"Those" People

Call me a people pleaser: I'm horrified at a recent realization in my neighborhood: We are those people.

You know: the people whose lawn has dandelions.

The only people on the block whose yard has dandelions.

And, I imagine, the house who neighbors will grimace at when their non-dandelion yards occasionally sprout one of our dandelion offspring... the stray dog kind of yard.

Everyone else's lawn is sprayed. I even have a few more enviro-conscious neighbors who hand pick each dandelion from their yard.

In our last neighborhood, each lawn had their share of dandelions. In fact, I'm loathe to admit that our lawn turned more a shade of yellow than that desirable grass green in each summer.

In our last neighborhood we occasionally made a valiant effort to keep the dandelions from getting too bad.

But here, in my new Homeowners Association neighborhood, lawns are not "cut". They're primped. They're even coddled.

Lest I sound judgmental, I want my lawn to be primped and coddled. Just not by me. And I'm a little fearful of the chemicals some spray on the lawns.

So while Dan and I remain indecisive about this dandelion issue, maybe we'll stay inside until fall.

Or maybe-- and this is a stretch-- maybe we'll convince people that dandelions are okay.