My mower, my friend, my enemy..

Leaving town today I saw a guy out mowing his lawn and just caught the mower out of the corner of my eye. IT'S AN ELECTRIC...  Not that I could hear it, those are almost dead quiet.. The orange colour was the dead giveaway... Yep, it's a Black & Decker model... What model is this??  Full on orange makes it this one here...:


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002YK4V0E/ref=psdc_4543152011_t3_B002YK4V04

How am I sure??  It is electric but not corded, a battery powered mower??  The cord was not visible, why use a battery powered mower, his first mowing??  The grass was twice as tall as it should have been, or he had the platform way too short.  I had mine set almost as high as it would go the first mowing of the season. Setting it lower would be a bad idea.. Second this guy had it set to mulch.. A second bad idea, the setting was too short, set to mulch and mowing at a fairly quick clip..  and when we returned this afternoon the grass wasn't done.. and it looked like shit.. The battery ran out of juice or the mower burned up..   Yeah our mower has a cord but I won't have to buy a new battery next year or in two years.. The attraction of an electric mower to me is to NOT have to pull the rope to start it.. Call me a wuss all you want but when these arms hurt that's all I can think of.. The guy was pushing his mower too hard, the grass was too tall and likely it was too wet as well.. This was around ten this morning, I mowed yesterday at one in the afternoon, you still treat the mower electric or gas the same way.. If it is too wet, don't mow.. Grass too tall raise the platform..  I've read reviews where people like the electric mowers but there are shortcomings to them.. to me a battery operated mower's shortcoming is the battery life per mowing.. I would need two to mow our lawn completely.. Maybe even three batteries.. The battery operated tools should be the weed wacker, maybe even the blower.. Because when the mower runs  out of juice and the lawn is still halfway from being done it means waiting until the battery charges in eight or more hours.. By then I'm out of the notion.. Everything I have is corded, mower, weed eater, blower and the tiller.. Not for GREEN reasoning but because the gas powered versions are .. gas, and that is fine but I've messed with all those gas versions and when I am ready to mow, I plug and go.. No changing the oil, cleaning the air filter..   Ready to go??  Go.. 

Badge Henry