Lawncare returns

I think the time has come to cut my lawn again. I've actually been spared this chore for several months thanks to the searing drought we've been enduring. It killed all my grass, and there's generally no need to mow stunted, brown hay. But we finally got some rain the last couple of weeks, and while the grass hasn't really recovered all that much, the weeds are doing very well.

I ignored the sudden weed growth last week, when I should have mowed. The weeds at my house do particularly well on the north side of my house, where it's mostly shady all day and grass has never really taken hold with much vigor. There's this sort of carpet of weedy plants that I don't even know what all they are. They seep over from the neighbor's yard, and I don't have the motivation to rid them and try to encourage grass. The only time I ever walk along that side of the yard is when I'm taking something to the trash can. I'm assuming that's when it happened. A chigger bite. I woke up the other day to find a very itchy couple of dots on my ankle - the distinctive mark of La Chigger. I didn't even know chiggers ever lived in my yard. This is the first time I've been bitten by one at this house. But apparently they do. So, now I have to mow down their home. It has to be done.

I should probably wear some kind of mask - like the ones professional painters wear when they're power spraying a whole room. I'll probably give myself asthma from all the dust that will be thrown up since so much of the yard is still barren wasteland. But I don't have a mask. And why drive all the way to Lowe's for a mask when you can just sneeze and cough?

Someone suggested not too long ago that I should just pay someone to do my lawn, but what am I? Retired? If I can't zip a lawnmower and a weedeater around my lawn every couple of weeks (or this year, every few months), do I really deserve to own a lawn? Shouldn't I just cash in my grass chips and buy a condo? Don't think I haven't thought of it. But I really like not sharing walls with anyone, and when it's not 100 degrees and the yard is actually green with things flowering and birds zipping around, I really like being out there. Hopefully, with the cooler weather finally inching it's way toward us, I'll get to enjoy more of that in the next couple of months. In the meantime, I've got to go mow down some weeds.