My Push Mower Lives Another Year

 For anyone just starting to follow this blog, you've got a lot of catching up to do. Over the last four years and four months I've written close to 500 posts, so take your time.

About four years ago I posted about my new purchase, a manual push mower.  I was tired of putting gas and oil in a mower and the push mower was so quiet I could actually have a conversation on the phone while pushing the light mower.  I still think it's one of my best purchases ever, not counting Cocoa Krispies of course.  The first two years the mower was great since we didn't have a lot grass.  And, as unusual as it was, my next door neighbor and the neighbor across from him, all had manual push mowers.

The neighbors have gone over to the dark side with other mowers, but I was still enjoying my mower until last summer.  It just wasn't cutting everything, so I was basically just trimming the lawn. Since I "worked" on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I would trim the lawn Monday and then again Thursday. The lawn would look like I mowed a day or two ago and never had that perfect look. Who cares about that, right?

My wife did and said I should look at an electric mower or we should get the blades sharpened on my mower.  I said I'd look it over in the winter, but I knew my time with my mower was running out. And, then the day came, my wife said, "Let's go to Home Depot, we can look at a mower while we're there." It was a joyous moment, for sure.  My strategy was simple: give in and say we'll get the electric mower and maybe she would change her mind.  It worked perfectly and we went home without spending the $250.

I was going to have to get the blades sharpened if my mower was going to make it for another year.  My wife got the phone number of the guy who sharpens blades and gave it to me. The guy lived about two blocks away, right at the entrance of our development.  I walked over and he said, "The blades don't need to be sharpened, you just have to adjust them slightly." I watched him do it, barely moving them. He wasn't going to charge me, but I tipped him $10, thinking, maybe he just saved my mower.

Below is a picture my wife took with my "new" mower. She said I looked, "Like a kid." The mower mows the lawn great and my wife is happy. I may get to keep this another four years! I can't understand one thing-why didn't she think of taking it to someone sooner? (I can hear her yelling to me, I did!)