Finally, it's over...for now

Yesterday, I did something I always dread doing. I mowed my lawn. Doesn't sound like an ordeal, does it? Well, for me, it is. See, I'm lazy. I work at a desk all day where I program computers. Not to mention, my yard is a bitch to mow. The front yard is easy. It's pretty much flat. However, the back yard has an odd slope and drops off where the previous owners had an above-ground pool. In addition to this odd slope/cliff, I'm convinced there is radioactive waste buried out there because the grass (dare I call my weeds grass?) grows ten times faster than the front yard or our neighbors' yards. In a weeks time, I can look out and see a pasture that requires a bush hog to clear. Oh, and I only have a push mower. There's no way you can cut the back yard with a riding lawn mower. Unless, of course, you fancy yourself Evel Knieval.

So, since I'm lazy, I do not enjoy nor look forward to cutting my grass. My neighbors all seem to be over achievers, wanting to keep up with the Jones's and out do one another. Needless to say, they've all cut their yards since spring has sprung. To hell with all that! I was the only holdout on the block with my yard that looked like a jungle. I swear I saw monkeys out there a few days ago.

I'd finally had enough and vowed to mow the grass yesterday (as well as perform some other chores I tend to put off). I wasn't looking forward to any of this work, though. And, it saddened me to know I was going to piss away a beautiful Saturday doing stuff I hated. Anyway, I just bit the bullet and did it. It only took me about two hours. It would've been less had the lawn mower not refused to crank near the end. Of course, that's my luck. I had to remove the spark plug and clean it to get the damned thing working again. I may be lazy, but I can't stand do do a half-ass job. (Although, I did not mow the lower section of the back yard--this will require more effort to knock down some bushes that decided to Hulk out during the winter. I'll tend to those next week.)

Once it was over, I enjoyed a revivifying shower, took a load of recycling to Berry College where I enjoyed watching my wife's dance performance. When that was over, I returned home and relaxed on the sofa with a beer (actually, several). I had the house to myself when my wife and daughter went to Atlanta. During that time, I watched several Twilight Zone episodes from the box set I own. That was very enjoyable. It's been a while since I've watched any of the old black-and-white episodes and I love the twists even though I know them all.

Today is April 1. A relaxing Sunday. A new month. I hope to get some writing done. It feels good to have the first mowing session of the year behind me because it's always the worst. The sad realization is that there are plenty more days ahead to mow the grass and it will be miserable in the summer when Georgia temps soar near the triple digits. Too bad it won't kill the grass.

What happened to Saturday?

When I was a child, Saturdays were great. At least, as far as I remember. There was no school, plenty of time to play with friends, and a plethora of cartoons on all the network stations, which consisted of about three or four different networks. Good times.

Now, all of that seems to have changed since my adulthood. I'll be forty years old in April and I feel like I'm turning into that old man down the road all of us kids used to fear and make fun of. The old man who would yell at you, "Keep off my grass!" as he shook his fist in the air and threaten to call the police or your parents. Okay, I don't think I'm really that much of a curmudgeon, but I think I know why most old people become crotchety: they're forced out of their comfort zone with unwanted changes.

I know that's not a brilliant observation from an enlightened academic. Hell, I'm not professing to be some great social psychologist or anything of the like. It's just that as I get older, I realize just how different things are today in contrast to when I was younger. But, I'm digressing.

The reason for this post? Let me give you just a bit of back story first. Although I write novels, I still have a day job. I work as a programmer for an eCommerce company. (I know. There was no such position when I was a kid, not even in high school.) This past week was rough. We were trying to release software and the project had been huge! Every time it went before our Quality Assurance team, they would find some bug or other and kick back to us to fix. Well, since this project was so big, we were scrambling to fix all of the glitches in the system. As one of my colleagues so eloquently put it, it was like shoving three tons of shit through a one ton pipe. I couldn't agree more. And shove we did! Suffice it to say, I didn't have much time (or desire) to do any writing. After all, The Old Royal is in the hands of my second beta reader, so why shouldn't I relax and enjoy some down time?

I woke up early this morning, showered, shaved, and relaxed on the sofa with the TV on. We don't get that many channels, only seventeen or so because we refuse to pay the cable company exorbitant sums of money for hundreds of channels of even more shit. Besides, I enjoy sitcoms and have a few I watch frequently on the few channels we have. However, the weekend (during the first part of the day, anyway) appears to be devoid of entertainment. Well, that is to say, unless you enjoy watching political round tables, save-the-planet shows, half-hour (sometimes even whole-hour) infomercials, kids' shows that are absolutely dreadful (what happened to Bugs Bunny?), and, well, that's pretty much it for the channels I get. I'm sure there's something worth watching on one of the cable shows out there.

Instead of sounding more like the curmudgeon I must appear to be, I suppose I'll work on a Halloween mask sculpture and enjoy drinking a curmudgeon. That sounds relaxing to me. Thanks for putting up with my rant.