musings { lawnmowers

I've had the luxury of being able to work from home recently about once a week or once every two weeks. Its been nice. My home office is setup to work quietly and peacefully, with a nice view of the outside, my favorite coffee and the fresh breeze. Well it was quiet until summer started. Every nice day, which is when its not raining, all you can hear are lawn mowers. Gas powered lawn mowers. From 8am until 7pm or dark. Someone within three blocks of here is constantly running a lawn mower.

Today as I was watching some mirrors re-sync while trying to untangle a god-awful mess regarding some errant boot disks I watched the neighbor cut her grass. She had an old, smelly, smoke belching lawn mower. It made me wonder how much energy we've expended cutting grass? A plant which if not used for ground covering would be actively annihilated as a weed.

We've had one of those push style reel mowers. Mechanical mowers that only require you as the power source. We've had it for years, since we got married I think. Yeah its harder work. Yeah the grass does not have that even pureed look. But its quiet. People can have conversations next door. Its not silent, there is a metallic click. But I don't have to change the oil or worry about flinging a rock into a neighbors car (which has happened to us when we lived in the Cities).

I do wonder though. I bet its a lot of gasoline thats been used.

What a waste. Why do we as a society pamper our yards so much?