Sunset, With Riding Mower
Posted on July 20, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 32 Comments
That’s Krissy out there on the riding mower, incidentally. I don’t mow the lawn because of grass allergies and also lack of competence; Krissy, on the other hand, can whip through the yard like nobody’s business. The riding mower here is actually a loaner, as our actual one is currently in the shop. The shop is run by very nice local Amish. Yes, they can fix riding mowers, and do a very fine job of it. They just don’t use them themselves.
But I bet they take them for a quick test ride. ;-)
I’m sure they do, as part of their work in the shop. But, again, there’s a difference between their work, and their home.
Faking a grass allergy. Creative genius you are. Think of all the PE you avoided over the years.
This picture should ease some of the hatred toward you for your lack of male-ness. I mean, here you are, obviously lounging on the porch with a beverage of choice, forcing your wife to do the work. Gotta be some points there.
Do they address you as “English” when you’re there? Please say they do, or else popular media has lied to me.
I have often wondered who cut your massive lawn! Always seemed like a silly thing to ask about though.
Grass allergy gets me out of weed whacking too. This being California, we don’t have a lawn. Speaking of which: it’s so hard to see pictures of your huge lawn without flying into a rage. I bet you don’t water it at all, do you?
Grass allergy? LMFAO! I bet my Drill Sergeants woulda shit themselves over that one. What with plucking weeds out of the sidewalk cracks by hand, yanking up dandelions (sniff sniff :-( ) and making people low crawl from point A to point B via points J, C, L, and -7.1….
Is it because you know SF that you don’t use a robot lawnmower?
Nice sunset. Would have liked to have had a riding mower like that when I was her age and cut my parents lawn. I used the old push variety.
That banner photo of Daisy on the lawn appears to have re-created my old Windows XP screen saver.
Krissy is who I want to be when I grow up… except I’m older than her. Maybe next life.
Lack of competence – well, that’s a new excuse for not mowing the lawn! :) Grass allergy I can understand though, and it sucks. It looks like you have a lawn large enough for a few sheep to take care of that business.
Nice photo, lovely colours in the sunset.
Your grass is greener on the other side!
Nice striping! Has she ever tried the hatch pattern like on a soccer pitch?
The rainfall in this section of the country has been exceptional .. making for exception grass too! Often by now one mows their lawn only weekly or maybe even every two weeks. But even now I am mowing twice a week to keep up!
I just partially read why people don’t like you, item number 8 comes to mind, envy. Well after such a glorious picture of a sunset and grass, dang I am envious too. Well done, sir.
*Pines for a zero turn mower* I do all the mowing at our house. It’s *almost* like driving a tractor… only an eensie one.
GOOD GOD, MAN!!!
What kind of palatial estate do you people own??!!oneonehook
i guess that Stargate Universe money really WAS the reason they had to quit the show – too much cash spent on “consultants” so they could have giant green expanses of lawn. And wives who get to take Mower Riding Lessons.
Lucky. I am definitely one of the #8 haters
Not gonna lie, every time I see a big yard like that, I wanna get a football game going. Even if it is sloped. ;)
A funny image called “Amish proselytizing” just popped into my head: “Yes, Mr. Scalzi, your riding mower will be ready on Thursday. Until then, might we offer you this loaner?” (Amish man hands Scalzi a rope with a grass-chewing goat attached to it)
This is one of those times I wish I could draw cartoons…
I have considered buying a house with a large lawn specifically so I have an excuse to drive a riding lawnmower. Trufacts. Also, I’m female.
You must have underground sprinkling? How are the water bills?
Gumby188:
We have rain, actually. Quite a lot of it this year. When it doesn’t rain, the lawn goes yellow and dormant.
He’s got overground sprinkling. They’re called clouds. Whether he supplements this with hoses and suchlike, I don’t know, though I rather doubt it (except, perhaps, in the garden bits). Ohio gets enough rain that the grass probably only goes dormant in August except in the very driest years. I know it’s hard for Californians to accept.
I played native guide here in Illinois for a Californian a while back who was AMAZED at all the grass GROWING IN THE CRACKS OF THE STREET AND SIDEWALKS. “Who waters that???” “Umm, the sky….”
I did not know that Amish repaired riding mowers. I did know certain sects of Amish and Mennonite communities grant special dispensations for dealing with modern technology. Several years ago I was trying to track down a particular publication printed by a Mennonite community. The representative I dealt with was the only one in his religious community who used (or admitted to using) a computer; even then, he could only use it during business hours and in the presence of two other employees.
So you have a colossal lawn and a grass allergy; is that like being a cat living on a houseboat?
Living in a high mountain desert climate, it didn’t occur to me that there was enough rain to keep the grass green. Very pastoral looking though….
But, do the Amish work on lawn mowers with electronic ignition? ;-)
So you DON’T have a flock of electric sheep?
So, I have what my allergist described as “striking” grass allergies. I’m allergic to ALL TEH GRASSES. And yet, since the age of twelve, that has not one single time gotten me out of mowing the grass.
I must be doing it wrong.
I love this photo. Though I’m a tad curious as to where the photo was taken from (which sounds like really bad English, and I’m sorry for that).