Lawn Mowing and Life

Since I bought my first house in 1972, I have to deal with the lawn mowing.  Like anything you own, you have the responsibility to take care of it.  The more things you own, the more responsibilities you have.  At the very beginning, I bought a gas mower as it was most popular at that time.  It is like motorcycle, you have to put in gasoline and you have to start it with string pulling.  Meanwhile, you have to add some oil to make it run smoothly.  The whole thing works but it is noisy and tedious.  After the first 6 months, it became a chore and I sort of lost my interest and enthusiasm.  

Several years passed, I found that a newer gadget showed up, it is Electric Mower.  This thing is lighter & smaller, although it is just as noisy as the gasoline type.  The drawback is the electric cord.  You need a long and good electric extending cord to reach each corner of your lawn.  For my case, there is no problem as my lawn is not really that big or odd shaped.  It seems a piece of cake to handle the cord while moving around the lawn and house.  The electric mower is simpler in design, no spark plug and fine tuning and no more string pulling.  You just flip a switch and the mower is on and ready.  Every time I flip a switch, I thank Michael Faraday on his contribution of electricity and motor.

For many years, I loved the electric mower.  However, when time goes by, I found that I accumulated a lot of long electric extending cables, some of them 50 feet and longer.  The problem of the cable is that you have to form a habit of watching it not in the path of the mowing.  So while you mow, you fling the cable around from time to time.  Eventually you form a habit of mowing pattern that you can minimize the cable fling.  Even so, every once in a while, accident did happen.  I once mowed the cable just like grass and the machine of course stop immediately with a laud spark.  Anyway, with careful maneuvering of cable, I achieved high efficient modern lawn mowing.  My lawn is short, clean and green and I am happy as a lark.  However, when time goes by, I found that one thing I don't like is to unwind and wind the cable into a little rack.  It is a kind of unwelcome chore that I have to do every time I mow the yard.  It is not just before the mowing, it is also after the mowing.  Of course, I can leave the cable around in a pile.  But it is just not for the nice house and a neat man like me.  At any rate, electric mower serves the purpose for many years.  I like its smaller size, lighter weight and no gasoline to mess around.  It is also environment friendly as it doesn't pollute the air.

When the Internet age comes, I got the luxury to get onto the cloud to find some better mower.  I located something called Neuton Battery Mower.  Yes, a battery mower, I kind of puzzled why I didn't come up with this idea before.  With battery, all the issues related to the extending cables suddenly disappear.  But the most beautiful thing is that I no long need to fling or fumble the cables anymore.  This Neuton seems ideal except for the price.  I felt it is overpriced as I was not that well-to-do at the time.  Two hundred dollars more than the usual electric mower seems to hit my inner nerve to resist the spending.  So I requested the brochure and studied with my satisfaction but without footing the bill.  However things change when time goes by and this can only be explained with Chaos Theory and so-called the Butterfly Effect.  Since when this neighborhood got some internet group, neighbors exchange information and tidbits.  One day, suddenly someone advertised he has a Neuton lawn mower to give away as he just contracted one professional mower service for his lawn.  I happily replied to show my interest.  But there was no response.  Here I found that proactive comes in handy.  I checked out his address and just walked to his house.  The timing was just right, my neighbor was just got out and entered his car for some errand.  I waved my hand and announced my visit and intention.  He happily got out and showed his mower and even spent time explaining how to use it.  Within ten minutes, I push this Neuton Mower to my house and eagerly tried it out.  Guess what I found, it seems everything works except the power is a little bit weak and sometime didn't start well.  I suspected that the batter might be the culprit.  I immediately got onto the Internet and ordered a new battery.  The battery is not cheap, it costs $90.  This is a special 24 volt battery.  I found out later that it is actually a two-battery connected together in series.  Each 12-volt battery is just the same as those battery used in most of the tennis ball machine.  After a week, Amazon sent me this new Neuton battery, I waited no time and tried it out.  It sure works like a charm.  It is powerful, easy to start and stop.  Most striking thing is that it is much quieter than all the previously electric mower I have ever used.  I even removed the discharge bagger to make it compact and easy to move around.  This new machine infuses a new life into me and I am happy as a lark since then.

You might ask me why not just hire a human mower and forget all the mowing problem or chore.  Ah, something you may not know.  According to most my neighbors, they constantly complain about the work quality and high turn-over rate.  Most of the lawn mowers are Hispanic and they charge around $100 to $200 for the monthly service.  It is okay in your life, but I always have a hunch that most my neighbors are just too lazy to do some exercise like lawn mowing.  Perhaps, it is the economic factor, they rather like to take advantage of the cheap labors than sweating themselves.  In other words, tennis playing is more fun and better than the lawn mowing.  For me, lawn moving is just as interesting as tennis playing.  It not only gives me some sense of achievement but also gives me some exercise to move around my house and get acquaintance with lawn, bushes, flowers and trees, all beautiful things Mother Nature can give.