A pain in the grass

The good news from Sunday, other than the Rangers 7-3 win over the Red Sox: I didn't have to mow the grass in sweltering heat.

The bad news: That's because I busted up our lawnmover.

Here I was in the afternoon, about to knock the backyard out and be done with it. I was mowing in the alley -- even in a Good Samaritan way mowing the alley of our neighbors.

Later, TWHACK! Hidden in some tall grass in the corner of the backyard was a pretty good-sized rock. I hit it so hard that it shut off the mower. Not good. I started the engine again and it sounded OK. Then it sounded really weird, then OK again. So I did what anyone else would do who wanted to get the grass cut before it got real hot -- I kept going.

Nrmally I can run right over the top of the one of these exposed tree roots. Not this time. THWACK! Engine dead. So now I looked under the mower and one end of the blade was almost pointed downward in a 90-degree angle. That's not good.

Even worse, oil was powering out of the engine. Really not good. And this mower is like two years old. Most of my underwear is older than that.

I figure I could spent some money to get it fixed and with parts, plus labor, well, who knows. Or I could go mower shopping.

I went mower shopping, back to good ol' Sears where I got this one. I don't need a self-propelled mower. I just need something functional that will start easily and get the job done. Like what I have -- or had.

At any rate, I bought on sale a Sears Craftsman 6.75 horsepower plantinum motor with a 22-inch cut. It's even got a little thingamajig where you can put a water hose into it with the motor running and it will clean the blade area. Plus there was an additional 10 percent off.

We take the love of our lawn life home tonight, and I vow not to run over any more rocks. Even those that spill out of my head.

And I'm also taking volunteers to test drive it over my yard the rest of the summer. Volunteers?