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In Which I Mow the Lawn
Jan. 19th, 2020 09:12 pmToday I mowed the lawn, which honest to goodness is more monumental than it sounds. I haven't been behind a lawn mower in over 30 years, since when I had to push the lawnmower around my parents house in San Jose. But today I mowed my own lawn.
We never mowed the lawn in Berkeley because we didn't really have a lawn. Our lot was teeny, and we got weeds that were tough to deal with, but no lawn. Every once in a while I'd attack what was there with a battery-powered edger that Bob got me. And I'd pull weeds and cut back ivy. It was exhausting.
But we have a real yard here in Hawaii. So last week sometime my dad and I went out to Home Depot, one of the Great Houses of Lihue, and I got one of the two battery-powered lawn mowers that they had. In Kauai, you take what you can get (especially when you're talking about battery-powered devices that most people refuse to ship to the island). And last night I finally went out to the garage, got it in order, and set our lawnmower to charging, hence the lawn mowing adventure today.
The mowing of the front yard and side yard went very well. I like the mower I selected.
But, most of our back yard is a big slope, and that probably can't be mowed with a lawn mower (safely). So today I did what I'd been told to do, which is that I got out ye-old-edger and I attacked the hill with it. I got about 20% across the hill before my battery went out, and I'd just got the second one charging this morning, so that was it for the day. Which is fair enough, because I was exhausted.
I was somewhat discouraged when my dad told me that our former renter claimed to have edged the hill the day before he left, which would be three weeks ago. I didn't mind the mowing, but I'd prefer not to have the exhaustion of hill edging that often.
So I was looking up alternatives, like: lawn mowing horizontals, or dangling a lawn mower vertically, with a rope or using a hover mower. We'll see, but for now I'll probably attack the hill again after work tomorrow, with some recharged batteries on my edger.
I wrote that my dad and I swam out at Salt Pond again last week. We then went to Poipu today, one of my top three beaches on Kauai (Hanalei Bay, Poipu, and Lawai). Which was just as well, because it turns out that jellyfish were washing up on Salt Pond today.
But I didn't write about my dilemma: what to do with my car keys.
I mean, the first time we came out to Hawaii, I just put my condo keys into my velcroed swimsuit pocket and swam. The problem is that Julie the Benz has an electronic fob like most modern cars. My dad says he just leaves his keys on the beach and doesn't have any problems, but also admits that Julie is a nicer car. So I'm really hesitant to do that.
So what I've been doing is taking the mechanical key out of the fob, leaving the fob in the car., and putting the fob in my velcroed poacket. But when I did this at Salt Pond last week, I discovered two problems:
1.) Whenever you use the mechanical key for entry to the car, it sets off the alarm.
2.) The front door won't lock if you click the lock button on the fob when the door is open.
So at both beaches, I took out the mechanical key, opened the back door, clicked the lock-all-doors button, tossed the fob forward so it would be near the front door, then closed the back door.
Upon my return, I opened the front door with my mechanical key, and quickly grabbed the fob to turn off the alarm.
But, it's annoying, both for me and other beach goers. So I need a better solution. I did find a waterproof fob holder on Amazon, but it has zero reviews. So who knows if it works.
Maybe someday I'll be as casual as my dad, and just leave it at the beach.
(Of course he had his old, falling apart slippas mysteriously disappear at Salt Pond Beach recently!)
Otherwise, it's been a lazy weekend.
Well, I mean I'm exhausted today because I mowed the lawn, swam, and then walked the golf course with my dad and Mary.
Oh, and I didn't even write about my adventures yesterday, which involved my first trip in to Lihue with no adult supervision, to go to the farmer's market at the community college, then Costco, then the gas station.
(And I'm still finding it challenging every single time I park, by the by, almost every time backing out of my space, and then putting Julie back in straighter. But that's a whole other story.)
The low/highlight of that trip was the gas station, where I had to leap out of the car to figure out where the gas tank was, then have Kimberly google how to open it, fortunately all before I got to the pump.
It had also been 30 years since I'd gassed up a car.
So, not exactly a lazy weekend, I guess. But I haven't built any furniture since Friday night, when I tried to build a bathroom cabinet that Kimberly had purchased on Amazon, only to find that they'd sent me two of one particular part, rather than the part and its mirror image.
I'm still waiting to get satisfaction on that problem, but it's the weekend currently, so I'll wait until tomorrow to start getting more insistent.
Which is to say, it's been a busy weekend.
We never mowed the lawn in Berkeley because we didn't really have a lawn. Our lot was teeny, and we got weeds that were tough to deal with, but no lawn. Every once in a while I'd attack what was there with a battery-powered edger that Bob got me. And I'd pull weeds and cut back ivy. It was exhausting.
But we have a real yard here in Hawaii. So last week sometime my dad and I went out to Home Depot, one of the Great Houses of Lihue, and I got one of the two battery-powered lawn mowers that they had. In Kauai, you take what you can get (especially when you're talking about battery-powered devices that most people refuse to ship to the island). And last night I finally went out to the garage, got it in order, and set our lawnmower to charging, hence the lawn mowing adventure today.
The mowing of the front yard and side yard went very well. I like the mower I selected.
But, most of our back yard is a big slope, and that probably can't be mowed with a lawn mower (safely). So today I did what I'd been told to do, which is that I got out ye-old-edger and I attacked the hill with it. I got about 20% across the hill before my battery went out, and I'd just got the second one charging this morning, so that was it for the day. Which is fair enough, because I was exhausted.
I was somewhat discouraged when my dad told me that our former renter claimed to have edged the hill the day before he left, which would be three weeks ago. I didn't mind the mowing, but I'd prefer not to have the exhaustion of hill edging that often.
So I was looking up alternatives, like: lawn mowing horizontals, or dangling a lawn mower vertically, with a rope or using a hover mower. We'll see, but for now I'll probably attack the hill again after work tomorrow, with some recharged batteries on my edger.
I wrote that my dad and I swam out at Salt Pond again last week. We then went to Poipu today, one of my top three beaches on Kauai (Hanalei Bay, Poipu, and Lawai). Which was just as well, because it turns out that jellyfish were washing up on Salt Pond today.
But I didn't write about my dilemma: what to do with my car keys.
I mean, the first time we came out to Hawaii, I just put my condo keys into my velcroed swimsuit pocket and swam. The problem is that Julie the Benz has an electronic fob like most modern cars. My dad says he just leaves his keys on the beach and doesn't have any problems, but also admits that Julie is a nicer car. So I'm really hesitant to do that.
So what I've been doing is taking the mechanical key out of the fob, leaving the fob in the car., and putting the fob in my velcroed poacket. But when I did this at Salt Pond last week, I discovered two problems:
1.) Whenever you use the mechanical key for entry to the car, it sets off the alarm.
2.) The front door won't lock if you click the lock button on the fob when the door is open.
So at both beaches, I took out the mechanical key, opened the back door, clicked the lock-all-doors button, tossed the fob forward so it would be near the front door, then closed the back door.
Upon my return, I opened the front door with my mechanical key, and quickly grabbed the fob to turn off the alarm.
But, it's annoying, both for me and other beach goers. So I need a better solution. I did find a waterproof fob holder on Amazon, but it has zero reviews. So who knows if it works.
Maybe someday I'll be as casual as my dad, and just leave it at the beach.
(Of course he had his old, falling apart slippas mysteriously disappear at Salt Pond Beach recently!)
Otherwise, it's been a lazy weekend.
Well, I mean I'm exhausted today because I mowed the lawn, swam, and then walked the golf course with my dad and Mary.
Oh, and I didn't even write about my adventures yesterday, which involved my first trip in to Lihue with no adult supervision, to go to the farmer's market at the community college, then Costco, then the gas station.
(And I'm still finding it challenging every single time I park, by the by, almost every time backing out of my space, and then putting Julie back in straighter. But that's a whole other story.)
The low/highlight of that trip was the gas station, where I had to leap out of the car to figure out where the gas tank was, then have Kimberly google how to open it, fortunately all before I got to the pump.
It had also been 30 years since I'd gassed up a car.
So, not exactly a lazy weekend, I guess. But I haven't built any furniture since Friday night, when I tried to build a bathroom cabinet that Kimberly had purchased on Amazon, only to find that they'd sent me two of one particular part, rather than the part and its mirror image.
I'm still waiting to get satisfaction on that problem, but it's the weekend currently, so I'll wait until tomorrow to start getting more insistent.
Which is to say, it's been a busy weekend.