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Friday, August 2, 2013 • Northwest Herald • NWHerald.com
Enough of the long and winding mow We gave it our best shot: At least 10 years with an electric mower on a corner lot. Less pollution. Less noise. No gasoline to spill or burn the garage down. No oil to fill. Just plug it in, let the battery charge and go. But you had to make allowances for the electric mower. Its charge would last long enough to mow half the lawn, so lawn mowing was a two-day job. That’s if you could keep up with the growth. Then it was a three-day or four-day job. And that’s why you have kids. Someone needs to mow the lawn. Better them than you. But soon enough, they will outgrow the lawn and move on with their own lives, and jobs, and college, and leave the lawn behind as just another bad childhood memory. I know about lawns and bad memories. In a previous life, I had an expansive lawn – acres – and I had a riding mower, and I would spend three or four hours on that machine every week mowing, and the grass often would grow so fast that I couldn’t keep up, and I would have to rake the lawn by hand to clear it of the windrows of clippings. I didn’t enjoy it, and each season got worse, until the final season in
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VIEWS Dick Peterson 2000. It was spring, and I just couldn’t bring myself to touch the mower. It all became entangled in my first serious mental health breakdown, and I never mowed the lawn that spring. I was hospitalized instead, which hardly brings back good memories. But I swore to myself I would never mow again; the experience was that traumatic. And when I remarried, I think it might have been in our wedding vows that I wouldn’t mow the lawn. I might be wrong. But after several years, I decided I needed to get past this unreasonable fear of mowing. And I started mowing, and it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t that good – we’re talking about mowing, after all – but I could do it again and maintain my mental wellness. This year was particularly rough with the electric mower. It seemed like it rained just often enough, and then for days on end, so the grass would grow uncontrollably, and it always would be too long. And we couldn’t keep up with Wally across
the street, who keeps a nice-looking lawn all season. It just took us longer to mow our lawn, and no sooner was it finished on one end, then you would need to start mowing on the other end. It was a losing battle. And the war was lost when the electric mower wouldn’t start at all. And no one is around who repairs these simple electric mowers. If it isn’t the battery, it’s beyond hope. And we knew it wasn’t the battery because one day it was taking a full charge, and the next day it wasn’t starting. We were against buying an expensive new battery for the mower because we were pretty sure that wasn’t the problem. We’ve been down that road before, and we knew the signs of a dying battery. We had come to doubt the whole idea of a clean electric mower that didn’t pour carbon monoxide into the air. We babied this mower, lugging it into the basement in the winter to keep the battery out of the frigid winter air. We kept the battery charging through the winter like the instructions said. But the latest model didn’t last four seasons. So we did what we had to do: We bought a standard gasoline-powered
lawn mower. We surrendered. There wasn’t an electric model in the large display of mowers at the home improvement center. If electric mowers were as reliable as the next best gasoline mower, you would have a choice. There would be competition, even if the electric mower cost a little more for a lot less power. No, there were 10 or 15 gas models to choose from. And if we were going to buy one, it was going to be at least an electric-start, self-propelled model because the day is soon coming when we will be out of kids to mow, and I would rather the heavy mower pull me than me push it. That’s called planning for the inevitable. It mowed like a wonder. The grass was long, but once we got the height adjusted just right on the mower, it cut and mulched the clippings like nothing. The job was done in a single day, in less than an hour, with gasoline to spare. And the lawn looked good. Almost as good as Wally’s.
• Dick Peterson, who lives in Woodstock, is a mental-health advocate, a freelance writer and a former Northwest Herald Opinion Page editor. He can be contacted at dickpeterson76@ gmail.com.
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Maya Kutrubis, 4, of Lake in the Hills eats corn on the cob July 11 at Lake in the Hills’ Rockin’ Ribfest at Sunset Park. The event was held from July 11 to 14 and featured carnival games, music and barbecue. Proceeds from the festival benefited the Lake in the Hills Rotary charities.
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Study: Hotter temperatures lead to hotter tempers The ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON – As the world gets warmer, people are more likely to get hot under the collar, scientists say. A massive new study finds that aggressive acts like committing violent crimes and waging war become more likely with each added degree. Researchers analyzed 60 studies on historic empire collapses, recent wars, vio-
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lent crime rates in the United States, lab simulations that tested police decisions on when to shoot and even cases where pitchers threw deliberately at batters in baseball. They found a common thread over centuries: Extreme weather – very hot or dry – means more violence. The authors say the results show strong evidence that climate can promote conflict. “When the weather gets
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The story “D-158 will pay for field house,” published on page B1 of Thursday’s Northwest Herald, incorrectly identified the total cost of the proposed Huntley High School field house. The field house cost is between $8.4 million and $10.7 million. The $15 million represents the total cost to upgrade the school’s interior athletic facilities. The Northwest Herald regrets the error. ••• Accuracy is important to the Northwest Herald, and we want to correct mistakes promptly. Please call errors to our attention by phone, 815-459-4122; email, tips@ nwherald.com; or fax, 815459-5640.
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