Something happened today that, to my knowledge, has never happened to me before.
See, I wanted to take a break from planting because my wrist has been bothering me a lot, and I suspected the shoveling was aggravating it. So, yesterday instead of planting I mowed the lawn.
That's not the new experience though. I hadn't mowed in a long time (long enough that I was surprised to find our mower, which we've had for over a year, isn't self-propelled) but I used to do it all the time. I actually kind of like mowing. It's good work but unless it's super hot, not exhausting, and the noise from the mower makes me feel like I'm inside a "cone of silence" where I can think about whatever I want without interruption.
Anyway, my neighbors on the one side had just mowed last weekend, as they do every two weeks like clockwork. The yard on the other side wasn't just mowed, but it wasn't getting shaggy or anything, it looked like they had another week to go.
This morning I went out to run a quick errand. Got back around noon, and saw that the yard on the other side is now freshly mowed. They must have mowed right after I did, either this morning or yesterday evening.
I shamed the neighbors into mowing their yard! That has never, ever happened to me before. They hate me (the mother will literally yell at her kids through the window to get inside if she sees them talking to me) so it must have rankled her that my yard looked neater than hers for even a few hours. I wonder if they'll feel obligated to match all my yardwork efforts so their yard alway looks better than mine? If I keep up with my landscaping plans, they'll have to make their yard look really amazing to stay ahead of me.
I'm going to start mowing at weird intervals, to see if it was a coincidence.
3 Comments
oh man, that's hilarious. be sure and update us re: the status of your neighbor's lawn in comparison to yours!
why doesn't she like you? it's ridiculous that she won't let her kids talk to you! i'm sure they think your car is awesome.
Hi Sarah: Try mowing your lawn just after the next door people have just done theirs and try to get it a little bit shorter than theirs. We used to do this to our next door neighbor, who disputed the non-perpendicular to the road boundary line between us, and it drove him crazy! At least after we mowed ours, he would be out again within hours mowing his even shorter!
I have the opposite problem. Most of my neighbors don't give a crap about my lawn, which is almost always the shaggiest on the street. But this year one neighbor decided my lawn was making her look bad to her guests (some of whom are crackheads) and she started to mow parts of mine.
I asked why she was doing this. She replied, "I'm havinbg peopel over for mother's day." I said I wished she wouldn't do it. But she persisted. She did it again. She unintentionally cut the soaker hose that feeds my vegetable garden.
Then she ESCALATED: She started saying I owed her $5 for mowing my lawn! I don't think she understood my response: "No way. I'll pay you NOT to mow it." The next day she approached my boyfriend saying that we owed her $5, thinking I wouldn't have told him about her scheme.
After our non-participation in this aand a few others of her very bad ideas, she has pretty much been leaving us alone. Now I own my own mower (I used to share it with two friends) and it does get done a little more often, but still not as much as most of my neighbors. Tough.