On Lawn mowers

Oh, lawn mower, how I love you. I remember when I was a teen helping out in the yard. No, I did not wake up every Saturday morning eager to do "outdoor chores". But I do believe as a teen I did a fair share of the work. I really did enjoy working out in the yard. I loved pulling weeds with my Dad. I really enjoyed shaping the bushes and cutting down unwanted trees. I liked mowing the lawn, though it was not a simple task. Mostly, though, I just liked the idea of helping out my Dad. (You'll find that I can easily do things for other people but have a hard time doing things for myself.)
How easy do people have it that own riding lawn mowers? Ok, so they end up sitting on a mower for like an hour because their yards are so large, wah wah wah. I have no sympathy for people with large yards. I think riding lawn movers are like parking it on a tortoise shell and going for a jaunt. And, for clarification, I think that's cool. Have you seen Marry Poppins? 'Nuff said. But pushing a lawn mower- that's a workout.
It's been a long time since I've had to mow a lawn, so I've been pretty anxious. But Randall works so hard all week and is away from the family that I think the more I can do while he is at work, the more time he'll have to be with myself and the children (mostly the children). I remember enjoying mowing the lawn, so this will be a good thing, right?

I've been able to put it off most of the week because the grass wasn't too high yet and I needed to get gas for the beastly machine. So today was the day! I got Peter off to school, put the boys in front of the TV and puzzles, etc. and set to go out and GET ER DONE!
My first sign that this wasn't going to go so well came when I went to get the gas can and there was a HUGE SPIDER! Ick. Ack. Yuck. After over twenty sprays with the bug killer, the magnificent creature gave up the fight. So the lawn mower was tanked up and ready to go. One, two, three- PULL! And... nothing. PULL. Nothing. Pull harder. Nothing. Pull faster. Nothing. Huh.

Ring, ring. "Hello?" "Hey Rand. I can't get the lawn mower started. Is there something I don't know?" "Yah, you need to push the button..." etc etc etc. So here I go. Press button 5 times. PULL. Nothing. Press button 1 time. Nothing. Press button two times. Nothing. You see where I'm going with this?

Nothing. No mowed lawn for me this morning. So sad. So frustrating. Am I just not strong enough to pull the start cable? Is it broken somehow? Shoulder shrug. I don't know. All I know is that it was a lot of built up anxiety, nostalgia, and spider confrontation, only to not be capable of starting my lawn mower.

STATUS UPDATE: Sara cannot start a lawn mower to save her life... or, at least to save the grass.