Have I mentioned that it rained, A LOT, last weekend? Oh yes, I told you about the whole flooding thing. Well, with all that rain, it was bound to happen...my weeds grew and so I had to mow today. I do not like mowing. Fortunately it is not a skilled labor job (at least not at the level I do it), so I can do it without too much trouble, but I really do not enjoy it. If the weather is 'nice enough' to mow the yard, I figure it is nice enough to read a book on the back porch, take the dogs for a walk, take Amanda to the park, go geocahing or some other such enjoyable activity. But I digress.
So it was time to mow today. Since I push mow the back and ride the rest (I mow our yard and two pieces of church property in exchange for using the church's lawn mowing equipment), I always do the back yard first. The push mower has not been started all year, so when I pulled the rope over and over again in an attempt to get the motor to start, the most noticeable thing that happened was my arm got tired. Pastor David reminded us this week that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, so I decided I needed to take something apart to fix the problem. Now mind you, I know nothing about mowers, it's just that it seemed like somebody who would know about mowers would take the thing apart at a time like this, so I thought I'd give it a try. I think I found where a spring was not working properly, so I moved what I think was the choke and pulled the rope again. Whatever I did, the mower started this time.
The good news is, I did not have to wrestle with pride after fixing the mower ever-so-expertly...I didn't wrestle one bit, I just blowed up like a big 'ol puffer fish being so proud of myself. Somethin' was wrong with the mower and I took it apart and fixed it. I mowed the back yard with no trouble at all.
After that, it was time to start on the front yard. Now the riding lawn mower had already been taken apart and tinkered with and been used a couple times this year, although no mowing had been done yet. I got the mower about half way from the shed to my front yard when it just up and quit...kaput. I tried restarting it and got it to backfire several times, but that was about it. Since I was still a little puffed up with pride at my earlier feats, I took a thing or two apart, put it back together and expected the mower to start for me (after all, it must have been a good karma day for lawn mower fixin', right?). Well, it's a good thing I don't believe in karma, 'cause I didn't have any. No matter what I did, I got nothing better than a backfire. Obviously the mower is going to need someone with more experience (and better mower karma).
Since you have not had much to do with our church's riding lawn mower, you probably don't know that when it stops, for some reason, it stays in gear. This means there is no neutral, so it is near impossible to push. So here I was with the mower half way to the front yard and it would not budge. I don't know how much it weighs, but I'm guessing roughly triple what I could easily pick up and carry back to the shed. But what I lacked in muscles, I made up for in ingenuity. I brought the car around, tied the mower to it and drug the silly thing back to the shed. From there, I had to lift up the back end (yes, completely off the ground) and push it (front tires still on the ground) up the ramp into the shed.
By this time, my back was hurting and I was sweating like one of those overweight people (yes, it's a joke...I am one). I don't know if I just got too big for my britches today or if it was just too good to be true my fixin' the mowers and all, but now I have to figure out how to get the mower into the trailer and take it someplace to get serviced. I gotta tell ya, the story was a WHOLE lot more fun to tell that it was to live through today. But some things are just like that I guess. Anyway, I'll let you know how the rest turns out.
- Rob
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