Somewhere Dad is Laughing...Lawnmower Blues

I mentioned in an earlier post about my father's fondness for lawn mower wheels. Today, I sure could have used his help, because I must confess, I have the worst riding lawn mower ever made. It made it through only one season before it needed a new battery. One of the headlights quit working somewhere through season two. The first time I mowed in season three a belt broke and it wouldn't move. The wheels locked down and it wouldn't go in neutral. You had to basically slide it to get it to move.(Very frustrating!!) I don't have a big yard. It slopes downward from the road to the house. It has three big pine trees, one very large holly tree, about 14 stumps, 3 gopher holes, one satellite dish(not working), one water meter and 2 ant hills. My riding mower was so new when it broke down it still had the numbly things on the tires. Of course, it was out of warranty, so I made a few calls to see if anyone would come and try to fix it. It was going to cost hundreds' of dollars one guy said. Another guy said take it to so-and-so and they'll fix it. (Right, the wheels are locked down, the dang thing ain't moving.) So, what did I do? I bought the cheapest push mower I could. Somewhere, Dad is laughing...to be continued.

Father's Day...Watching the Wheels Go By

One thing that I enjoy doing now that I totally despised as a child was yardwork. I lived on a small farm with a big garden and an even bigger yard. Once the three of us got big enough(my brother, sister and me) it fell upon us to keep the yard mowed. I think we might have had a riding mower a few years, but it always seemed to be in disrepair or I wasn't allowed to use it. (Dad always rode it) I always had to use the push mower.(Yuck!) I think the hardest part of working the push mower was getting it to start. I only seemed to be able to pull the cord maybe halfway out and other times it wouldn't pull out but somehow lock itself down and you would fall on the ground completely annoyed at what just happened.(I'm sure that happened to many of you.) After several attempts of trying to start the mower to no avail, it's time to call in the big dogs: Dad. Well, you know Dad never had any problems cranking that mower. One pull and that motor would just roar to life and be ready to go. And off he'd go. Dad would make a couple of passes with the mower and hand it off to me. Problem solved and off he'd go, back to whatever he had been doing. But, here's the thing. He didn't leave. He would stay and watch me mow the grass. I'd look up and he'd be watching the wheels on the lawn mower turn. I would make the turn and head back the other way and I'd sneak a glimpse and he would be watching me. I'd make the turn again to come back and he'd be watching the wheels. (I didn't think wheels could be so exciting.) I used to tease him about watching the wheels and usually ended with a harump for my efforts. As this Father's Day approaches, I think there was more to it than just watching the wheels go by. I would like to think he was watching me and saying, "that's my girl, and I am proud of her. She is going to grow up and do marvelous things." Or maybe something similar to that. If he were here now, that might be something for me to ask, or maybe not. The simplest thing would be for me to say is, "keep watching the wheels Dad, keep watching the wheels."