Here in the southeastern United States it is springtime. That means wasps, snakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and pollen...gloriously yellow-green pollen. Each year I am amazed at how quickly it all happens. One second the trees are barren and the next they are loaded with leaves. Similarly, we go from cool/cold to hot in a nano-second.
I have already begun my mowing chores and as a result, suffered my first injury of the year. Usually, I take time to prune the numerous trees on our property before I make my first round on the mower, but this time I did not bother.
I maneuvered around a medium sized oak tree, my eyes focused on the deck wheels of my mower; I do that to assure I maximize the entirety of cutting width. As I looked up I was met by a smallish limb that proceeded to hit me squarely upon my nose and forehead. My glasses sat catawampus on my face as I felt a trickle of blood drip from the bridge of my damaged breathing appendage.
Instinctively, I brought one hand to my face, the other still holding onto one handle of the zero radius steering mechanism on my mower. This sent my mower into a tail spin in the middle of our front yard. Picture, if you will, a sunburned guy holding his nose, his glasses riding askew on his face, and his mower spinning donuts in the middle of his yard.
My neighbor was apparently outside and watching all this transpire. His laughter could be heard over the roar of my mower engine and turning blades. To say I was ecstatic about his elation at my expense is probably an exaggeration. Had I been able to see properly, I would have pressed forward and run him over with my mower. Alas, all I could do was spin counterclockwise and hold my injured nose, and simply be mad that I couldn't watch his body being cut into a million pieces and thrown in a hundred directions at once.
Don't get me wrong--I like my neighbor, but he seems to take great joy anytime he sees that I've suffered an injury.
To be fair, I reckon I would have laughed at anyone spinning haphazardly on a mower while bleeding. Now that I think about it, it is kind of funny.
