Life's simple pleasures

A cordless weed whacker. I'll confess that when the S.O. started talking about buying one a few months ago after seeing one advertised by Home Depot, I was skeptical. I viewed it as yet another unnecessary gadget he wanted to add to his collection of Ryobi cordless toys, which at that point included a circular saw, a drill or two, and several other items, all of which run off the same type of 18 volt battery. I tend to see the cordless tools as being the male equivalent of a Barbie Dream House: once you've purchased one cordless drill, the list of other stuff you suddenly realize you need never stops growing.

I was wrong. Unlike some of the other weirdness Ryobi markets, the cordless weed whacker is a vital weapon in any home owner's arsenal. We bought one yesterday, and now I'm wondering why it took us so long. Not only does the lack of a cord mean you're not limited in how far out you can range from the nearest outlet, it also means greater flexibility. No tripping over the cord, no having it wrap itself around your ankles like a skinny orange anaconda, no trying to maneuver in a way that lets you keep weed whacking without destroying the peonies by garroting them.

For sure the one thing I'm pysched about is the increased range. Our property isn't some tiny city lot that gets measured in square footage; we've got 37 acres of brush and swamp. I refer to our front yard as "the calf pasture" because that's what it used to be. I haven't gotten too carried away with landscaping, but we do have some areas that fall just beyond the reach of the extension cord, like the stretch paralleling the driveway where there are some day lilies and grape vines planted. We can't use a lawn mower in the area between the plants and the driveway because it's a ditch with pretty steep sides. The cordless weed whacker is going to make it much, much easier to knock the weeds down.