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The Indefinite Article.

Monday, May 30, 2005

My Memorial Day Morning Ecological Footprint


Memorial Day morning
Originally uploaded by killy.
I've been caring for my neighbor's cats while she's been away for the Memorial Day weekend. After cleaning out the litter box, i borrowed her manual pushmower to give it test run on my yard (i had asked her previously).

It took a real change in how one thinks about cutting yards. I couldn't throw the small machine back and forth over the lawn and irregular corners (like the spaces around the a/c) the way i do with the gas powered mower. The manual mower will only cut going forward. This was the most challenging thing about the mower; so challenging in fact, that i proceeded to cut the front as well just so i could get used to it.

Ultimately, however, i don't think i'll be getting a manual push mower for my yard. I can't say that i didn't enjoy watching the blades of grass shoot out from the spinning blades, but i can say that it doesn't completely cut the grass. it took a lot longer to do because i found myself going over spots several times in order to completely cut the grass. in many instances the mower simply wouldn't cut certain blades of grass that were beyond a certain height resulting in an uneven cut. Another thing were the sticks from the pecan tree. Every time the mower would lock up, stop, and send the bar into my chest i could hear mr. trudeau's words of woe resonate in the 'clank!'.

The mental images i have of myself listening to my ipod while i cut the grass though, are very very very powerful.


As for my ecological footprint, i cancelled out any good i may have done by keeping the gas powered mower in the shed with my burger and hot dog fire. Although, i can't be sure that simple smoke from fire is acutally counts as pollution. Doesn't smoke give the water in the air something to stick to, creating clouds? Am i responsible for the clouds when i BBQ? I plan on throwing the ashes from my previous BBQ (a mixture of pecan and oak wood) into the compost, so that's a plus too, huh?

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