Went
out for a walk this morning. One of the observations? Everyone
in the neighborhood has recently mowed their lawn.
In
fairness, I just returned from a month in Australia. For four
weeks, I was at least one of the holdouts. My yard fell into the
not mowed category. Could have been the only one. More likely
one of a handful.
Took
a bit to catch up, but after mowing the lawn a couple of times,
mowing and edging and weeding over the past few days, things around
my house are looking pretty good. (Which absolutely could be part
of the reason my sightlines extended and I noticed what everyone
else was doing.)
That
understood, the reality is that this doesn’t happen with any consistency.
(Not my fault. (Usually.)) Often, there are reasons that make
sense. Around a few corners are farms. Those don’t get mowed too
often. There are fields often overgrown during the better weather
so the hay can be cut down a couple of times. Then there are two
sections that were formerly used as dirt access roads, but have
long gone untended.
But
by and large, it’s a nice community and well cared for. So, mowed
or not, looks nice, which is great. Still, I do wonder.
Just
over a decade ago, some friends were looking for a new house.
I was out with them one day on their searches. They had done their
homework, assembled a list of potential properties, and off we
went. House after house after house took several minutes to identify
as we neared.
Sure,
our directions had put us exactly where we thought we were going.
But the properties we were sitting in front of and the pictures
of those properties had nothing in common. Nothing. Looked completely
different. The pictures were taken from specific angles. They
were cropped. They were up close and zoomed in and focused on
very specific portions and not the whole.
You
didn’t get to see the damaged framing and wood. You didn’t get
to see the garbage strewn around the property. You didn’t know
the lawn hadn’t been mowed, possibly in years.
We
always found this amazing. After all, the properties were up for
sale. Seems like a good motivator to do a bit of work around the
yard. It was stunning to find that again and again (and again
and again), the exteriors were in such bad shape. On none of them—NONE
of them—did we think about placing calls or looking for more or
trying to see the inside.
Everyone
is a bit different. There are some folks that leave dirty dishes
in the sink for a day or two, others that can’t stand to see a
dirty dish near the sink and wash everything immediately. Occasionally,
there’s nothing too deep to examine, as it seems to be the way
were wired.
But
then again, maybe not. I like my house to be clean. I take care
of things. But overall, if the choice is washing dishes or heading
out for a drink with friends, I’m picking the drink. If the lawn
needs to be mowed or there’s a chance to catch a movie, I’m probably
heading to the theater. I’m happy to put stuff off, procrastinate
a bit, and get to my to do list in a day or two if there’s something
else to enjoy.
I’m
not headed down a rabbit hole exploring motivation and accountability
here (even though, yeah, I guess maybe I am). What I’m trying
to figure out is simply where lines are crossed and how come lawns
are getting mowed. You know, deeply thought out, scientific stuff.
Anyway,
the yards look nice. At least for a week to ten days. Then the
cycle starts all over again. (The people doing it twice a summer
might be on to something.)