Ahh, yardwork.

So, I've found that this getting old and being a homeowner thing comes with new hobbies. I spent a lot of time Saturday trying to establish a yard. The ass clown that lived here before us just set fires everywhere and according to the neighbors never mowed or anything. I can't say that I'm suprised because the grass was three feet tall when we moved in. Well, at the edge of our back yard is this odd hump - that did have grass growing on it, and a ton of weeds. Not your average weeds mind you, these are enourmous thorn bushes and something that resembles hay. Most of these were as tall as I am so you can imagine the site of a 5'10" guy with a weedeater (which I'll get to in a minute) and a lawnmower hacking away at these things. My Dad's advice was "Just cut out a little at a time when you cut the grass. Just take an extra pass as the edge of the woods when you finish up every other time you cut it." Not me, I wanted that extra eight feet of yard that the neighbors had and I didn't. Have I mentioned that our neighbors have the perfect lawn? Yeah, nothing like inheriting a lawn that sucks. It's not the worst lawn on the block but it's pretty close. Anyway, I'm working on it. Our neighbors on both sides have a fence, fences that until recently went eight feet beyond the edge of our yard. I didn't think this looked right so I spent about eight hours this weekend hacking away at this with my trusty weedeater and only burned up two heavy duty cords and a full tank of gas on the lawnmower. I drank so much Gatorade this weekend I should have stock in the company. Needless to say the lawn is a little bigger now. I imagine once I get grass grown on this new patch of land I've cleared I'll look back on this and go "Why did I want more grass to cut? This sucks!" So far, the lawn is coming along nicely. I should have some actual grass here in a couple of weeks.

So, the weedeater I got for my birthday. For all those concerned - it works. It came with a package of "Extra Quiet" weedeater cord. What the heck is that about? Since when did string noise on a gas powered weedeater become an issue? What candy ass said "We need to make this string quieter." No we don't - make the weedeater quieter if you want to quiet something down! My neighbor and I have the same weedeater so when both of them are going (mind you he's not an idiot so he's only got grass to trim with his) you can hear them all over the neighborhood. If someone wants to make a great innovation - and don't get me wrong this cord is a great innovation because it takes about four seconds to change out and isn't an all day deal - they need to make this thing quieter so I'm not deaf when it's done. That would be a good invention. I know, we now have electric weedeaters, but it just wouldn't be yard work if I didn't have to yank a cord 57 times to get something to start. Plus, the electric ones wear out quicker. I'm gas powered and polluting the air all the way.