Mow lawn, and have fun doing it

The intent today (Tuesday, August 21, 2007) was to supposedly mow lawn, but it’s beginning to look like I can’t.
It’s a-rainin’; and has been for a while. I can’t mow a soggy lawn.
We were able to take the poor dog to the so-called elitist country-club this morning (he was thrilled), but it was cloudy and cool, and started raining lightly before we finished.

The Keed.

Zero-Turn.

If I were able to mow lawn, I’d be doin’ it with the fabulous zero-turn (pictured), the most rewarding investment I’ve ever made.
It threw a couple fits last year — must have been assembled by the Friday-crew. It spun two rotor-drives out of three (replaced under guarantee), and then kept dying under load until we determined the gas-shutoff was partly closed.
Various engineering shortcuts were applied to get the price down — I wouldn’t wanna use it commercially. But now that it works fine, it’s cutting my mowing time in half.
The guys doing the window-replacement eyed it enviously, so I told them it was fabulous.
“Spins on a dime,” I said.
“Mow lawn, and have fun doing it,” they observed.
The old Greenie has a 38-inch cut, and did about half the speed of the zero-turn. (The zero-turn is 48-inch cut; but only 18 horsepower — high grass will stall it. It’s a Briggs & Stratton Intek overhead-valve V-twin; i.e. not a Harley.)
We still have the Greenie for mowing paths — 38-inch cut is just right; 48-inch cut too wide.
But compared to a zero-turn, it had to be driven all over to line up for the next cut.
A zero-turn has a separate hydrostatic drive for each drive-wheel — so one wheel can be advanced and the other reversed; to spin it on a dime.
I don’t have to drive all over to set up the next cut.
Just spin-mow-spin-mow-spin-mow.
Boom-and-zoom!
With the Greenie I was mowing one section at a time. With the zero-turn it’s two sections at a time, or three if need be.
My macho blowhard brother Jack from Boston wanted to try it, supposedly to pop a wheelie.
Don’t know as it will — it ain’t engaging a pulley.
But popping a wheelie on a zero-turn is missing the point. What matters is that it can be spun on a dime.
Plus there’s a learning-curve — it took me a few tries to master it; and avoid putting it into the ditch.
It was dusk, and I didn’t wanna hafta lever it outta the ditch.
One cupholder; no headlights, no horn, no turn-signals, no CD-player, no cruise-control. (My 94-year-old nosy neighbor has a John Deere riding-mower with headlights, taillights, and a cruise-control of sorts — you’re not holding a pedal down to keep it going. But only one cupholder.)

“The so-called elitist country-club” is nearby Boughton (“BOW”-tin) Park, where we walk our dog. It was called that long ago by an editor at the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, where I once worked, because it will only allow taxpayers of the three towns that own it to use it.

“The old Greenie” is our John Deere SRX-95 riding-mower. It’s over 13 years old.

RE: “Not a Harley.....” My macho loud-mouthed brother-in-Boston has a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and noisily claims it’s the greatest thing that ever was. It too makes a lotta noise.