Lawnmower Man: Snikt!

As mentioned, Melissa and I are buying a house, and in the context of asking after our process, a coworker mentioned the other day that I'll have to get used to doing yard work. I allowed as how this isn't an issue -- as long as the yard isn't too big, and the sidewalks aren't too long, I don't terribly mind mowing or shoveling (prediction: I will eat that last word, at least).

But speaking of lawn mowing reminded me of something else, as it invariably does: The X-Men.

For years, when I was of mowing age, I would get up on Saturday morning, watch The X-Men cartoon on FOX, and then head outside with the theme music still rattling in my head. I wasn't a big comic book kid, so the cartoon is my basis for that series. All the movies, video games, and the handful of X-Men comic series I've read have all been compared back to that show.

And because the majority of my exposure to the characters during the time that the goo between my ears was curing was in close proximity to mowing the lawn, the two concepts are pretty linked for me. One suggests the other. Each time I watched one of the movies, I was transported to my parents' yard. And each time I've gone back to do yard work, I've been reminded of The X-Men (including the last time I mowed my parents' lawn, which was when they were out of town in 2004; it happened to be during the Republican National Convention, and a neighbor came in to water the plants at the same moment that I was yelling back at that ass Zell Miller).

Coincidentally, one evening in 1996 or 1997 when I was doing some raking and cleaning in the yard, I got a call from my friend Jeff Krueger, which I answered on the cordless while still in the yard. We were going to hang out that evening and watch a movie, and decided to check out this Usual Suspects flick we'd heard so much about. That film was directed by Bryan Singer, who would go on to direct... The X-Men and X2. More connections formed.

So I guess the bottom line is that I'm looking forward to cutting my new lawn with my adamantium claws. That's how it works, right?