A First!

Usually when I am writing about firsts, it has to do with the children.  Not this time though.  It is a first for Kent.  We knew when we bought our house that we were sorely in need of yard equipment.  Having spent the last nine years in a condo where the outside upkeep is done by someone else, and with a tiny back yard with no grass, we haven't had much in the way of yard tools.  Trimmers, a shovel, a rake, but certainly not a lawnmower.

When we first moved into the house in December, we didn't need a lawnmower, but for the past couple of weeks we have needed one.  Desperately.  Two Saturdays ago I borrowed our neighbor's mower when I felt that I couldn't stand the yard another minute and that I needed to suck up a bunch of prickly stuff left over in the grass from our shrub removal.  I was able to do part of the front yard, the north side, and a bit of the backyard before I had to turn the machine off to empty the bag.  Then I couldn't get it restarted (Kent had started it for me initially, but then he had to leave).  I wheeled it back next door and asked our neighbor, Tom, if he wouldn't help me get it going again.  He tried to start it--unsuccessfully.  He realized it was out of gas, but even after filling the tank, it wouldn't start.  He took several more minutes to change the spark plug, and then confidently stepped up to pull again.  In one mighty and final pull, the cord broke and he declared he was finished with that mower forever (he has had it for close to eight years) and was going to go buy a new one.

I didn't feel like I could borrow his brand new mower before he had even used it, so the grass has grown for a further two weeks.  On Tuesday, about 4:00, I called Kent and suggested that he perhaps stop and pick up a lawnmower on his way home from work, or I was going to go buy one.  He was, at that very moment, standing in the lawnmower department of Home Depot making a selection.  Funny thing.  As he was standing there mulling over the options, a man walked by and said, "I have that very mower.  I love it.  It is a great machine."  It was an unsolicited recommendation from a total stranger.  Not two minutes later, as he was still standing there thinking, another man walked by and said essentially the same thing.  "I have that model mower.  I love it.  I've had it for several years and it starts on the first pull every time."  Well, what could he do?  There was no denying that Kent had had not one but two witnesses of the wonderous goodness of the lawnmower, so he bought it.

Hoorah!

He brought home a beautiful, brand new, red Toro mower.  And here is where the "first" part comes in.  In all his life, this is his very first brand new, never been used by another person, lawnmower.  It was a momentous day.  He was so proud.

And having gotten it out of the car, put together, filled with gas and started, I promptly mowed the lawn.

I can add my testimony to those of the men in Home Depot, this is a fine mower that started on the first pull every time, and I am a weakling girl doing the pulling.  The grass was so long in the back, the mower bogged down and shut off several times.  It was like baling hay.  But it started up again each time, and the yard looks  much better.