okay, so they were a bit more than fleeting thoughts. So tempting. I suppose that there were three things that kept me from doing this. First, I would have been sleeping on the couch for quite some time. Second, there was a serious fear of being struck by lightning. (Yep. Straight to hell. I was sure of it...) The third thing was my fear of a...

prang

TRANSITIVE VERB:

Chiefly British pranged , prang·ing , prangs

1. To crash (an airplane, for example).

2. To damage by colliding with (a car, for example)

3. To bomb from the air.

Ah yes. It is chiefly British. At one point in the past, my DW managed to back her new SUV out of the garage and into my car which was parked on the driveway - the other side of the driveway from the garage bay where she was parked. Anyway, because we have about 3/4 of an acre of grass, we have a rather substantial Husqvarna riding mower that costs a bit of money. I had some serious fears that she would run into something stationary and valuable or perhaps accidentally run into one of the cars in the driveway. (I know I've managed to do that...)


At any rate, she managed to get the mowing done and the the lawn didn't look too much like a Rhodesian Ridgeback from missed strips of grass. I also think she came away with a new appreciation of the fact that I'm not just out there relaxing when I'm mowing the lawn. I am actually working when mowing the lawn.

Now before you actually write me off as that guy in the greasy white tank-top drinking Miller Lite while his wife mows the lawn for him, she actually came walking across the lawn and asked to learn how to use the mower. I'm going to be away for a few weeks in the summer, and our lawn just will not go that length of time without being mowed. I'd return to a hayfield. Still, her choice of timing to learn was a bit odd, no?