November 27, 2000
DOWN HOME:
Jack Frost smiles upon lawn-mowing daddies
___Frost arrived to open arms the other night.
___Well, that's not exactly right. We were snuggled under the covers when it first brushed our yard with its kiss of death.
___Then, when I finally had to get up and venture out to greet its frigid freshness (and retrieve the morning newspaper), I bundled up in my heavy robe and crossed my arms tightly across my shivering chest.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___But in my mind, my arms were open wide. Welcome, frost, to the neighborhood.
___I feel like a traitor to thin-blooded, cold-natured people everywhere (especially one Joanna Knox, who will complain of being cold until, oh, next July) when I say this. But the first freeze of the season came none to soon this year.
___Seemed like our grass never would quit growing.
___You remember the dog days of July and August, when a record drought just about dried out every blade of grass and leafy shrub from here to the Mojave Desert. I thought Kristine Kahanek, a local weatherperson, had lost her meteorological mind when she predicted the fall would be wetter than usual. In August, the thought of any rain--ever--seemed remote.
___Then came October and early November. I don't know how much water fell from the sky, but we had rain on five consecutive Sundays. First, the cracks in the earth disappeared. Then the ground got strangely soggy. And then people who should know said the lakes were--ta-da!--half full.
___And the grass began to grow again. Just when I got used to the idea of filling my yard with gravel and painting it green, I had to buy another can-full of gas, pull out the mower and get back in the yard. Shouldn't complain, either. This October, we had the prettiest grass I've seen in years.
___But by that time, I'd had enough of mowing. And since I can't convince Lindsay and Molly that mowing is the recreation of choice for teenage girls, I just mowed. And trimmed, edged, pulled weeds and tried my severest to kill fire ants.
___But now the frost has come, and the grass turned brown faster than a bruised banana. I'm so happy about not mowing that I won't half mind when Jo decides cool weather really is here and pulls out the hated flannel sheets, and I sleep for the winter as if Velcroed in place, no more able to move than a mummy.
___The other thing I like about this time of year is the experience of a pre-dawn frosty morning. The air is crisp and clear, and the stars seem so close you think you could jump up and grab a handful.
___The God who makes a morning like that--and gives dads a break from mowing grass for a few months--surely is good and loving.
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