my pops is 79 and still kicks ass. well up until a little while ago he did. in a week or so, he's going in for hip replacement surgery. after that it's off to rehab for a bit (we don't know how long yet). he'll be incapacitated for a while though. he can barely stand up. it hurts me to see him like this. he has always been a very active person. he walks daily (he knows EVERYONE in the hood and then some). this operation is a good thing. i am looking forward to him NOT being in constant pain. he never complains though. i remember when i was young, he went to work (he was a teamster at that time) with two broken ribs. SOOOOOOOOOOO someone has to mow his lawn! well, i already TOLD my brother in law, big bubba, HE was going to come over every weekend and mow that lawn. oh i forgot to say my pops is obsessive about his yard. he doesn't have the greenest grass or prettiest flowers BUT he is always the first one out to mow or snow blow or sand and salt or whatever. i'm not exaggerating; he IS the first one out there. friday, i stopped by his house and left him a note NOT to mow the lawn the next morning. i'd be over between 9 and 10 on saturday morning and i'd mow the lawn (well the front. we'd let the back go for another week). i arrived at 8:45 and of course as expected he was already outside doing something or other. i was barely out of the car and the FIRST thing he said to me was, 'you could have worn better shoes'. i had a pair of flip flops on. 'one can't mow the lawn in flip flops?' i thought to myself but let it go. i dragged him back in and made him a tea and myself a coffee. i needed a moment or two to collect my thoughts before the big morning of yard work. oh, there were lawn chairs he kept on his screened in porch for the winter he wanted to bring outside. i told him I WOULD DO IT. of course they were already outside when i arrived saturday. and one wonders where i got my stubbornness (and if you can imagine my mother was the stubborn one!). now i'm ready to start, we go outside and i take one of those chairs from the back yard and bring it to the front so he can supervise me mowing his lawn. he started the mower for me and showed me something about pulling this bar back that made it keep running. he showed me how to prime it and he showed me this lever to push down that made the wheels turn automatically (after i engaged those wow, what a difference. of course i didn't do it right away though, dope that i am). so i mow the front lawn going in concentric squares. i didn't do the spots around his bushes good enough of course, so he had to get up and do them himself. i had to keep glancing over at him (while he WAS in the chair) and every time i did, i just burst out laughing. you sort of had to be there, to see ME mowing a lawn with an actual lawn mower. i got specific explicit instructions on how far to mow on either side. to the edge of the neighbor's house on the left and to the line of the big tree in back for the house on the right. the mower stalled a few times and some type of height adjustment had to be made and then it was smooth sailing. i stopped the mower and looked over to the chair. he was NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. he was back in the garage bringing out his leaf blower. he blew every speck of grass off of the sidewalks and driveway. then he blew it off of tapparentlyer. apparantly that job was too complicated for me to handle or understand. hell as it turns out it got WICKED WINDY later in the day and the damn grass shards or whatever the hell they are called WOULD have blown away any damn way. just as i was about to go back in the house, he looked at my feet and said, 'see!!!'. i looked down and not only were my pink fuzzy flip flops all green (don't be sad, they were last years and on their last legs. i'll make new fuzzy ones this year) but MY FEET AND TOENAILS WERE ALL STAINED GREEN. damn the geezer was right about the shoes! we have one more weekend before he goes in for surgery. i'm calling big bubba up and telling him it's HIS turn next! i'm done, i've had it, finis!!!
(pictures: my dad's lawn that I DID SUCH A BEAUTIFUL JOB MOWING. his cat, frog and turtle and his azalea bush)
No comments:
Post a Comment