Follow the Yellow Grass Road.

A part of living in the snow it is that you have a responsibility to clear your front path and the footpath outside, and if you are negligent in your duty and someone takes a dive and breaks a hip outside your place, then you can be sued. People are pretty careful to do the right thing, and the Councils seem to happily spread salt or whatever to keep the streets passable. How very civic minded !

The park next door how ever has fallen into disrepair. It used to be that the mower blokes / people would be around ALL the time, usually pissing me off at 6.30am playing boy racers with their tractors and whipper snippers. The grass was kept under control and the picnic tables and seats were kept clean and in good repair.

But that is no longer. I am not sure who is not responsible for the park. Maybe it's the Council, maybe they have contracted it out, but whoever it is they all seem to think it's someone else's job. The grass grows LONG LONG LONG until I reach tipping point and call 'em up. In typical bureaucratic fashion, it is necessary to ring at least twice before there is any action. Last time it was nearly a month between mows and that meant grass more than 2 foot tall.

This time it's been only 3 weeks, but as I have rung only once and it is expected to rain for the next few days, by the time it's done it'll be the mandatory month. During that time I will have mowed my grass 4 or 5 times.

Anyway today the allergic reaction up my legs hit the pits, and it's all because of the shitting long grass that has gone to seed in the park. Balls have gone missing along with a number of small dogs and I believe one Dad had to get out his machete to find his toddler and was lucky to not be arrested for being armed.

The scratching abated long enough for me to get out the mower and mow myself a walkway, much like people are doing with shovels all across the snowy northern hemisphere. It certainly looks a little odd but I am happy to think that when I pop over to the shops for some veg later on, I will not have to take an antihistamine when I get back to ward off the grass seed itchies.

I am only sorry that I didn't think about it before.