he had looked around the yard with its too-high , too-patchy grass , the little swing-'n-gym set he had set up for his son and daughter ( pete had outgrown it , and trisha really had , too , although she still swung or would go down the slide a few times when she was here , just to please him ) , the two lawn-dwarves ( one barely visible in an extravagant splurge of spring weeds ) , the fence at the very rear that needed painting .