Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Domestic Policy

I'm not home much, but the place I live has a lawn and some plants. They're great plants, the kind that have lots of flowers on them, and don't die altogether even if I never water them, and come back the next year without my having to do anything. I could have just said that they were drought-tolerant flowering perennials, but those words would give you the wrong idea about my knowledge of and involvement with the resident flora. Today I unwrapped a bindweed plant from a hydrangea, because I liked the hydrangea better, but that's not to say the bindweed doesn't continue to flourish. In the end it will be bindweed versus dandilions, winner take all. I wonder if either could actually eradicate the other. Maybe I could crossbreed the two and get an aggressively climbing vine with full soft yellow flowers, requiring no watering nor care of any kind. Or perhaps it would tear apart your house, eat your pets, then run for council. Possibly, considering my local government, it already has.

Plus, I can't think of any reason why Hell would have lawns, but if it does, they look like mine. Some how it manages to be overgrown and dead, both at once. It's a zombie lawn. I'm also not sure it contains any species that are actually identifiable as lawn grass. I mowed it anyway. Didn't help its appearance.

It's a good thing the lawnmower is the manual push kind that doesn't burn gas. Aside from the fact that MOGAS would go skunky in between mowings here, I don't think I could afford to mow. I put gas in my car yesterday. My SMALL car. My car so small that they never sold them in the United States because they thought Americans wouldn't buy a car this small. (They were apparently wrong, because Americans are buying Smart Cars and mine is bigger than a Smart, but it was sold before gas prices soared.) It was down to the last tick on the fuel gauge, but not dead empty, maybe 60 km from the bottom of the tank. And it cost $57 to fill. I don't believe there is anything original I can say about the astonishing price of gas these days, so I'll just smugly report one of the benefits of being away from home all the time: This latest fill-up brings the total cumulative amount I have paid for automobile gas in 2008 to just over $200.

It helps also that because I'm not really in a hurry when I'm at home, I bike or walk or take the bus most places.

4 comments:

Grant (Falcon124) said...

I just chuck $20 in my tank (unless I'm doing a larger trip and need a fill up). Even though I'm driving a thirsty old RX-7 it lasts pretty well as I'm not driving that much. I've not changed my driving patterns as a result of higher fuel prices as I wasn't driving that often to begin with :)

Here in Melbourne, Australia, we're paying about AUS$1.50 per litre (US$5.20 per gallon). It was higher but prices have come back down a bit at the moment.

Anonymous said...

Hey, it sounds like your lawn is a lot like mine. I simply define anything that is green(ish) and growing in the ground to be grass. Thus, I have plenty of grass. I figure that in Texas the grass is supposed to be yellowish and a bit crunchy in the summer, so that makes it fit in with the natural order of things.

Mats said...

I cant feel sorry for you because of you gas prices. In Norway we paid 3 us dollars per litrethis summer!! That is about 11.40 per gallon if my calculations or right

Anonymous said...

That sounds like my lawn too. I do as little as possible to it, mainly to keep the neighbors happier. Watering it just means you have to mow it, right? There are so many more fun things to do in the summer than work in the yard. I feel a little bad about my cross-the-street neighbor, who's hobby is apparently yard-care. He is the sort who puts up flag poles, miniature windmills, decoratively edged planters... and he has to look at my wild brown "natural" yard.

( I love the "hell's lawn" description, over-grown & dead at the same time. )