By now, you have probably walked by the section of electric lawnmowers at Lowe’s and thought, “What kind of person would actually buy that?”

Yeah, it’s me.

For the first 8 years of our marrige, my wife and I lived in a townhome in Nashville; where there was no yard to mow. Then for the next 8 years, we had moved to the suburbs in a community where the HOA fee covered the landscaping; for our very small lawn.

But then when we moved here to Alabama nearly two years ago, we bought a house with a half acre-sized lawn. It marked the first time as a homeowner where I had a decent sized lawn that I was responsible for mowing.

I got a good deal on a used zero-turn radius mower to get me through last year. However, it was just too big and too much maintenance for me. So I sold it to my dad.

And now that I traded in my 2 door Jeep for a newer 4 door version, there’s less room in our garage anyway to store a big mower like that.

So I thought, why not just drop a few hundred dollars on an electric mower to experiment with this year?

The battery it came with lasts exactly one hour. So I proactively bought a second battery to ideally be able to mow the entire lawn all at once.

Before the grass really started growing in thick, I was able to mow the entire lawn in two hours flat. But now, it’s taking me closer to a solid 4 hours; meaning it is not possible to mow my lawn in one setting since the batteries only last 2 hours.

Pause.

I know. Wouldn’t it be easier just to hire someone to mow my lawn?

Obviously. But I’m way too stubborn and way too cheap.

There is also some fundamental psychological motivation in me to be able to overcome this challenge. To “win” against my own lawn.

But as of a couple of weeks ago on my 45th birthday, I came to a solution:

Every morning before work, I always take an hour long walk outside (about 10,000 steps) anyway. So now, I just designate an hour each morning before work to mow the lawn.

By the end of the summer, it will probably take me all 5 weekdays just to mow it.

Oh well, at least I look cool doing it… as evidenced by the photo my sister took of me at 7:20 AM on April 20th when it was 36 degrees outside.

As I was mowing the front yard, I saw her pulling in my driveway. Silly me- I thought she was stopping by to be the first person to tell me Happy Birthday.

Nope. She just took the photo and drove away. That’s pretty cool I guess.