Limbo anyone?

From a mower's perspective, lawns would be much safer without trees. They present so many issues, so many dangers, to the landscape specialist. A bare branch is a hazardous protuberance (I referred to said branch as a projectile this morning, and the linguist in my home kindly informed me that it would have to be fired from the tree and in motion in order to be a projectile...) which requires expert evasive maneuvers to avoid eye injury. I have also determined that the word "limbo" actually comes from the contortions necessary when approaching hanging limbs in third gear.

The largest challenge, especially for those with a healthy dose of OCD, is getting the blades of grass which grow closest to the tree trunk. Now if you think something like, "couldn't you just trim around the trees with a weed wacker?" then you don't have OCD. Guaranteed.

So I have developed a system for mowing around trees. Concentric circles. I simply turn that wheel as hard as possible, lay off the brake and spin round the tree, widening a little each time. Within three passes, it's all cut.

Others who have witnessed this system find it inefficient, as I end up mowing some of the area around the tree multiple times.

I probably developed this style from the way I mow through life in general. A casual observer may think I'm blindly navigating over the same territory, repeating the same mistakes again and again. I wonder about that myself at times. But I think I'm really just a slow learner. It takes me a few passes before I cut through all of the obstacles to my progress. The OCD kicks in here as well, because I'm just not satisfied with getting through a crisis, I want to conquer it, handling it perfectly. I've even been known to set myself up for disaster to see if I've learned anything from the last attempt.

It's a risky way to live; racing ahead bent double and waiting for the next protuberance (or projectile) of circumstance to fly in my face. But lawns, and life, would be pretty bland with only straight lines.