May 12, 2021 3 min read

Did you dodge the raindrops long enough to mow your lawn last week? Between downpours and chilly temperatures, it’s been a struggle, and my grass had grown about 6 inches tall in many spots. I desperately needed to mow it.

I’m always careful to look ahead of me and usually check the lawn for debris before I fire up the mower.

This time that proved to be tough with such high grass. I often find twigs blown down from the trees (or knocked down by my resident squirrels) and occasional debris from the neighbors’ trash blown around by gusty winds.

My house sits on the corner with a stop sign at the intersection and, unfortunately, people still toss the occasional piece of litter out the window. Cigarette butts, straws and cups, candy wrappers … you name it. Unbelievable.

As I was mowing laps around the perimeter and close to the stop sign, something off to the side glinting in the sunlight caught my eye.

I reached down to find a small metal strap. Did this fly off my lawnmower? I shrugged it off and kept going.

The next time around, I saw another glint.

This three-inch piece of metal looked like some sort of a cover for something. Now I got worried. My lawnmower was still purring along, and I thought, well, I’ll turn it over and take a look when I finish.

By the time I spied the third hunk of metal, I had an even bigger mystery on my hands.

This was a 4-inch long J hook (yes, I looked that up) sitting a few feet from the edge of my yard. That certainly did not come from my mower. I shut off the engine and looked around for clues. When I finally looked up, the answer seemed to be pretty clear.

The day before, I heard loud voices as I was in the bathroom and looked out the window to see a guy in a bucket truck pretty close to my window. Seems that giant phone company was installing fiber optic lines on the utility poles. Could the metal debris belong to them? I found a fourth piece along the street and under the lines during my evening walk. A few days later, I saw the same phone company crew working across the street and told them what I had found. They were impressed that I knew what a J hook was and admitted, yes, that was their material. They apologized and blamed it on the poor guy who was once again up in the bucket truck. We all got a good chuckle out of it but only because I had not hit the shards with my lawnmower. I usually wear sunglasses when I mow, but I’ll wear protective glasses from now on and make sure I do a pre-mow inspection just to check for falling debris!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.