D'oh!!! - A lesson in hindsight.

Some of you may remember a month or so ago I had a post about going shopping for a new lawn mower. Particularly, a "Zero Turn" mower. Well about 2 weeks ago we decided to go ahead and buy it from the local guy here in town as opposed to one of the larger chain stores. He is an authorized dealer so, by doing it this way, any warranty work would be practically hassle-free. Not that I'm expecting anything to go wrong but I was a Boy Scout. I plan ahead. Not to mention the fact that he beat the price of the larger stores by about $300.
Since my 4-wheeler trailer is only 4 feet wide, and the deck alone on the new mower is 4 feet wide, and the tires and deck rollers and discharge chute are even wider than that, we had to have the mower delivered. This was not a big issue since the store is less than a mile from my house. But he gets here with the mower and we go over the basic operational procedures and he leaves once I'm satisfied that I know what I'm doing. I hop on it and just ease around the yard a bit, trying to get a feel for the way it handles. It's really easy to catch on to the way it works. My wife comes out and takes a turn on it and decided to go ahead and mow the front yard to "neaten it up a bit". Needless to say, she was slow and cautious at first but in a matter of minutes was zipping around like a semi-pro. So I just let her have her fun and went about doing other stuff, like getting the boat ready to go to the lake for the weekend.
Well today, I decided that I was going to run over the yard to cut the weeds and stuff that are sprouting up and making it look ragged. This would be the first "full cutting" of the grass with the new mower. Last year, this would have meant the better part of 2 hours, on a good day. Sometimes even longer. Anyone care to take a guess at how long it took me? Anyone? Anyone? No? OK, since I see no hands...I'll go ahead and tell you. 40 minutes!! For the whole yard!! For the mathmatically-challenged of you, that's ONE THIRD the time it used to take with a "tractor-style" riding mower. Granted, the other mower only had a 42" cutting width and this one has a 48". But that would only mean that 6 passes of the new mower would equal 7 passes with the old one. That's not nearly enough difference to account for the major reduction in the time.
Here's a photo of my "new toy."


I've had people that own ZTR mowers tell me that once I bought one and started using it, I'd wonder why I didn't buy one 5 years ago. Well guess what? They're right!! Why, in the name of all things green, have I waited this long? I can say without a doubt, I have bought my last "lawn tractor". The Z is the only way to go for me from here on out.
Guys, if you have been contemplating getting one, go ahead and do it. You will NOT be sorry. I promise that you will be saying the same thing I was when I got finished today and looked at the time.
"Why in the hell didn't I buy one of these 5 years ago?"
And girls, if your husband asks you about going to buy one, believe him when he says that he will be done MUCH faster and have a whole lot less trim work to do. What he does with the extra time, I can't be responsible for. I just know he won't be cutting grass.
But my point is this....unless you just enjoy mowing grass and don't care how long it takes you, a ZTR mower is worth the extra money. Personally, I like going to the lake or camping or any number of other things too much to waste my weekends mowing the grass. Which reminds me, I need to get my propane tanks on the camper filled before next weekend.
Ya'll have a great rest of the weekend!!