Gonna be a hot one

It was 72 degrees when I fired up the John Deere LA125 and attacked our 1.23-acres of grass, trees, sticks and assorted vegetation.
I finished about 90 minutes later, during which time the temperature shot up to 82.
The forecast is for the low 90s today, so I'm glad to have the lawn out of the way early.
Now to my other tasks, which include packing and shipping some Ebay sales, banking and whatever else comes to mind.
I promise to have something more interesting later.

Woo-hoo! More space in the garage!

Our old lawn mower, a Troy-Bilt 21" 6.5 horsepower self-propelled walk-behind model that vexed me by always starting on days when I didn't want to cut the grass, left about 15 minutes ago in the back of a pickup truck.
We sold it for a very reasonable price to a young couple who had grown tired of borrowing the husband's father's mower whenever they needed to cut their grass.
It was a win-win situation. They got a good serviceable mower at a great price and we got more open space in our garage.
The tipping point came when we discovered that our new John Deere LA125 will squeeze through the back yard gate with about two inches to spare with the grass chute hinged up. I was afraid it wouldn't fit and we'd have to keep the walk-behind for the back yard.

I'm a believer

OK, I'm a believer.
We pulled the trigger last Saturday and bought a John Deere LA125 lawn tractor/riding mower at the Home Depot.
It was delivered this morning and, after reading the owner's manual so as to avoid amputations and other hideous injuries, I fired it up and got familiar with the controls.
Once I was reasonably comfortable with the throttle, forward and reverse and brake, I poked my earplug headphones into my ears, plugged them into my iPod and set out to cut some grass.
Our lawn is far from smooth, so I kept the speed down, but got it done in record time and without breaking a sweat. This is a very civilized way to cut grass and I may actually come to look forward to mowing the lawn. Well, maybe.
Anyhow, it beats the hell out of our walk-behind mower.