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I kind of like this idea, mainly because it would free up a couple of hours each Saturday from April to October. I don't golf, but maybe I would if I had some extra free time. On second thought, maybe not -- because golf courses are mowed and if I give up mowing, how could I affilate myself with someone who still mows? Maybe I'll go fishing instead.

I'm not sure Mrs. Southside is going to like it, though. She checks the long-term weather forecasts and gets antsy at the thought of rain on Saturdays, which would delay the mowing; and so she comes up with schemes for me to cut out of work early and do the mowing on Friday. But you know, I can count on one hand the number of times it's actually rained on a Saturday and I point this out to her and I tell her if it does rain, well, "que sera, sera baby."

She is also no big fan of the abandoned house down the street from us that has been uninhabited for years and the lawn of which is "returning to nature." There's stuff growing in the back yard that's taller than I am, and the place has become a home for raccoons and opossums and feral cats and who knows what else. Right here in Chicago.

The main drawback for me is -- if I let the place go from lawn to meadow to thicket to forest, where are the kid and I going to toss around the football and stuff? And, Mrs. Southside mentions from time to time her desire to get a swimming pool, but I'm not sure how that would work in a thicket. I'd worry about chiggers. I don't know if we have chiggers in Chicago, but we did when I lived down in southern IL and, let me tell you, they are no fun.