Ego LM2102SP   EGO Power+ LM2102SP 21 in. 56 V Battery Self-Propelled Lawn Mower Kit (Battery & Charger) W/ 7.5 AH BATTERY

I have to admit buying a new battery-powered mower called “Ego” may say something about me, but it gives me pleasure to quietly demolish the leaves in my backyard and the unrelenting grass in my side yard this early in the spring. The “Ego” is anything but pretentious, humming its way through the winter accumulation of leaves and grass, leaving an invisible deposit of mulch behind.

As Victoria could tell you,  I have been coveting a battery-powered lawn mower through most of the winter, comparing specs online and visiting Lowe’s and Home Depot in the dead of a cold snap. It is a complicated analysis to make sure you get the best equipment for the investment, especially when you have a functioning gas-powered mower slumbering in the storage shed.

In the end I relied heavily on Consumer Reports,  since they had tested all the equipment and could tell you what the manufacturers concealed, like the time to charge the battery and the actual endurance of a single charge that might vary when you use a self-propelled mechanism.

I decided that this would be my last mower, so self-propulsion could be a feature I would be glad to have in the future. The single-adjustment for four wheels was another indispensable improvement over the wrestling with four stubby stubborn levers on my old gas-powered version. Lawn maintenance just got blissfully simpler.

Of course the emission-free engine makes a modest improvement in the immediate environment in my neighborhood. No gas, no oil, no early-morning roar.  That should make me a better neighbor and environmental steward. Not that anyone was complaining.

Does it actually boil down to the “ego” of the lawn mower owner to acquire the newest, cleanest and quietest engine of grass destruction?  Hard to deny the acquisition was not self-serving, because I feel some smug satisfaction lightly steering the stealthy steed of yard maintenance around a modest 1/3 acre of domestic flatland. Here I was cheerfully patrolling the back yard before the first day of spring!

I’ll leave it to the wise reader to recognize the ego sprouting with the daffodils before the latest frost.  I’ll just self-propel my way to unassuming happiness.