I am to be flogged, tarred, and feathered, because I let an important milestone slip by without so much as a mention.

I know my circle constantly preaches the ways of The Coven, and we joke about repopulating it with Elyse, Scout, and most recently, Penelope, but I think another factor of The Coven is rarely mentioned but deserves just as much credit: we are also populating the male side of the spectrum with men who are amazing.

It helps, obviously, that our youngins have fabulous men to look up to.

Yesterday, I casually mentioned to Ra that I was looking for a local yard man.  Our yard is as big and as wide as.. my ass, really.. and it was too large an undertaking for me to mow.  Bryan managed to mow the front yard, but his allergies kicked in, and I forbade him from mowing any more. (I like using the term “forbade”.)

So I mentioned this in passing to Ra, in the hopes that some high schooler in the neighborhood needed some extra cash this summer.  I mean, we have a mower.  It’s just a push mower.  And we have the funds.  Really, we just need someone to make the grass shorter.

Then Ra emailed me: “Where are your dogs?”

I thought this was a trick question, since Mabel had been to the groomer that day and I was due to pick her up.  She followed up with, “Are they nice?” and I was REALLY confused.  Then she clued me in: “Steve is on his way with my dad’s truck and his riding mower.”

I went and picked up Mabel from the vet and, right as I pulled up in the garage, a white pick-up pulled up.  Ra’s dad jumped out, as did Steve, and they smiled and said they were the local community improvement committee. 

Now, I’m not one to just let people sweat on my behalf, unless I sleep with them or have bore them children. (Then, they owe it to me.) Since I had no children by either of these men (or the former criteria), I ran out to see if I could offer a hand.. and Steve offered the best offer I’ve had in, like, a million years: “No, we’ve got this, Sarah.  Why don’t you go inside and catch up on your blogging?”

Because my driveway is at an incline, offloading the tractor proved to be more difficult than anyone could’ve imagined (breaking my heart that these two do-gooders were sweating FAR more than necessary). 

There is an old joke about the south that says, if you’re ever broken down to just sit by your car and a truck with a guy named Bubba will eventually come by and fix it for you. (Or at least tow it to Bobby Joe’s.) Sure enough, after trying for awhile, a guy in a truck came by and helped the two angels lift the mower out of the truck.

(The black line at the top?  My blinds.  I was totally taking this from the air conditioning of my house.)

The two gentlemen were VERY kind and did an AMAZING job on my lawn, and it is so awesome to not have to worry about the overgrown grass for a little while.  And I was not allowed to help, which made me very antsy, but was VERY appreciated.

So for the fathers, I thank you.  It is a privilage to be raising a son around such amazing and inspiring men. 

(As for the father of my child, he is to be commended for not losing his shit when I broke not one, but TWO facets of our new house.  Within a 24 hour period.  More on that later.)