This should be a Monday

Definition: A lawn aerator creates holes or cavities in the surface of the lawn and allows the soil to move and shift more freely.

Actually, this all started Sunday afternoon, when I got frustrated with the lawn. I was mowing and got madder as I went as the "grass" I'd worked so hard to get looking good, just keeps getting weedier and browner. I came in the house, vented a lot and Richard talked me out of killing what was left of the lawn and filling it with gravel. He decided to take a pro-active stance, and that it was cheaper for him to rent an aerator for the lawn rather than pay Scott's Lawn service to do it. So Monday afternoon, he went to Emmett Rental and picked it up figuring to take it back by 6 and save a lot of money. The best laid plans -- you've heard that saying, right? Two trips around the back 1/3 of the yard and he was huffing. It was 90 degrees outside, no shade and the machine goes like a bat out of hell, is self propelled, so it drags you along as you hold the handles. I know my limitations, and declined to try to make a circuit. Richard got part done, but no way was the machine going back by 6. We got up early this morning, and he actually got finished rather quickly. All that was left was for him to load the contraption back into the bed of the pickup. I have a bad feeling about this, question the logistics of how, and get my nose clipped as I had just stepped into Mr. Macho's territory. He hasn't remembered a thing about "16 year old ideas and a 60 year old body". He talks a good story, but don't you believe it. Now, getting back to the story, there are two metal ramps each about 6 inches across that the machine is supposed to go up and into the pickup. Picture this--Richard climbing up these ramps behind a machine that has a whole lot of sharp "hole makers" going around in a circle as this thing moves. The machine gets to the edge of the tailgate, slips, Richard tries to lift it up, and they both come backwards down the ramps! Scared the living crap out of me. I watch him roll backwards down the ramp, and this sharp thing is trying to come down on top as he is holding on to it. They land in a heap at the bottom, machine still running. I lift it up a little to get him out from under it, and it tries to attack him again (self propelling is still working). Richard had to roll up and turn it off before we could move it off him. Thank God he is okay. I chewed him out for being so stubborn (translate "CHEAP) as to not pay for a trailer to haul this thing in. I am shaking so bad, he is in shock, and the machine is upside down next to the ramps that fell off too. When the initial panic subsides, Richard sits on the step and Emmett Rental gets a call to come get this thing, Richard has regained a little of his mind and goes in to take a shower. As he is in the shower, the guy that comes to pick up the machine, does almost the exact same thing that Rich did. Ramp slips, machine slips, Tony slips, but he caught it and finished loading. As Richard gets out of the shower, I hand him 2 Tylenol, and a bottle of water. Checking for holes, etc. I tell him he has a little rash and that is it. God watches out for stupidity and macho-ism. I am seriously worried about his back, but amazingly, it seems better than before. Must have been the the backward rollover on the ramp thingy. The only thing sore now is his elbow that clunked as he landed. So that is how our day went. How was yours?

Cathy