Peer Pressure

I have never had a problem with peer pressure... until I moved. I moved into a nice, small, well established neighborhood with lots of perfectly manicured lawns. Somehow it didn't quite occur to me that they don't stay that way by magic.

My next door neighbor's boyfriend has graciously offered to mow my yard when he mows my neighbor's yard if they can borrow my lawn mower. Since I already have a lawn mower that I don't want to use and she does not have one, I am perfectly fine with that arrangement. When I got home from work today, I had a note from my next door neighbor's boyfriend asking when he could borrow the lawn mower.

I was out of town most of last week and the weekend and my yard was obviously looking pretty rough. My next door neighbor's yard had all of the weeds pulled, all of the leaves picked up and looked great. Personally I would think it could wait another week or so to be mowed, and yet they are asking me when they can borrow the lawn mower. Guilt. Peer pressure. All feelings coming over me at that point.

As I looked at my yard, I spotted leaves, pollen thingies (what are those little brown curly things called anyways?), sticks, weeds approaching one foot in height and even a giant mushroom. My grass was the same height as hers thanks to my dad mowing both of our lawns a week or so ago but my yard still looked pathetic. So tonight I spent two hours using this awesome leaf vacuum (who knows what it is really called) that Leslie gave me to pick up all of the errant stuff in the yard and trying to make it look at least close to as good as my neighbor's yard. I even planted some bulbs that I bought on clearance last week (hopefully it wasn't too late in the season to plant them). It was a lot of effort... and now my arms are sore. If only it would stay that way it would be worth it. Unfortunately, most of the stuff will be back within a couple of days.

Maybe I can transform my yard to a rock garden instead. This is way too much work. But then again, moving again is WAY too much trouble so I guess I'll get used to the yard work.