The New Red Riding Machine

We are now the official owners of 2000 square feet of grass. (6000 more needed, but it was a start!) And while we were out of town over the long holiday weekend, it doubled, if not tripled, in height! It needed a haircut in a major way and we had nada in the trimming way! Jeff had gone to start the lawn mower, which hadn't seen a piece of grass in almost 3 years (no pun intended), and ripped the cord right out. For what it was worth--we were now mower-less and the grass had started to look desperately out of sorts. The neighbors were probably having whiplash from seeing rocky, brown dirt for 3 years to now seeing 1"+ tall lush green, grass.

We hadn't committed to what kind of mower to get because of the cost vs what we really needed in the long run. Then, on Thursday night, our fabulous next door neighbors came over to mow our grass--armed with a riding lawn mower, a weed eater and black garbage bags!! (You know--that's an example of what a great neighbor is. Many thanks to Robert and Mary for seeing the need and coming on over.)

Robert took the first couple of swipes through the grass and then insisted that Jeff give it a try. Sold. The debate between a push mower or a riding lawn mower was over in less than 5 seconds. The next morning, Jeff went to town to select his next major purchase. Warning: The is a shameless plug for couponing. Jeff had gotten a coupon for 10% off total purchases that was about to expire. He really wanted a John Deere, self-propelled push mower, but John Deer was excluded from the coupon. Some quick decisions had to be made and I was still remembering snow removal and dirt, more so than grass. So the coupon sweetened the decision to go riding through the grass rather than walking. But Lowe's said it would take 9 days to deliver it... Not acceptable. The neighbors already mowed once--twice might have been pushing our luck. So guess who went and got a trailer to haul it home. That's right--the excited new lone rider himself. But what was funny about the whole experience, came on Saturday morning when he said, "Guess what your anniversary gift is?" Now, mind you--this is our 15th anniversary, we have a few under the belt--so to speak--so it's pretty old hat now--but 15 is closer to 25 than the honeymoon. So, while it's not exactly silver or gold--I've come to appreciate it most definitely is red. This will be the anniversary I look back on and say, "I got a new red riding machine for celebrating lucky number 15."