The Two Dirtiest Words: Yard Work

I've often said that if the Lord comes back while I'm out working in the yard, I'm in deep trouble. I'm not much of an outdoorsy person anyway, but having to get out and work in it is way down on my "fun" list, between sleeping on a bed of nails and watching the Cubs in the playoffs.

But, since about half of my backyard resembled a jungle since I didn't get it mowed last time around, yard work had to be on my Saturday to-do list. And since it was going to get to 100 degrees with a heat index over that, I figured I better get up early or I'd collapse doing it.

So when the alarm went off at 6:30, even though I really wanted to stay in bed (we have to figure out how to teach Benjamin that it's OK to sleep for more than two hours), I forced myself up, had breakfast, and went out to work.

Of course, one of the reasons that I'm not a big fan of yard work is that I seem to have a Murphy's Law relationship with it. When it has to be done, something is going to go wrong. (I have that relationship with a lot of things, it seems like!) Today was no exception.

Last time I mowed, I noticed the mower was running rough and I knew it was needing some oil. So I bought some on a Wal-Mart run and had it ready to go this morning. I added some in and started up the mower. When I do the backyard, I also do a side of the driveway and the little bit of yard leading to the gate, and so I began to mow down the driveway. After getting about halfway down on my first pass, the mower just stopped.

That was strange, I thought. Tried to get it to start again, but it wouldn't catch. Added more oil, thinking maybe I didn't get enough in there. Still didn't work. When my dad came to bring his mower, we checked and cleaned out the air filter. Still didn't start. So I don't know what's wrong with it, but I'm sure it'll be expensive to fix.

Thankfully getting the backyard done with my dad's mower wasn't too bad, though it was hard to get started if it died, and as thick as the weeds (I really don't have that much grass!) were back there, it died a few times. I was going to mow my front yard as well, but the heat had already arrived and I just didn't have the oomph, which means that my yard will be golden with dandelions for a while. About half my front yard is a solid field of dandelions. And I'm not talking about your run of the mill ones that are on the ground. These are mutant waist-high ones that don't take no for an answer. I'll mow and they'll start popping back up within a day. I've tried some weed killer out there, but with little success. I'd do more, but of course, that's yard work.

Cardinals won last night in the 11th on a suicide squeeze by David Eckstein. You know, you hardly ever see that, especially to win a game, but that's twice in the last month Eckstein has laid down the game-winning bunt. I'm not sure anyone in Cardinal nation knew exactly what to expect with Eckstein replacing All-Star and fan favorite Edgar Renteria, but we've gotten a great year out of him. Whether giving him a 3-year deal was wise is still undecided, but he's definitely filled the hole for 2005.

Scott Rolen went back on the DL yesterday, which means he can stop hurting my fantasy team, which has closed within 1 point of the leader. When I say "my fantasy team", I'm referring to my main one, since I have 4-5 floating out there. My Friends League team, though, is the league that I set up and have run with my friends since '99. It's actually a sequel league, as most of these guys were in the one I ran in high school and college. We took a couple of years off, then started it back up. It's usually a lot of fun, even if Andy has won most of the time. I'm defending champion, though, and hope to take the title again this year.

Cards and Cubs this afternoon on Fox--looking forward to it!