How Do You Refuse Free Help?

The answer is, you don't.  ...at least not without a struggle.  I had actually been looking forward to mowing my lawn this weekend.  It's a 1/2 acre lot and pushing a lawn mower around for 2+ hours would be a chance to get some extra exercise resulting in a nice looking yard.

Since it rained Saturday nobody in my neighborhood had mowed.  Over the years I've observed the "social dominoes" that results when one person mows their yard.  The neighbors on either side notice that their grass is long and get out and mow, and so on until everyone on the street has cut their grass.  The fun part is being the first started and first done so you can sit back in delight knowing that you've put your neighbors to work.  Yesterday was my chance.  I got out and got started.  The best part was that the people on either side of use weren't home so I had a good head start.  Just as I finished the front the neighbors on the north of us came home.  Almost immediately the wife gets out their riding mower and gets to work.  The race is on!  I'm in the middle of our back yard when I see her drive into their back yard.  I have the disadvantage of trees to mow around, benches to move, and other obstacles to avoid.  I'm in the middle of the second half of our back yard when she finishes theirs.  Curses, she beat me!!!  To make matters worse, for the first time ever she drives over to our yard and says "I can get this for you".  What?!  No!!!  "No thanks" I say, "I'm doing this for the exercise".  She responds "It's no problem".  "Seriously", I respond "I need the exercise".  "OK, I'll just get this back part".  There's a back part of our yard that opens up to a common area for the neighborhood that she heads for.  When it's wet that usually retains water and I don't really care if it gets mowed.  "Fine" I say and off she goes.  It takes her about 5 minutes on that and then she heads over to the final section that I'm on.  "I'll finish this off for you" she says.  I shut off my mower and say "I'm REALLY doing this for the exercise.  I've got teenage boys that could be doing it."  She looked a little confused but headed for home and I finish mowing the yard myself.

Next week I mow at midnight!