Green Grass and Home

 

Every good moment in life is often more appreciated , thanks to bad times. 

Pretty much every day that we live on this Earth involves some good, some bad and some ugly. 

Yesterday's events here at the Lovestead reminded me of the above. 

Coming off from a delightful day with family on Mother's Day, I expected to get off and running on my watering and lawn projects.  

Dandelions had enjoyed a heydey over the weekend. 

"Off and running" turned out to be wishful thinking as the same hoses I had used before had developed flaws, seemingly overnight. 

One, a brand new one, had a slight kink in its hardware.  I had noticed that a few days before, but yesterday the flaw turned into a total nuisance as water spewed out the hose just below the nozzle. 

Another link had mysteriously sprung a leak over night and a continuous geyser spewed out the hole through my watering rounds. 

By the time I'd finished that segment, my pant legs and arms were soaked. 

So, I removed the new hose, called the store and asked if I could get a replacement.  After they said yes, the hose went into the pickup. 

I removed the older hose with the geyser and replaced it with another link from the hydrant in the front yard.

Watering took a little longer yesterday, thanks to those hoses.  In my mind, hoses are the most evil yard tool on earth.  

If there's a way to make us totally miserable and mad a lot, hoses can do it, but catching and attaching themselves on any available object along the way.  If that doesn't work, produce a kink or two or three or more. 

Well, once the hose project and watering had ended, it was time to hop on my mower and go after those dandelions. 

The last time I had mowed the lawn, one of the big tires was low.  So I aired it up.

Well, yesterday it was low again, and the air compressor with all its might couldn't get that tire out of its flattened state.

So, Bill removed the tire, threw it in the pickup with the hose and headed for town. 

Before he left, however, he got to see Marianne at her very best when the back-up lawnmower seemed to be more aggressive than ever, spewing rocks and scraping the grass along with cutting it. 

Turns out when you switch mowers, the procedure for lowering the deck is enough different that when you're lowering the deck on one mower, you're actually raising it on the other. 

I had inadvertently lowered the deck and it took a little cussing and Bill watching for me to realize the error of my deck handle. 

So, I eventually had directed the mower along the right path when Bill drove out of the driveway. 

The "fun" was not to end, just yet anyway.

While mowing over in the area where the zero-turn mower was propped up on a jack, I got too close, bumping the jacked-up mower. 

Well, that jack toppled over, and the mower collapsed one direction. 

Hmmm. I thought in an uncharacteristically calm response.  This is quite the sight.  

Turned out the jack had a little different method of going back down from the last time I changed a tire at least two or three decades ago. 

No way could I get it to go down so I could jack up the mower again so that Bill would never know my latest yardwork catastrophe. 

I saw a button on the bottom of the jack but elected not to tinker with it, lest on this morning, the jack would fall apart. Turns out I later learned that the button was the key component to getting the jack to go down.  

So, finally, I texted Bill:  Just so you can get your cussing done BEFORE you come home, I bumped the lawnmower, and the jack fell over.  

I figured if he knew in advance what he was coming home to see, it would cushion the blow of Marianne's morning debacles. 

Fortunately, I married a man whose fuses go off a lot fewer times than mine.  

I'm sure he may have uttered something under his breath when he read my text, but all was calm when he came home.  Together we figured how to get that mower jacked up again so he could replace its tire. 

By that time, my lawnmower schedule was about two hours behind, so I hopped on the zero-turn with its aired-up tires, and finished the mowing job through rain and some mighty cold air. 

All turned out fine, and those bad and ugly moments of my morning were totally offset with a Mother's Day extension. 

Willie and Debbie, who had been with Debbie's mom for the weekend,  came with spaghetti dinner, prepared by chef Willie and two beautiful fushias in gorgeous turquoise pots, purchased by Willie, Debbie and Annie. 

A morning filled with bad luck moments received some attention as tales were told but the evening of conversation and good food more than made up for all that frustration. 

Thanks to Willie, Debbie and Annie for their lovely Mother's Day gestures. 

Bad and ugly evil hoses and lawnmower problems certainly morphed into a whole lot of good thanks to Bill and some phenomenal kids. 

When all else seems to fail on some days, there's always family. 

Needless to say, yesterday was a wonderful day for horses as they enjoyed their first moments of lush green grass in the pastures. 

Happy Tuesday. 

The owl is awfully cute.