lawn warrior

Like most, I detest mowing the lawn.

Given the fact that it does give me a solid 45 minutes of solitude the experience has grown on me a bit...with one exception.

Whenever I bring myself to START mowing that lawn, I want to FINISH mowing the lawn. I don't want to take a phone call, or take a break, or get half done now and do the other half later. Because as far as I'm concerned if you stop mowing the lawn for more than 5 minutes, then starting up again is the same as mowing the lawn TWICE. And I aint mowing the lawn twice.

So Saturday I was clipping along at a good pace when the mower started sputtering and died. Fine, OK, out of gas. Walking to the garage and getting the gas can is under the 5 minute rule and therefore maintaining the continuity of a single mow.

When I picked up the gas can I suddenly realized that we had a 'situation'.

The can was just about empty.

I was about 90% done with the front and only had a small backyard to do. I shook the can, and eyeballed the lawn and tried to get a feel for my gas to grass ratio. I did not have a very good feeling.

I made my way over the the mower and recreated the opening scene out of Road Warrior where a frantic Mel Gibson uses hubcaps and a bloody rage to sop up every last drop of gas in the desert.

I twisted and turned the can and nozzle to get every last drop of gas out of the can. Had I been able to cut it in half and scrape the inside of the can, I would have considered it.

Then I made a quick lap of the yard to maximize efficiency. I picked up all the kids balls and toys, I propped opened the back gate, and eyed up the shortest path from where I was to where I had to be.

Then I reared back, pulled the cord, and started running. And man did I run.

It's tough to get an accurate perspective while pushing a mower, but if I had to guess I was maintaining right around a 9 minute mile pace. And mind you that's with have to make turns !

I can't imagine what my neighbors though as the drove by to see me sprinting around my yard like a mad man putting the mower no two wheels and power sliding it around the swingset, but at this point I'm pretty sure that nothing happening at Chez Flick would totally catch them off guard.

The good news, I got the lawn done with gas to spare ! The even better news, I now realize it should really only take me about 18 minutes to do the entire lawn if I apply myself...and I can get my workout in to boot.