shreds

"You have exciting plans for the weekend?" asked the checker at Trader Joe's.

"So far I have no plans for the weekend," I told him. "But it's going to be awesome."

"That's a good answer," he said.

It's also a true answer. 

...

I drive my car about every other day now, mostly to go to my Brazilian jiu jitsu class and to the big local Whole Foods-like store. I take the bus to work, I walk to the street with the tea shop, and I ride my bike to do errands on the weekend. 

I last filled up my gas tank 22 days ago, and it's now just below half a tank. 

I love this town.

...

My roommates and I have a little strip of lawn on the side of the house and longer strip in front of the house for which we are responsible. ("Isn't this the landlord's job?" I asked, soon after I moved in, and my roommate said, "Yeah, we brought it up with him once, and he said, 'If you want the rent to go up, sure.'" So we are responsible for it.)

I mowed it today with an ancient motor-less mower. The blades are old and rusty, and I'm quite sure that the grass was not so much cut as torn off, but pushing it around until it stopped short and the handle slammed into my stomach, I felt very Gone West because I was not using any natural resources but my own body.

Now all I have to do is figure out where to get the blades sharpened.