Our lawn guy quit. Well, he is moving and isn't going to be cutting our lawn anymore for personal reasons. I ran into him a few days ago and he told me.
So I decided to try to start up that mower myself. Tried and tried to pull it, but it was stuck. Tell John about it. He gets home from work and I hear "vrooom" starts right up. Apparently somehow a dog toy was lodged in the blades and stopped it from operating.
The next day, I try again. Vrrrrrooom, starts right up and I start mowing the side yard. Not bad, going right along. Not beautiful, and maybe not exactly straight, but it's my first time in 39 years doing this, so it's not too bad.
Then I decided to tackle the back yard, back and forth, back and forth. The edges are hard to get, but in general, it's looking ok.
Front yard next. First I have to call my neighbor to help me figure out how to empty the bag. Get that done. Now onto the front yard, otherwise known as Two Giant Hills.
I do the flat part, back and forth, back and forth, feeling like kind of a badass out there, mowing the lawn all by myself.
Try to push it up the hill. Not going. Ooooof. Push some more, using all my muscles. Totally not going. I feel like a weakling. Get mad! Grrrr, push! Push. Nothing. Mow what I can, put it away.
Today I realize, I forgot to do in front of the garage. I power the lawnmower back up and see a little gear shifter thing. Hm. Yesterday, I had the big bar engaged the whole time, but not that little gear shifter. Let me see what it does. Oh my!!! This makes it go. It's a gear shifter that puts it into drive, apparently. Didn't realize this yesterday WHILE I MOWED THE ENTIRE LAWN WITHOUT HAVING THE LAWNMOWER IN GEAR.
I may as well have used scissors.