66\u00a0 bar rises 29.91 0mph N dew-point 56\u00a0 Summer night, cooler<\/p>\n
Full Thunder Moon<\/p>\n
I went out tonight for a bit of moon viewing.\u00a0 I’ve always thought a moon-watching deck would make a nice addition to the property. \u00a0 We don’t have one so I stood in the driveway, watching the moon while Lady, the brittany next door, howled at me (instead of the moon).<\/p>\n
This moon rides low in the sky, just below the tree tops, so I had to walk almost to the end of our driveway until I could see it free and clear of the treeline.\u00a0 It is a polished coin of a moon, bright and sparkling in the sky, a moonstone on jeweler’s velvet.\u00a0 A night out well rewarded.<\/p>\n
From tonight’s Washington Post<\/p>\n
Deere John: It’s Been Good Knowing You<\/strong><\/a> It says, I’ve made it, I’ve escaped that funky old rowhouse neighborhood with the asbestos siding and yards like dirt-scabs. My land, my spread, not enough to plow, but way too much to mow the old-fashioned way. It says, I’m Jefferson’s dream of the yeoman farmer. It says, I’m rich enough to not only raise a worthless crop, but to pay money for the privilege. It says, I’m a boy with a boy’s rightful toys; a real American man.<\/p>\n Or that’s what it said back when city dwellers would gather around the riding mowers at the old Hechinger north of Capitol Hill, and dream the dream.<\/p>\n Now it’s saying something else. It may be a measure of the forces lined up against us. The riding mower seems to be on the wrong end of every headline. If economic news — from gas prices to shrinking nest eggs — is like the magnifying glass focused by an 8-year-old to fry a bug with sunlight, riding mowers are the bug.<\/p>\n The news: The riding mower industry “is deeply troubled by the decline in housing starts,” says Kris Kiser, spokesman for the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute in Alexandria. “New home construction is a good barometer for us. But you add foreclosures, decline in housing starts and the decline in housing sales, and you have the trifecta.””<\/p>\n Dehn’s 4 Seasons, the lawn appliance store where we bought our chain saw, our riding mower, our snow blower and super charged weed whacker closed up shop and didn’t alert us at all.\u00a0 I drove by there one day a few weeks ago and the place was empty.\u00a0 Capitalism’s creative destruction is at it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 66\u00a0 bar rises 29.91 0mph N dew-point 56\u00a0 Summer night, cooler Full Thunder Moon I went out tonight for a bit of moon viewing.\u00a0 I’ve always thought a moon-watching deck would make a nice addition to the property. \u00a0 We don’t have one so I stood in the driveway, watching the moon while Lady, the … Continue reading A Deere John Article<\/span>
\nLawn Behemoths Are Going Out to Pasture\u00a0“The riding lawn mower has long been a barometer of the American dream, been a symbol of having arrived in the suburban middle class. It says, “I have so much lawn to mow, I need to sit down.”<\/p>\n