Lawn Mower Reflections

I recall, as a teenager, having a reel mower without an engine. Making the commitment to cut the grass was much more than just mowing the lawn. It was playing Army, and the green stuff was the enemy, and I was the general. It was sort of like an isometric push up in a vertical position. It was a teeth gritting onslaught that I as an only child had to conquor single handed, and don't spare the flowers when you're on a roll.
Fast foward to my current situation and the predicament I now face. When my wife and I moved into our house in 1982 we bought new lawn equipment, and I purchased a Craftsman mower from Sears. It was indeed a self propelled model. As I mowed the lawn I tried to think of how much I would appreciate having children to see playing in the yard around a plastic pool and my wife splashing around with them while keeping a watchfull eye on them. I envisioned the kids growing up and helping the old man with the lawn on occassion. All of this came true and that mower is now twenty-four years old. I visited the Brigs & Straton site, and they have engines mounted on display racks, some even made by General Motors, complete with carrying handles. I observed a similar display awhile ago at the Florida State Fair, a series of gasoline engines mounted on carrying racks that serve no other purpose than just to demontstrate that they, in fact, do work and did work some time ago. The folks involved with their maintenance looked pridefull and satisfied at just keeping those engines purring along and a comforting calamity of punctuating noise did they make. I briefly thought about mounting our old mower engine but decided to spend more time with the kids. A sports bar or a game now and then, precious moments anyway I can get them. I'm gonna take the youngest to Sears today and have him look at the next motorized push mower that perhaps both will remember as they grow up.

fabsterrant

Fall is upon us as we contemplate the oncoming winter seasonal adjustments. Redirecting our thinking and reorganizing our priorities of course brings up the end of the preseason and the start of football season. That, along with the constant quest for better marksmanship, retaines a presence on my mind. Let the games begin! Go Bucs!