After a lifetime of combative relationships with gasoline-powered lawnmowers (and, by times, those that would force me to use them), I cannot do sufficient justice to the joy I have found in this cordless electric one.

At $368 from Home Depot, it’s in the same price range as its belching cousins. But it needs neither gas nor oil (nor some alchemical combination of the two; I’m looking at you Lawnboy), and starting it is a simple push of a button rather than an arm-wrenching pull of a rope.

Our lawn is mowed. The Ryobi 40180 is folded up in the mudroom, ready for its next call-out. I am happy. Who would have ever thought.