There was a lot of rainy weather after my most recent mowing, and that was bad for a couple reasons. First, as always, it delayed the mowing because I needed the lawns to dry out a bit—and then it would rain again. At the same time, warmer temperatures, when combined with that rain, caused the weeds to run amok.
It’s not unusual for that to happen this time of year—it’s actually what Spring is like an a normal year. This time of year, then, the lawns are filled with the flower spikes from the weeds, and the leaves of the weeds grow more quickly, too, making the whole lawn thicker, from the machine’s perspective, than it actually is.
So, a week ago Friday I went out to start using the line trimmer on the edges out front (because it’s what everyone sees). That was fairly uneventful. The mowing, however, went slowly because the lawn was still pretty damp, and because I often had to go back and forth over some patches to be able to cut off the flower spikes at ground level (also not unusual for this time of year).
That was difficult, but the front lawn is also a gentle slope from the house down to the footpath, and at the side, it’s even a little steeper. As I was finishing up, on that steeper side, I was absolutely miserable: Tired, sweaty, and totally over it. I thought, yet again, about getting a service to mow the front lawn so I don’t have to deal with it—and that, in turn, led me to think about how these days I think about all the things that I no longer seem to be able to cope with doing by myself, and how that seems to have picked up speed since I turned 65.
I knew there wasn’t much battery left in the mower after it struggled out front, so I only mowed a very little bit of the side yard. I also did some of the edges—until the line trimmer’s filament rand out. That, I decided, was a good place to pause.
I sat down to rest and cool off, and to let the mower battery cool enough to recharge it. Unfortunately, I realised too late that I’d forgotten to do that, and there wasn’t enough time to charge it and mow the back, and that meant I’d have to finish on Saturday.
The next day, Saturday, despite totally not feeling it, I went out to do the back lawn, starting with the edges. First, I opened the spool because I couldn’t feed new line into it, and found out that the old line had someone gotten stuck, and some was still wrapped around the head. I cleaned it out, fed in the new line, and began trimming.
I hadn’t gotten very far when the line trimmer stopped: The battery was dead. I went and grabbed another one, but the trimmer wouldn’t go, so I checked the power level (the manufaturer calls it a "fuel gauge") and found out it was empty: I hadn’t recharged it the last time I used the line trimmer because I put it were recharged batteries go. Oops.
I decided to start mowing, anyway, and got a lot of the lawn done—until the battery was again fully drained without the mowing being done. The problem is that the back lawn, which is mostly weeds, grows much faster and thicker than the front lawn does, and so, the mower had to work much harder than at other times of year.
I thought I’d finish mowing on the next mostly sunny day, which was projected to be Monday or Tuesday, and for a very personal reason: I like to avoid making any noise on Sundays. My rationale is that people who work Monday through Friday generally do noisy outside chores on Saturday, not Sunday. Maybe they like the idea of one quiet weekend day, too? At any rate, I normally avoid making noise outside on Sundays unless I have no choice.
This time, I thought that I’d better not count on good weather the following week, so I did go out and finish the mowing on Sunday, something that only took maybe 20 minutes (at most) to do. It turned out I definitely made the right choice: Parts of Monday and Tuesday had rain.
My plan was do the lawns again after about a week—basically, now—to try and get it under control before the next big blooming of the weeds. Today has been a rainy day, and tomorrow is expected to be one, too. Monday through Wednesday are expected to have at least some sun, so they look like my best shot, earlier than I’d normally do them, but later than I’d have liked. I’ve noticed some flower spikes are already pushing up,
That mowing adventure was unusually arduous, but my thinking around it was not unusual. I’ve spoken before about how often I’ve thought about hiring a service to mow out front, but they only use petrol-powered equipment, and mine a use batteries recharged with electricity from the sun. Giving up feels like going backward.
At the same time, part of the problem is that I now only have one battery, so I usually can’t mow both lawns on one day. Worse, my current battery is probably nearing the end of its life (the warranty is only for three years), and when it dies, a new battery will cost me between $379 and $579 (today, around US$221 to US$338) for a new one (depending on the capacity—which basically means how long it’ll go before it runs out of charge). Is it really worth buying a new battery, or should I just give it all up at that point?
This gets back to the things that I no longer seem to be able to cope with doing. Mowing is my major form of physical exercise, and, I always told myself, that’s precisely why I find it so difficult to do: I’m not fit enough. But, what if this is at least related to my aging body, or even just that aging is making things harder regardless of my fitness level?
Yesterday, the company that installed my ventilation system sent a technician to change the filters, something they do every two years. Last time, I found non-branded filters of a similar spec that cost less than half the price of what it cost me to have the company do it. However, that would mean going up in the attic to do it, something I think is a terrible idea, not just because I’m getting older, but also because I live alone, and if I fell through the ceiling, no one would be here to help me. To be fair, the company also checks to make sure everything including airflow rates are within specification, so it’s more than just changing a filter. Even so, 20 years ago I’d absolutely have gone up there to do it myself.
All up, this period in my aging has been confusing as hell, and trying to work out what I can or should do myself, and what I should pay others to do for me, has been exhausting. Whether it’s mowing my lawns or changing filters in the attic, the first step is to be sure of my own realistic and sensible limits, something thats not always easy to do
Last week, I had unexpectedly fraught and lengthy mowing adventures. There are likely to be many pivot points over the next five and ten years, times where I’ll have to accept my limitations beginning to exceed, or, at least, restrict, my abilities for doing things myself.
There’s one more thing I know for certain: All of this is exponentially more difficult because Nigel’s not here to figure all this out with. On the other hand, if this really is the beginning of my physical decline, then I’m kind of glad he didn’t have to see it, because I know how hard that would’ve been on him.
No wonder I’m lost in the weeds.
The photo up top is of Leo in the weeds this past Sunday, November 24, just before I began to finish the mowing. By the time this mowing adventure began the previous Friday, the weed stalks out back were at twice his height (more in some places). I took this photo kneeling on the ground, so the view is basically at flower height.
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