My eldest son mow's our lawn with a John Deere riding lawn mower. We live on an acre and it takes him about an hour and a half. He's getting better and better, but it's still a big mower and he's still 5'2 and 115 pounds.
A few weeks ago he was out mowing in the back and he got close to our screened in patio. I watched as he came up along side it to get the grass next to the small paver walkeway that abutts it, when I saw he got stuck. I stood in our kitchen, the slider to the porch was open, and watched as he tried to maneuver out of his jam.
He threw it in reverse, hit the gas, and *LURCH* it snagged backwards and I watched his body jolt.
I raised my eyebrows and continued to watch as he put it in idle and sat there looking at something, intense expression on his face combined with horror.
I slowly walked out the sliding door to see what had happened, to see him look up at me.
Me? I was amused and questioning what exactly had been done.
To him? I was probably a figure hulking in the doorway.
He sat there with a deer in the headlights look as I stepped out and said, "What happened?"
Ringo: I got stuck in the grass, put it in reverse and it bounced back.
Me: Damage?
Ringo: I hit the cement post here and... I tore the screen in the bottom corner.
I walked over to look and sure enough, the corner had ripped out.
Me: How bad is the cement post?
Ringo: Other than the big tire mark that is screaming that I hit it? It's fine.
Me: Hunh. We need to get this fixed.
Ringo:
Me:
Ringo: You're not going to tell Dad?
Me: Hell no. Do you think for a minute I want to hear him carry on? Phht. No. This is your Boy Scout project for your Family Life badge where you have to do something with a family member. You and I are going to fix the screen and he'll be none the wiser.
Ringo: Do you know how to fix it?
Me: No clue.
Ringo: *big pause* Maybe you could ask the guys you work with. They seem to know everything about stuff like this...
Me: Yup. I'll ask them and we'll figure it out. Don't sweat it.
Flash forward to today in the car.
Ringo: Mom. We have to fix the screen.
Me: I know. The guys at work told me what I need to do and I found it on the internet. I'm just waiting for your Dad to go out of town... Has he noticed?
Ringo: Not really. But let's just say he's starting to wonder why the porch is getting so dirty and where all the crap is starting to come from.
I just found out that my husband has a class on Saturday. Guess what Ringo and I will be doing???
Posted by Boudicca at March 15, 2010 08:46 PMOkay, so this'll just be our little secret.
Posted by: Bob at March 15, 2010 10:08 PMSome things are best left undivulged. The incident with the laptop and the pet rats is the little secret our daughter and I keep.
Posted by: PeggyU at March 16, 2010 01:00 AMShould've asked Dad...we've had some screening fun together. Heck, I think he's done it several times; he's a master.
Posted by: Toluca Nole at March 16, 2010 01:03 AMShould have asked me. I need to fix ours as well and I needed to go to home depot to get the stuff. We don't have the 'wheel' anymore. No idea where it disappeared to... Needless to say, I have done this one time too many... HEY... does he need to earn a neighbor badge???? ;-)
Posted by: vw bug at March 16, 2010 04:43 AMAs a dad, I will confirm that sometimes it's best to leave Dad out of such things, as long as the damage is fixed and we don't notice any difference. ;-)
Posted by: diamond dave at March 16, 2010 07:49 AMOur incident involved my brother wrestling while I was babysitting. I think I said 15 times...don't do that in the living room, something's going to happen. Well, my brother's rear end sank beautifully into the dry wall.
I must admit the joy I felt watching them scramble to the neighbors (who were in construction) for patch.
Not really sure if my dad noticed the hole, but I don't recall hearing any blood curdling screams....and 35 years later, when the light hits just right, I can still see the patch.
Posted by: Trudy at March 16, 2010 08:04 PMReminds me of when I was a kid. We moved to the St. Louis area and the property my parents bought was about half an acre - a large portion of it was open in the back yard. So we had a HUGE heavy push mower (from back in the day before they started making bodies and engine parts out of plastic - it probably weighed at least 3 times what a modern mower weighs) and we had a Snapper riding lawn mower.
I started mowing the lawn when I was 10. The open part was done with the riding mower, all the parts close to the house that had vegetation were mowed with the push mower. My mom required that we wear closed shoes to mow the lawn (although I doubt that would have saved our feet in an accident - heh). And I had to lean at a 45 degree angle to get enough leg oomph to get the thing moving. I have to say, I never ran into the screened porch although I do believe I ran over a small tree one time. LOL.
Posted by: Teresa at March 17, 2010 02:41 PMSo your husband never reads your blog?
Posted by: Denny at March 19, 2010 10:33 PM