Lawn Care Etiquette

It's that time of year again when home owners have to drag themselves out of the air conditioning and cut the grass and weed the flower gardens.  It's both terrible and satisfying at the same time.  You look at the lawn when you finish and it looks so nice.  You just have to deal with being out in the heat and humidity when you do it.  Or you could pay someone to do it.  That's always an option I suppose.  Our lawn is small enough that with a push mower I can get it done in less than an hour.  I remember cutting the grass growing up and my brother and I would split the work between the two side yards and the front and back yards.  It seemed to take forever when we did it, but that could just be because we were so young.  Living in a neighborhood where the houses are so close together, I have been thinking about law cutting courtesies.  At what time is it appropriate to get out and cut the grass?  When is it too early or too late in the day?  You don't want to be that house on the block that everyone hates because you cut the grass at the wrong time.  If you don't know which house is that house on your block, you might be that house.  Don't be.

I first started to think about this because I left for work one day a few weeks back and the owner of the house on the corner  was almost done cutting his lawn.  It was 7:00 in the morning.  My only thought was 'wow, what a dick'.  I understand a lot of people, myself included, would prefer to get the grass cut early in the day before it gets too hot outside.  I cut the grass this morning around 10:30 and it was already above seventy degrees.  It was not pleasant.  It is Friday and I figured it was a reasonable time.  Most people are at work if they have a standard Monday through Friday type job.  If there was anyone around that maybe works different hours like overnight or second shift type jobs, 10:30 shouldn't bother them, right?  The last thing that I would want is to be trying to sleep and a neighbor being out with a loud mower or weed whip. 

I'm not a huge fan of lawn work in the evening.  I always look at the evening as a time to relax and unwind from the day.  The last thing that I want to do after work is do more work.  Plus, it seems that bugs are more active in the evening.  Who wants to swat at mosquitoes and gnats and try to cut grass at the same time?  I know I don't.  However it could be the only time to do it.  It's not that I flat out refuse to do evening grass cutting, I just prefer to do so in the morning. 
 
How early is too early?  I suppose it depends on the day.  If it is during the weekend, and I want to be outside doing this, I might start a little bit later.  Most everyone catches up on sleep during the weekends.  During the week, I'll maybe start a little bit earlier than on the weekend.  An easy way to know is to just wait for someone else to start.  Let someone else be the asshole that wakes the neighborhood up.  Personally, I think 9:00 during the week and 10:00 on the weekend are perfectly acceptable times to start lawn work.  

Hot Takes: 2019 Edition

It is here.  The 2019 MLB season starts today!  I did this last year so I figured why not do it again?  Hot takes are fun when you make predictions based on some hope but also outlandish thoughts.  With the Tigers circling the bottom of the standings, you might as well have some fun with it.  Here.  We.  Go.  

• JaCoby Jones will be a Gold Glove finalist
• Niko Goodrum will have a 20/20 season (I whole heatedly believe this)
• Jordan Zimmermann will have a 15 win season
• Miguel Cabrera will steal two bases
• Christian Stewart will lead the team in home runs
• Nicholas Castellanos will sign an extension with the team
• Shane Greene will be traded, but will still end up leading the team in saves
• Casey Mize will make at least one start in the Majors
• The Tigers will win five games against the Cleveland Indians
• Matt Moore and Tyson Ross are both flipped for prospects at the trade deadline
• Ron Gardenhire will be ejected five times

I cannot wait for the Detroit Tigers to be good again.  Most everyone thinks they'll be good again in 2021 which sounds like a long ways away, but it's only two more seasons.
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*begins to cry uncontrollably* 

A Season of Sadness

The 2019 MLB season is upon us.  We have already seen games that matter played.  Granted it was just the Mariners and A's so no one really paid attention.  Except to see Ichiro play his last games.  And the games were played in Japan so they were on SUPER EARLY.  The real Opening Day is the 28th.  One week from now!  My co-workers make fun of me because of my excitement, but I take the day off and just soak it all in. 

It is going to be a very painful season for us Tigers fans.  The youth movement has started, but all the prospects that are going to bring this team back to relevance are still a year or two away.  By all accounts, 2020 and 2021 is when we will start to see the top ten to fifteen prospects in the bigs.  If they're still with the organization.  Also, one of the core starting pitchers, Michael Fulmer, is out for the season after his elbow exploded recently.  We'll see him back some time in the 2020 season.  If you want to find the positive to this devastating news this just means he'll have one less season's worth of innings on his arm.  He'll be well rested and could be the true number one we thought he would be after his rookie season.  This could also be Castellanos's last season with the Tigers.  And Miggy is coming off a lost season and is another year older.  

With all this bad news, what do Tigers fans have to look forward to?  Ummm, Christian Stewart is gonna mash a ton of baseballs.  Just don't watch him in the outfield.  Niko Goodrum is the new Don Kelly/Andrew Romine.  But better.  I think he has the ability to make games fun to watch, but as a utility player he won't have a true position each and every game.  The bullpen, surprisingly enough, could be a bright spot.  If the starting rotation can eat enough innings where the bullpen won't be taxed by August that is.

There are going to be long stretches this season where the Tigers are going to be unwatchable.  There are no two ways about it.  The first month of the season they have a chance to be a .500 team playing teams like Toronto, Kansas City, and Minnesota, but they've also got Boston, Cleveland, and New York on the schedule.  As fans, we just have to look for the fun and positive to get us through what is undoubtedly going to be a tough season.

End of the season record prediction:  67-95. 4th in the AL Central.  Kansas City sucks more than Detroit does. 

Well Spent

This past weekend I celebrated my 37th birthday.  And by 'celebrated' I mean chilled and kept it low key.  I'm not all about big celebration or grand gestures.  I wanted to just enjoy the day.  I took three days off of work which is what I normally like to do for my birthday just because.  I don't want to be at work on my birthday.  It's a day for me. 

The first day of my three day weekend was spent watching the original 'Star Wars' trilogy.  I have been doing this for several years now.  I grew up loving these movies and I still do.  Yes it's nerdy.  Yes I could do something else with the six and a half hours.  No I don't want to do anything else with that time during my birthday.  We see those social media posts that are like 'take care of yourself' and 'self care is important'.  Self care has many facets and I think that some include losing yourself in a favorite movie or book or tv show. 

Saturday and Sunday were spent just chilling at home and doing a little running around.  My wife and I checked out a brewery in Hastings and ate dinner at a restaurant we liked.  I say we checked out a brewery, but let's be honest, I checked it out.  My wife doesn't drink so she tolerates me enjoying a beer or two while we sit and talk.  It's what we're all about. 

Everyone spends their birthdays in different ways.  Some go all out with parties while some lay low.  It's all about what you want to do isn't it?  Embrace being selfish on your birthday.  If you want to sit around in your pjs all day and drink coffee while reading a book, DO IT!  If you want to go shopping and buy some new clothes just because, DO IT!  If you want to invite a bunch of people over for an all night rager, DO IT!  Spend the day feeling great about yourself, but also think about doing that more than just once a year.  Celebrate a half year birthday, or just celebrate you every couple of months. 

Ned was Right

After having a lack of snow during the months of November, December and January, Minnesota finally remembered that it is, in fact, Minnesota.  But not before delving out a handful of rather bizarre days of weather.  From negative thirty degree temperatures to mid thirties just two days later at the end of January.  We also saw some freezing rain right before another plummet in temperature.  Then finally.  It happened.  Winter showed up.  We finally got snow. 

In the months of November and December we had to shovel snow maybe three times.  It has been snowing in the Twin Cities for the past twenty four hours.  It started snowing last night around six thirty.  It is now seven twenty two and the snow hasn't stopped.  We have easily gotten a foot and a half in that time.  It's just wonderful. 

We have a very small driveway because our garage is on an alley.  Because of that we do not have a snow blower.  We have no need for it...yet.  We do have to keep our front sidewalk and porch clear though.  That takes some time.  There are a few people in our neighborhood that will run up and down the sidewalks on the block and clear a path.  You still have to go through and full clear the width of the walkway, but at least a good majority of the walkway is done. 

I have been of the mindset that if you get out and clear the snow a few times it is less stressful on your body.  I'd rather get out and shovel two or three times during a snow storm to keep the accumulation down.  It helps that I enjoy the cold and the snow.  If I was not a fan of it, I'm sure I would just want to be outside once and be done with it.  I would also probably just do it once if I had a snow blower.  Going old school and having a shovel almost forces your hand to go out a few times.  I just put in my earbuds and listen to music as I go.  It makes it go by quicker.  I've seen both in our neighborhood and I've been wondering which method is best.  It helped that I did not have to work today so I could pick and choose times to go out.