Well I'm not quite sure where to begin. I guess I'll start from when I woke up, since technically that was the conscious beginning of my day. So, at approximately 7:30 A.M., I rose from my warm comfy bed to meet my chiming alarm clock with a solid fist. Actually, I didn't use my fist; as always, I placidly got up, stumbled across the room, and slid the switch to off.
The reason it's on the other side of the room is so I'm not tempted to just reach over, switch it off, and fall back to sleep. Logical, right? Well just because something is logical doesn't mean it works. I've developed a sort of subconscious method over the past couple years for dealing with the noisy nuisance, which basically consists of me rolling out of bed, silently walking to the alarm clock, turning around (I'm not sure which way, counter clockwise or clockwise, but I'm sure there's a specific direction I turn), and sliding back into bed. By the time I'm fully awake later in the morning, I can hardly remember turning the thing off.
Luckily, this morning I actually stayed out of my bed. Anyway, for the sake of time, I'll just cut to the chase. I mowed 3 lawns today in 6 hours, so that averages out to about 2 hours per lawn. Overall, I earned close $56.25, which isn't bad considering the amount of time it took to mow. Subtracting gas from that, I'd say I had a net profit of about $50 give or take. So overall it was a good day though exhausting.
I learned a couple key things as well:
1. I will never again, no matter how hot it is, wear denim shorts when mowing. Whenever I got to weedeating grass around rocky driveways or parking lots or even just the highway, the little fragments of rock and probably some small one's of glass would launch up at my legs like shrapnel from a bomb, with about the same effect to scale; my legs are now covered with little red scabs. Yeah, granted it probably sounds like it was pretty painful, and it was! I just sucked it up so I could finish the jobs, taking satisfaction in my resolution to never ever wear shorts again. From now on, it's jeans all the way.
2. The harder you work, the more your work is appreciated, especially if the boss is nearby. I was working on one of the lawns while the owner was in his house, checking the mail, and after he noticed I was working very hard he gave me an additional 5 dollars to the already generous pay of 30 dollars for the yard. He told me, "Go get yourself a drink." I'll be honest; I did not get a drink, namely because I need every cent I can get and I'm pretty tight most of the time. The gesture, however, was still greatly appreciated by yours truly.
Well that's basically all I really learned. I will note, though, that while I was on the second lawn the skies got pretty dark. In fact, a few droplets of rain tapped my knees while I was riding the mower, hastily trying to get the yard down before the buckets began falling. The rain never came. Miraculously, as I was finishing the mowing and getting to the weedeating, which I could do rain or shine, the clouds parted above and I was greeted by warm rays of sunlight.
Mowing the third yard was somewhat serene and peaceful. Although it required a lot of work, actually more intense work than the previous two lawns, it was kind of bliss. Half of the sky was blue and half was white with a tinge of gray to it. The clouds hung heavy in the atmosphere, seemingly filled with H2O but unable to drop it because they weren't unified enough. They hung in the sky like the heavens, with the sun casting shadows from an angle such that the clouds cast shadows on themselves. Despite the din of the mower, every time I did a sweep in the direction of the sun, I felt as if I were a lost soul returning to his homeland after a long journey; weary but calm, content, and at peace once again.
My next post will be of the essay I plan on submitting for admission to Purdue!
No comments:
Post a Comment