Did you ever have one of those days where it strikes you that you don’t have enough money to buy what you want? I was mowing the lawn and realized that as I bent over to disconnect the bag of grass clippings. I must have frozen in mid-bending over that my wife Philace’s birthday was approaching and I had nothing to give her. I reached into my right pocket and pulled out my once proud money clip. It didn’t take long to count two dollars. This of course meant that all I could afford currently was a buck and a quarter gift from Dollar Tree. This was not a good situation.
I pushed the mower under the car port and then sat on an old bar stool in the shade of our deck. After ten minutes of a nearly blank stare I kicked at the mower which pushed in out to our driveway and just left it there. I went back into my workshop. I sat down and reached at my bottom drawer for a bottle of Scotch. This just made matters worse. Not only did I have no money for a present, but I had no money for a new bottle of Scotch. This was a not a good situation. Things were not looking well.
After a heavy sigh I climbed the stairs, went to the closet where I reached up and pulled down my straw hat that I had not been wearing. My wife, was always on my case to wear a hat that shaded my face, neck, and throat from sunburn and possible skin cancer because I’ve already had two bouts with it. Hat in hand I went to the kitchen, opened up the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of root beer. It would have to do. I took my soda pop and went out onto the deck where I sat in the shade in case my wife saw me . . . and thought about my situation. Well, okay, okay, so I didn’t think long before I fell asleep.
When I awoke, I stood up with the nearly empty root beer bottle and walked back and forth on the deck trying to think. Back and forth, back and forth, I walked and looked down at the mower. As I stood looking down at the mower Philace jogged through the yard and headed toward her Thursday senior exercise class. I scoffed at the exercise class as I leaned down and looked at my mower and my yard. My eyes drifted off to a neighbor’s front yard in definite need of a little lawn whacking.
A thought was working its way around my mind. I got my car keys and drove around the block, then a few more blocks and then a couple more. It looked like the need for mowing was a super target. I then drove to Philace’s exercise class and parked in the parking lot with a good view of the exit door I knew she would be leaving from.
Two hours later, after driving around a route I had already mapped out I explained what Philace and I could do for some ready cash. We had an excellent mower that operated via an electric battery charger. Philace and I would ride around our area, offering our mowing services at decent prices, mowing with a little hum, and dumping our clippings into each neighbor’s container. Within two months we had several back up batteries, a couple dozen clients, and enough money to pay for a few older people who were looking for a few extra bucks in their pockets for spring and summer.
