Don’t Foget to Sharpen Your “Slingblade”

The weather so far,  for 2012 has been strange, to say the least.   I can't remember a winter where I could actually wear short sleeve shirts and not look like the misplaced dork that I really am. Seems like every one has been talking about the unusually warm temps.  So now that we're officially into Spring, don't know about you, but the grass in my yard was about a foot tall. That's what I attempted to tackle this past Sunday.

I have always been known as a bit of a procrastinator. Oh sure, I did finally get around to putting the mower in the shed just before Christmas, but it's not like cold weather can really hurt a mower can it? Plus, I thought the handle made a great prop for that snow shovel that I also had in the yard, just in case. Turns out I was wrong. After finally getting the old, gunky gasoline cleaned out, and the spark plug to actually do its job, I was ready to go to work on my jungle.

After 3 or 4 passes, I thought the grass was looking better. It was somewhat shorter than before I started. I heard that you don't want to cut it too short anyway, especially the first mowing of the season.  About an hour after I finished, and put the mower back in its proper home- next to the shed and the snow shovel. That's when I witnessed the grass appearing to grow in front of my eyes. I had only spent time thinking I was mowing. Oh sure, there was some grass coming out of the discharge, but it looked pretty much the way it did before I had started - minus the sticks, which of course I had already "mulched" with the mower.  I hadn't really been cutting grass...just bending it over. That's when I decided to check the blade on the mower....nearly as smooth as my bald head.

I could hear my Father's voice in my head saying "pay attention," something I didn't do very well when he was trying to teach me about mower maintenance. So,  for all of you procrastinators, and unhandy men, save yourself the heartache and take that mower to a professional who knows what they're doing and avoid your own "sling blade" moment.