I must admit that I think my lawn looks pretty nice.  I cut it every week – low enough so the dandelions don’t show, but high enough so it doesn’t turn brown and begin to die.  In fact, my fondness with my lawn allows me to question the need to have an analysis done, with recommended treatments as suggested on the promotional fliers I receive in my mailbox each month.

 

My lawn looks pretty nice.  That is until my neighbor’s professionally manicured grounds are serviced.  Long ago, he took heed to those notices that I promptly throw away.  A few times a season I’d see the little flags warning me not to approach his freshly treated turf, as I’d make my weekly visits.  He used to take care of his lawn himself, like I do, until the physical limitations of age threw the proverbial wrench in his operation.  Although years ago, when I was only a prince in the homestead that I now financially rule as king, I remember hearing the strange humming sound of the only electric lawnmower in our neighborhood.  My neighbor didn’t drive, so he rarely if ever used gasoline-powered tools.  This was also a plus, as I could park my cars in his seldom used driveway, since the aforementioned king during that time had first dibs on ours.

 

His lawn looks great.  img_1685

 

There aren’t any hidden stems with missing dandelion heads in his grass.  My lawn’s shade of Screaming Green is nothing to his Giving Tree (visit “List of Crayola crayon colors” on Wikipedia for clarification).  Even his edged up sections along the sidewalk are straighter than mine.

 

His lawn looks great.

 

The grass is always greener, isn’t it?  No one in America will deny our gas price woes.  $4 a gallon and still rising… when will this end?  For the first time in over 20 years, the Ford F-series trucks have not been the number one selling vehicles.  Honda’s Civic and Toyota’s Camry and Corolla have surpassed them for obvious reasons.  Not surprisingly, sport utility sales in general have been down.  Though this is hitting the heavily SUV-leveraged American companies the hardest, everyone is feeling the pinch.  Honda can’t move their Pilot as easily as they once had either.

 

Panic (and necessity) has begun to set in and many owners have begun to make attempts at selling their SUVs.  In the words of my father (yes, the former king), “It’s cheaper to keep her.”  Those jumping ship risk losing as much as 10% MORE of their vehicle’s worth than usual due to the lack of demand for sport utilities.

 

Europe knows the feeling of $5/gallon gas.  They’ve known it for upward of 5-10 years now.  This is why you rarely see the large vehicles that our country is so enamored with over there.  Well, that, and the fact that many of their streets are too skinny.  Currently, however, Europe also knows the feeling of $9+ a gallon for fuel.  Such difficulties have abetted protests throughout the continent.  One not too long ago where truckers who were frustrated with paying $9 a gallon for diesel brought a highway to a standstill in disapproval.  Yet contrary to American sales, Europe’s automotive figures are up.

 

So who has it bad, or should I say worse?  In most cases, green grass is a matter of perspective.

 

My neighbor passed recently.  I will miss him.  And from my house his lawn will always look greener.