Ode to a Great Lawn Guy.

I've been so lucky in the last decade, when it comes to lawn maintenance people. "Lawn Guy" is a source of constant bitching here. They aren't reliable. They aren't professional. They disappear for bike week and whenever the fishing is good. I beg to differ.

Back in 2001, my husband did the yard work, until he got too sick to do so. We didn't know why he was sick, and thought it was a pinched nerve. Yeah. I found Paul via a driveway flyer. He became our personal yard god. The yard was something I just didn't have to think about, when there were so many other things. He was the reliable guy who just took care of the yard stuff for 5 years. Imagine my distress when Paul developed a back problem that forced him to sell his business. He passed me along to Kevin. Seamless, wonderful, I loved him too.

Imagine my horror a few months ago, when Kevin bowed out. But he passed me along to Hunter. Today I met him for the first time - he's been working his magic for months while I was working 35 miles away - and we had a chance to talk. He cleaned up the dead stuff I'd planned to cut out as I could deal with it. We discussed dealing with bare patches in the yard. He is as wonderful as his two predecessors. He cleaned up some things today, at no extra charge, that would have taken me weeks. (Power tools and experience and a truck with a trailer, vs. hand tools and random yanking at things and dumping them into one trash can.)

I am not well suited to owning a house with a yard. I have allergies and physical limitations (which I fight against and then be on my ass for a few days) and I really am not heat-tolerant. And, I had a hell of a lot of other things going on over the last decade, when I was younger and my brain hadn't blowed itself up yet. So Paul, Kevin, Hunter - you guys are the best. You helped keep my leaky boat afloat.