Winter Lawn Mowing

As strange as this might sound I must report that as I write this post I am listening to the drone of a lawn mower. At first I barely noticed the sound. That summer sound that drifts through the walls in a low drone - a sound that is reassuring and yet nagging at the same time.

About five minutes into the experience it dawned upon me - that same feeling of guilt - of fear - that my wife would begin nagging me to mow our lawn too.

Hey, the neighbors are out mowing their lawns so I better damned well get out there and mow the lawn too! And my mind scrambled for excuses - our lawn doesn't need mowing yet - it was just last week -

no it was several months ago - hey, wait a moment - what the hell is our neighbor mowing his lawn for?

So I got up out of a perfectly warm bed, and walked over toward the window, and carefully peeped out. And there one of our neighbors was (still is) bundled up in winter coat and hat mowing the lawn.

I notice he is mowing over leaves.

"Maybe that's it?" I thought, maybe he's mulching up his leaves, but he's not using a mulching bag, and the leaves are flying back onto his lawn - in smaller pieces, of course.

Maybe he's trying to clear his yard of leaves?

But that couldn't be it either could it? Our yard is covered with a sea of leaves and so too is his other neighbor's yard.

With winds gusting up to 50 MPH today it is nothing short of insane to think that he could keep his lawn free from leaves today.

Is my neighbor insane - or just terribly terribly bored?

I wonder if he'll be out using his lawn mower on the snow that is expected for tonight?