When I was a kid, we had a rusty, old, reel-mower. I hated the thing, because it was heavy and not powered like the electric ones dad could sign out on whichever army post we were on. The electric-mowers were quiet, bright orange, and the only difficulty was making sure you didn’t run over the hundred foot extension cord. The reel-mower cut the grass fine, but I would have to mow over the same patch a couple times and sometimes in those hot Oklahoma summer’s the grass would go through growth spurts and I would have to go over the yard from multiple angles just to keep the grass from laying down under the blades. When we moved to Utah, we didn’t have access to the electric-mowers. The gas-mowers were unreliable at best, but that rusty-reel mower always worked even if it gave me blisters and splinters.
Recently, I’ve seen reel-mowers pop up in the media. In the background or as the subject of articles. This is fantastic considering the damage fossil fuels do to the environment. This post is a continuation of my first comic “Send Off the Clowns” (06/19/2010). Kwan’s yard is Korean in that there is not a lot of grass. Mostly there are vegetable gardens or elevated spots to eat sam-gyup-sal or whatever. Johnson, however, has a giant yard and wants to keep it short and mown quickly. He can’t miss the chance to brag. Honestly, isn’t that the point of riding-mowers in the ‘burbs anyway?