Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Where Have You Been?

Seems like forever since I last posted here. Somehow I stopped in the middle of our visit to Calgary and just never got back to it. The details are gone but the memory of our first time with Cullen is still fresh. What a character. So many different faces including that one-eyebrow trick, mood changes in the blink of an eye, and smiles for almost everyone. While the internet makes it possible to keep in touch, there's nothing like being in the room.

Many, many posts ago I complained about having to buy an electric lawn mower because the kids hated the cheap push reel mower I had bought and I was still the one pushing the electric. Well with all the kids out of the house there is no waiting for miracles, the lawn is mine. I have been using the push mower all summer but it was injured a few nights ago and lost a wheel. Still for $75 bucks it lasted about 10 years. Didn't really cut worth a damn but going over the lawn 3 or 4 times provides a good workout when it's 30 or so. Today I picked up another push mower but a Ferrari instead of a Fiat, the Fiskars Stay Sharp. Assembling the handle  was enough to tell me that it was a quality tool. The manual and online videos explained how to fine tune the blades and in no time I was in the back yard giving it a test run. In a word, wow! Easy to push and the grass flies even as long as it was. The flywheel mechanism keeps the blade rolling so even while pulling it backwards the cutting continues for a bit. Instead of the quick test run I had planned I ended up doing the yard in the time it would take me to drag the electric out of the basement and uncoil the extension cord.