The Slice: I fought the lawn, and the lawn won

Perhaps it is my imagination.

But it seems to me that once lawn-mowing season begins in earnest, the sound of grass being cut never really ceases to be heard.

Oh, OK. I suppose if you were to step out on to your porch at 3 a.m., you would not hear mowing. But otherwise, it seems nearly constant until fall.

So here’s my question: How can that be?

Sure, sound carries. And it’s possible to hear mowers from quite a distance. But how can there be that much mowing?

Maybe my extended neighborhood is obsessed with mowing. I’d invite you over to check it out for yourself. But you might have to shout to be heard.

Just wondering: How many essentially nonreligious people get slightly more dressed up than usual on Good Friday, just because it seems like the right thing to do?

Sometimes the truth hurts: Jim Clanton shared this. “On a variation of the notion that you do not annoy your barber before he cuts your hair or your proctologist before he commences the exam, I offer this experience: Last Tuesday (April 4) I was scheduled for a 7 a.m. blood draw for my annual physical. The phlebotomist called me back with a very raspy voice. She apologized and explained that she had lost her voice screaming during the Gonzaga basketball game the night before.

“Before thinking, and as is my usual practice when someone appears to be leading into a discussion of GU basketball, I mentioned that I am one of those rare people in this area who has no interest in GU basketball, so I had not watched the game.

“Now, it may just be my imagination, but it sure seemed that the needle prick was substantially more painful than is the norm.”

Warm-up questions: With what movie are you so familiar that you could offer to act it out for someone who had never seen it? When the old-timers at your business are all gone, who will tell the stories about wild and woolly workplace characters from long ago who played by a different set of rules?

Today’s Slice question: Who in the Spokane area most prizes his or her routine and regards any deviation from the usual daily patterns as an unconscionable burden?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. A few of those who regularly attended Spokane Indians baseball games back in the long-season AAA days insist that at least some others who say they went to the ballpark “all the time” back then are stretching the truth.