MMeM, Vol.2 Issue 6
Re-lighting Birthday candles...
Gone wrong...
MMeM, Vol.2 Issue 5
A few years ago, I decided that all weed-wackers and trimmers were dead to me. See, every 18 months or so I would have to buy a new one at $100-$150 a pop. And before they would break down, they would inevitably need more string or some special oil mixture or whatever. "That's it!", I said. I'm done with trimmers. I am going to groom and shape my lawn so that I won't NEED to trim any of it. All I'd have to do is hop on the riding mower and go! At least that was the plan.
My plan worked well at first. What I decided to do was to use Round-Up Extreme™ on areas that I couldn't reach with the riding mower. These areas included the grass around trees or corners on my patio. As you can see from my efforts to cut all the grass right up to the corners of my patio, a new method was sorely needed. The first patio corner on the top below required my learning to remove and replace a 22" riding lawn mower blade.
I decided to spray very sparingly so as not to kill too much grass. This meant making a committment to spraying, waiting, and evaluating. This is a HUGE effort on my part. Patience is not a strong suit of mine. But I forged ahead .....with great patience. And as a side note, I should mention that this showed growth in my intellectual and emotional well-being. But again, I digress.
Being a man, I always live my life under the philosophy of "More = Better". Consequently, I decided that I was tired of being stuck to death with millions of pine needles when mowing around my pine trees on my riding mower. How many times would I spray, wait, and evaluate?
Here, things look pretty good...
Beginning to enter obsessing mode here...
And finally, full blown nuerosis sets in here...
Have I gone too far with the Round-Up? Yes? No? Maybe?
YIKES
MMeM, Vol.2 Issue 4
Look, it's no secret that "cleaning house" is not one of my favorite things to do. But, every couple of fiscal quarters I get the urge, or rather the necessity, to clean a little bit. Oh, I have a method and it's carefully thought-out and then executed to perfection so as to not waste any energy or cleaning effort.
For example, I always vacuum first and then dust. My thinking here is that the vacuum is sure to throw microscopic dust particles into the air. Then, when I dust 20-30 minutes later, I'm sure to pick up all these particles while dusting, having allowed them just enough time to float down to their new resting places.
So, I was vacuuming the other day and boy was I getting into it. I vacuumed my entire upstairs. I ran the vacuum in straight paralell lines and then in some rooms I even back back ACROSS the grain of the previous vacuuming path. Man! I was really into it today. "I'll bet my carpets haven't been this clean since the day they were installed!" I thought.
It really was a sight to behold. I flew from room to room, vacuuming. Vacuum. Neat word. It's a noun and a verb. Not a lot of words with the rare double "uu".
I even thought that I could make a living cleaning houses. Sheesh! I could probably bring top dollar with my vacuuming acumen alone!
Having vacuumed all the rooms in my first floor house I returned the vacuum to its resting area in the laundry room. As I left the laundry room I thought, "Boy, I'll have to empty that bag-less container before I vacuum again after such an thorough and complete vacuuming session such as this one!".
"And women think men don't clean well. Hmm!", I mumbled to myself as I puffed my chest out ready to take on my next house cleaning task. As I closed the door to the laundry room I thought, "And come to think of it, that vacuum is probably about ready to be replaced due to the strenuous workouts I put it through.
Seemed like I had to go over, and over, and over the same dirt and dust time and time again.
Hmm. Oh well. Guess they don't make them like they used to."
