Who needs a treadmill when you've got Briggs and Stratton?

Posted by Metroknow on June 22, 2008 at 10:30pm

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I spent the day today mowing our yard. This may sound trivial if you have not seen our yard. I was mowing for almost 8 hours - we are on an acre, and due to some semi-sadistic character flaw that I have since gotten treatment for, I apparently thought it was a good idea to use mowing my lawn as exercise, so I purchased a lawnmower. Now it is self-propelled to a degree, but it really only propels itself when the bag is 90% empty. And when you don't mow your back 1/2 acre for like, a month, or two, and it gets 2-3 feet high, well, Lucy, you got some weedwacking to do.

In Los Angeles, things were different. We were on 1/4 acre there, and we were able to pay a yard maintenance crew $35/mo to, as my neighbor there said, "Mow, Blow, and Go" -- they would mow our lawn twice a month, blow the clippings off the driveway, and move on in about 1/2 hr. Oh yes, life was good. I would gladly give up the extra channels of cable to have someone else mow.

HERE, in Portland, on the other hand, we are looking at significantly more for a similar service. Alas, Sunday is a standing date with Briggs and Stratton.

Boy am I glad to be sitting down.

But, I guess the sweat was worth it. :) Maybe.

Tags: exercise, humor

Comment by Ask The Dietitian on June 23, 2008 at 1:17pm: Wow! Better you than me. That's all I have to say.

Comment by Sheila Octaviano on June 23, 2008 at 1:23pm: I actually mow the lawn as exercise. I have 1/3 of an acre and most of it is lawn. I do not have self-propelled, though, because I hate them. My boys will do the lawn if I ask them to do it, but they leave it alone otherwise because they know I look forward to doing it. Their friends give them a hard time over me mowing the lawn. They think the boys are just being lazy. I had to tell them myself that it's my exercise and I LIKE doing it and I actually get upset if someone else does it. They didn't believe me at first, but now they know.

Comment by Christine Braun on June 23, 2008 at 4:14pm: I like mowing but I think if I had to mow a one acre lot I would have to reconsider. How many buckets did you sweat? Hahaha! Mow...blow and go? That is new.

Comment by Lisa Newton on June 23, 2008 at 5:53pm: When I was a kid, we had an acre lot, but we also had a riding mower, in addition to the push mower. We only used the push mower for trimming. We had our lot split into 3 sections, each with their uniqueness, and each section, when finished was worth $.50.

As I look back, that's not too much money........................:)