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Cake day: August 2nd, 2023

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  • Vegetarian for over 20 years. Most of my chili is “leftovers chili”. It’s about the flavor more than the ingredients. I suppose it’s more of a chili flavored goulash technically.

    Usually starting with black beans, chick peas, tomatoes, peppers and chili spices. Then whatever leftovers I don’t want to eat get chopped up and added. My favorite leftover is old French fries because they never reheat right anyway. Also a great way to use up produce that is going bad but not yet unsafe to eat.

















  • I didn’t get it until I lived it myself. It’s a whole thing. Felt like a King of the Hill skit when the neighbors rolled up my 3rd weekend. We were all out doing the same thing so they came to say hello. Just three guys out sitting on riding mowers in the front lawn chatting and drinking beers in the early afternoon while we all take a quick break from our solitude. It’s probably the most relaxing chore that still requires a lot of physical labor. And you feel good about completing it.

    Although if I wasn’t renting, all this grass would be gone in favor of plant diversity. American lawn culture is strange.




  • Not just ride, that doesn’t encompass the relationship properly. It’s nearly a sport or art form really. A man and his mower.

    There’s a skill to not just driving, but you also control the speed of the blade, the direction of the cut, your lines. You need to control the speed so you get a good cut, which means dropping gears when you run thicker patches. You can also adjust the height of the deck (the part the blades are attached to), the speed of the blade. There are different kinds of blades to attach and you need to change them depending on the task or season. Also the blades need sharpening, so you need to pay for that or learn to sharpen (and balance) the blades. Then you use all of those skills to perfectly navigate diverse and uneven terrain to achieve the best possible look for your yard (once you decide if you are mowing for street looks or mowing for views from the house).

    And that’s just cutting grass with a basic model. There are so many vehicle options that the equipment alone can be a huge part of riding mower life. You can have a basic no-name with two small blades that rattles your teeth while you hold on for your life wishing you had better hearing protection. Or maybe a nearly silent electric zero turn where you steer with levers and are practically sitting in a reclining chair with a built in insulated cup beer holder. And there’s everything in-between.

    Mowing life is weird.