Saturday, March 24, 2012

Break is over

I got back home just a while ago. (I'm actually over at school; picking up some grading I need to do).

The trip was good. I received one piece of very good, very exciting news....that I can't tell you just yet. (The people who told me the news aren't ready to tell "just anyone" yet. I suppose some of you who know me better may guess what this news is...but I'm not opening up the comments to speculation).

I will be able to tell eventually, if things turn out as they should.

It was good to have the time off but these kinds of breaks feel really too short. I did get my taxes done, just to have the brokerage firm I use call me up the day before I left to say, "Uh, your 1099 form, there are changes to it" but apparently those changes are not anything that affect my computations (the broker was good enough to read the summary statement to me over the phone and nothing was different). I'm getting a small federal refund and am owing about half of what the federal refund would be to the state (that's often how it is).

It rained like crazy here while I was gone. I'm thinking of doing something I'd been contemplating - replacing my 10-year-old mower with a newer one, either a new sharp rotary mower or possibly an electric model. (I have a very small yard and I HATE messing about with gas engines, especially the kind where you need to mix the oil and gasoline and worry about spark plugs and such. (Or maybe you don't have to do that for gas mowers any more; I just remember what a pain maintenance was on the mower I used to mow my parents' yard when I was a teenager).

So: those of you with experience with one or both (electric or reel), which would you recommend? My yard is small and I lack convenient outdoor outlets but I assume the electric is a rechargeable model. There's about a $30 price difference between a top-of-the-line reel model and a basic electrical model...not that that's a deal breaker, but if the reel is only SLIGHTLY worse, or equal, to the electric, I'd go with it.

I know I can get the reel model locally; my local Lowe's has it in stock. The electric one I'd have to have shipped in. (Which actually makes me lean towards the enhanced-reel model)

Not today, though...I'm tired and headachey and need to take care of schoolwork.

4 comments:

CGHill said...

Only a few mowers have two-stroke engines that require mixing gas and oil: most of them today are four-stroke models.

The biggest downside to the electric is the cord, unless you pay the long dollar for a rechargeable cordless, and they tend to be heavier.

Charlotte said...

I have an electric mower I got at Sears. The yard at my previous house was small. There were two outside outlets so I got a long extension cord for the mower and was able to cut the entire yard with it. It is a heavy-duty extension cord. I don't know of a mower that would be rechargeable. Of course, I haven't shopped for a mower in years since I couldn't use that mower at this house. I only have one outside outlet here and on top of that, the lot slopes. So I use a lawn service who come and cut it for me. It's more money but given my allergies to grass, etc., it makes my life simpler to use them. When I did cut my grass at the other house, I had to wear knee socks, a long skirt, long sleeves and then shower immediately after I finished or I'd scratch myself until I bled.

besshaile said...

welcome back

Joan said...

Welcome back! We used to have an electric mower years ago (different house, much smaller garden) so it was not rechargeable and I lived in fear of running over the cord/extension cord as I am very easily distracted. With a reel mower, you'd be getting a little workout every time you mowed and it is definitely greener. If your yard is small and flat, I would choose the reel mower.