I never thought it was possible, but this year I’ve managed to avoid mowing the lawn until April.

Admittedly, last weekend was close, particularly Sunday, when the sun came out, the temperature soared into the 50s, and the blades of grass began shivering with excitement. They started shooting up,their growth visible to the naked eye, when suddenly the sun went down, the temperature plummeted, and they went back into hibernation. One more hour of growth and I would have had no choice but to crank up the lawnmower.

Thanks to climate change, Whidbey Island’s reluctant lawn mowers have enjoyed a very good year. In the old days, it wasn’t unusual to have to mow the grass in late January. But now the climate is warming, which means the weather here is colder (ask your neighborhood environmentalist with a B.A. in film viewing to explain this), and we don’t have to mow the lawn so often.

Where I live on Methamphetamine Lane, the aesthetic standard isn’t set by neatly-trimmed lawns featured in Sunset Magazine. In fact, most residents prefer their grass smoked, not mown. But we do mow the grass before it gets so high the lawnmower can’t chew through it. Otherwise, we’d have to buy goats and enter them in the Island Count Fair. So far, the fair has no category for lawnmowers, and that’s the way we want to keep it.

This year’s cold weather has been a blessing. The December snow fell on lawns like a ton of ice, flattening the blades of grass like Seahawks defenders. When they finally straightened up in January, the cold froze them in place. A week of warmish weather in February worried us reluctant mowers of lawns, but it was a false alarm. Our lawnmowers stayed in their corner of the garage as another cold snap hit.

March has always meant the unavoidable beginning of lawn mowing season. We were just happy to get through February without pulling the ripcord a thousand times to start the reluctant Briggs & Stratton after months of inaction. But this year March was more like January; cold morning, noon and night. The grass managed to struggle higher than the yard moss, but couldn’t muster the height to require mowing. Even the lengthening days didn’t help, because it only meant another hour of rain, cold and dark clouds.

In mid-March, I started wondering if it might be possible to postpone lawn mowing until April. It was an unfathomable thought, really, like Roger Bannister mulling over the possibility of running a 4-minute mile, or George W. Bush thinking of becoming president. But as those men showed us, all things are possible to those who dream, so I dreamed of a March without lawn mowing. As of this writing, on March 30, I’m proud to announce that I’ve achieved my goal. Even if the weather suddenly turns warm and it’s 75 and sunny March 31, the lawn can wait until April.

My plan is to mow the lawn on April Fool’s Day, as somehow Mother Nature has been fooled into thinking the Pacific Northwest is actually Alaska. Climate change is indeed a great thing. Next year, we may not have to mow the lawn until the 4th of July.