[Raptor235]

My father was not prone to swearing in front of children, and there were only two times I can remember him letting loose with a malediction. The first was a quickly aborted attempt to teach me to drive, a story best left for another column, and the second was when he lost the tip of his baby finger to the gas lawn mower. After the emergency room visit mandated by my mother, who for years afterwards would use “the lawn mower incident” as the beginning of one-upmanship stories with other women, Dad discussed the proper safety uses of various power tools. The most important is to turn the darn thing off before you fiddle with it.

The lawnmower was an upgrade, of a sort, from our old push mower. The old push mower was already an antique when we got it, but Dad was handy, and with a bit of sharpening, adjusting and grease, the thing fairly purred as it went across the lawn. But it was heavy— more than 40 pounds— and when we moved, we decided to leave it for the next tenants and buy the Craftsman Lawn Care Deluxe Model when we got to the new house.

You can find the entire article here http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/alterna...-men-cut-grass