The Grass Is Greener...

...At the neighbor's. I live in a beautiful house in a nice neighborhood. My lawn is yellowed in spots. I've been summoned to meet with the HOA board to discuss a restoration agreement of some type.

Postive Notes:
My paint is not peeling
My garbage cans (garbage, recycle, green recycle) are all tucked away from sight
I have two very nice cars in the carport and nothing propped up on cinderblocks
I have flowers in the flowerbed

Negative Notes:
I live in the desert
I travel for my work
My sprinklers aren't on a timer and are broken
Watering the lawn isn't not on my top 10 things of priorities in life
I will spend more time manicuring my lawn (more so than my toes and nails - which I don't pamper either) but it will be on Sunday, when I have, in the past avoided power tools and outside work out of respect of the neighborhood's beliefs.
I will stay up later and get up earlier so I can water better. It is a balance between city ordinances and proper water conservation and my professional and famial responsibilities.
I will paste the "Utah" smile upon my face and bucky up to the "rules".

By the way - my top 10 priorities in life:
My kids, my grandkids, my faith, helping someone else, exercise, my friends, my job, etc., etc., etc. Even etc. does not include whether my lawn or anybody else's is dry. Things like food on the table and a happy heart take presidence in my book.

I'd love to have an automatic sprinkler system and have tried to obtain quotes to do so. Apparently my lawn is not on the top 10 list of contractors either. I'd love to have a personal gardener too (think Desperate Housewives :-)

Living in a very LDS neighborhood, I'm perplexed on two levels. One: why the focus on the so very generic cosmetics? I don't think President Hinkley would think these activities are constructive or productive. Why do I not see any volunteerism on the group's part to assist those not fortunate enough to reside in our "hood" that have no lawns, no cooling system, windows that are in need of insulation or reapair? I know my Priest would be kicking me out of the communion line for being so blind and ill-focused. And two: Well, I guess, I just don't understand since all the interior and exterior and career and family responsibilities fall on me, the single mother/professional, why this natty little detail has to have so much focus.

Life is so much more than a yellow lawn.