The Lawn Guy Saved my Marriage but Drives Me Crazy
Woman in the Middle | January 21, 2015I live in Southern California, therefore I have a lawn guy. I understand this may not be as common in other parts of the US, especially where it gets cold in the winter and lawns and landscaping go dormant. But in the land of eternal sunshine, growth may slow down in the winter but it never stops. Many years ago, Hubby and I got tired of having so much of every weekend devoted to the yard. What can I say, gardening does not top our list of hobbies. When a crew of two or three lawn guys shows up they are armed with the proper equipment and are in and out in about 15 minutes. When Hubby did it with the not so proper equipment, and, I admit, very little help from me, it was a two or more hour project. Saturdays turned into Hubby doing the yard and me doing everything else. To make our marriage happier, we got a lawn guy.
At this point, I think we have gone through seven or eight lawn guys. Some have left of their own accord. Others have just driven us nuts, forcing us to fire them. We have had everything from the tall blond hippy lawn guy (he was great!) to the lawn guys born in a foreign land (usually great). It seems to be hit or miss. There are always plenty of lawn guys to pick from. Hubby usually just starts talking to the neighbors, observes their lawn guys in action, and picks the most promising one. Like I said, sometimes it works out, sometimes not so much.
The first lawn guy we had to fire was one we inherited when a previous lawn guy sold his business to the new guy. The problem is this new lawn guy thought, because some months had five Saturdays (the day he did our lawn) and some had four, and we paid the same monthly price no matter what, he could take days off. OK, that seems reasonable except for a few things. First, it rains some Saturdays and I don’t get my lawn done, but I still pay the same price. Second, he never told us when he was going to take off. Third, he never took off in the winter when growth slowed down. He always took off in the summer when my lawn was on growth hormones. The final straw was when we were having a July 4th party and our lawn guy didn’t show up on the appointed day, right before the party. When he next appeared and we asked where he had been, he said he figured we would know he was going to the river for the long weekend. Guess we were supposed to be psychic. He wasn’t, however, and was deeply shocked when we kicked him to the curb.
Another lawn guy (again someone we inherited…do you see a theme here?) decided to be helpful and put the sprinklers on our grass when he left because it looked a little dry. The problem was we were on vacation. And it was the hottest day we had all summer. By the time our neighbors noticed what was going on and turned off the sprinklers, they had been going for hours in the hot sum. The overspray hitting the windshield of the car in the driveway had left such hard water deposits that we couldn’t see out to drive the car and had to practically chisel the windshield free. He was also kicked to the curb.
We just inherited another lawn guy, so we are a little concerned. With no notice from our previous guy, he apparently sold the lawn part of his business to his cousin Reynaldo. We learned this when we handed Reynaldo a check for the month made out to Martin. There is a language barrier we are dealing with, and Hubby couldn’t get Reynaldo to give us his last name for future checks. Sigh. So far the yard is looking great. We shall see how this all goes….
Yes a good lawn guy can be hard to come by some charge and arm and leg and do bugga all, now days our lawn guy is our next door neighbour he does a great job and doesn’t charge much it is good I hope he doesn’t move as it took us long enough to get a good lawn guy
Lawn guys must be great! I have a cleaning person. I know, I’m retired and I should have plenty of time. Well, no I don’t and I don’t like cleaning. We are on our third, having fired the first two. We are very happy right now so I hope she doesn’t sell her business to Reynaldo!
For your sake, I hope not either!
Maybe Reynaldo prefers cash.
He also does the lawn at our old house. My check is my receipt for tax purposes, so Reynaldo gets a check. But I have thought of that….
It must be nice to have a lawn guy. We couldn’t afford to have someone come cut our 7 acres. Can you say Dixie Chopper! We don’t cut the whole 7 acres, but we do cut probably 2. The rest we bush hog twice a year, although my hubby hasn’t done the fall cut yet. sigh!
You should gt a couple of goats! I hear they really keep the weeds and grass down! Our lot is only 10,000 square feet or so.