Post by ScarlettP on Sept 19, 2009 6:58:36 GMT -5
Ok... This summer has been very rainy. This past week has been like Monsoon season in Red Bank and the grass has been growing a lot faster. We get a Love Letter from the City telling us to cut the grass over at our storage house. OK. It is bad. Bad case of every time it stops raining, I end up cutting grass at my house, the shop or even my mother's house. (Thanks to CoffeeShooter's daughter, I haven't had to cut it ALL every week!) The storage house has been low priority.
Yesterday, Friday, it actually did NOT rain! Cool! I can cut the grass! It's a small, flat yard and not really a big deal. The pain in the rear is actually loading the lawnmower into the trunk and driving over there. But I get myself all geared up to do it. Not a problem.
First, we get customers who cannot make up their frelling minds who don't let me get out of work until 6:15 or 6:20. That's ok. I got my old shoes on. I just need to run one errand and then I can go. I finally get out of work, drive to Northgate Cinema, run in and hand the bag of body parts to the first Manager I see and slide back out.
Get home, tell my son whats going on and ask if I should pick up food. He says "No, I'm not hungry right now. There's a taco kit on the stove. If you can cook when you get back, that'll be fine."
I start to load the lawnmower.... I can't get the frelling Trunk open! I haven't driven this car in almost a year and I forgot to push the magic button hidden in the glove compartment. I'm flustered, drive that car over to RebelGrunt's house and trade for Hubby's car. Back to the house. Load lawnmower. Go to Culver Street, unload, check the gas, start 'er up. It dies. I pull the string again, it won't go back inside! It just hangs there. Can't start it with no pull cord!
Load the sucker up, drive to mom's house, trade for HER lawnmower. Go back, crank it up, take a couple of turns around the yard.
YES! This is where the Yellow Jackets come into play! I ran over a nest of the little flying bastards. At first, I felt a 'stick' on my right arm and I think that there must have been a saw briar hanging from that bush I just went under. I look to pull it off myself and see that my pants are covered in yellow jackets. One stung me on the butt - THROUGH my pants! I start running away, pulling off my gloves to use them to swat the critters off me. One even gets me on the hand. At least one on the left ankle, one on the right calf.
At this point, I'm feeling not only angry and in pain, but a touch humiliated as I'm sure someone saw me running and swatting at my ass. Sure enough, someone did. A very nice neighbor came walking down the hill with Benadryl rub on to help. May the good Lord bless her! Apparently, she had been swarmed earlier in the season and had known EXACTLY what was going on when she saw me run. The two of us stood there and chatted for at least 15 minutes watching the yellow jackets swarm the handle of the lawn mower as the light started to fade. I finally told her good night, got in my car and drove over the CVS at Rivermont to get get some more bug bite stuff as my multiple stings were hurting.
By the time I got out, it was almost fully dark. I decide to go back for the mower so it won't get stolen. The evil little wasps are gone. I figure, "Wasps don't fly at night" so I retrieve the lawn mower and start cutting grass IN the Dark, farther away. I'm doing ok... best I can tell from security lights. I start getting closer and closer to the area where I was attacked.
Yeah. You guessed it. They woke up.
I got stung in the middle of my back.
That's when I said "Screw it!" Ran away dragging the lawn mower, loaded it up and took it back to trade for mine at Mom's.
NO ONE is mowing THAT grass until those nasty little buggers are exterminated. And my neighbor Debbie said she would happily bare witness that I did TRY to cut it!
Im sending the boys over there with gasoline and blow torches today.
Yesterday, Friday, it actually did NOT rain! Cool! I can cut the grass! It's a small, flat yard and not really a big deal. The pain in the rear is actually loading the lawnmower into the trunk and driving over there. But I get myself all geared up to do it. Not a problem.
First, we get customers who cannot make up their frelling minds who don't let me get out of work until 6:15 or 6:20. That's ok. I got my old shoes on. I just need to run one errand and then I can go. I finally get out of work, drive to Northgate Cinema, run in and hand the bag of body parts to the first Manager I see and slide back out.
Get home, tell my son whats going on and ask if I should pick up food. He says "No, I'm not hungry right now. There's a taco kit on the stove. If you can cook when you get back, that'll be fine."
I start to load the lawnmower.... I can't get the frelling Trunk open! I haven't driven this car in almost a year and I forgot to push the magic button hidden in the glove compartment. I'm flustered, drive that car over to RebelGrunt's house and trade for Hubby's car. Back to the house. Load lawnmower. Go to Culver Street, unload, check the gas, start 'er up. It dies. I pull the string again, it won't go back inside! It just hangs there. Can't start it with no pull cord!
Load the sucker up, drive to mom's house, trade for HER lawnmower. Go back, crank it up, take a couple of turns around the yard.
YES! This is where the Yellow Jackets come into play! I ran over a nest of the little flying bastards. At first, I felt a 'stick' on my right arm and I think that there must have been a saw briar hanging from that bush I just went under. I look to pull it off myself and see that my pants are covered in yellow jackets. One stung me on the butt - THROUGH my pants! I start running away, pulling off my gloves to use them to swat the critters off me. One even gets me on the hand. At least one on the left ankle, one on the right calf.
At this point, I'm feeling not only angry and in pain, but a touch humiliated as I'm sure someone saw me running and swatting at my ass. Sure enough, someone did. A very nice neighbor came walking down the hill with Benadryl rub on to help. May the good Lord bless her! Apparently, she had been swarmed earlier in the season and had known EXACTLY what was going on when she saw me run. The two of us stood there and chatted for at least 15 minutes watching the yellow jackets swarm the handle of the lawn mower as the light started to fade. I finally told her good night, got in my car and drove over the CVS at Rivermont to get get some more bug bite stuff as my multiple stings were hurting.
By the time I got out, it was almost fully dark. I decide to go back for the mower so it won't get stolen. The evil little wasps are gone. I figure, "Wasps don't fly at night" so I retrieve the lawn mower and start cutting grass IN the Dark, farther away. I'm doing ok... best I can tell from security lights. I start getting closer and closer to the area where I was attacked.
Yeah. You guessed it. They woke up.
I got stung in the middle of my back.
That's when I said "Screw it!" Ran away dragging the lawn mower, loaded it up and took it back to trade for mine at Mom's.
NO ONE is mowing THAT grass until those nasty little buggers are exterminated. And my neighbor Debbie said she would happily bare witness that I did TRY to cut it!
Im sending the boys over there with gasoline and blow torches today.
