Not Such A Good Day for Mowing

It all started a little over two weeks ago. We had company for the week (during the Missions Conference) and I was going to run out and mow my yard real quick so we could do something with our company that day. Short version...the church riding mower died and would not start again. I can mow my front and back yard with the push mower, but there are two additional sections of church land that I mow, and those would take forever to push.

That Monday, I let my fingers do the walking. Did you know that a LOT of lawn mower places want to come to your mower instead of have you take your mower to them? Sounds great, but I figured they were gonna want more money for that, so I called around and found Arlington Lawn Equipment. I took the mower in, talked to the owner and left feeling good about the place I had chosen to have the work done. Ron, the owner, even offered to bring the mower back to the church when the work was done.

To stick with the short version, it took two weeks to get the mower back! Note to self: get mower serviced in February next year!!

I got the mower back on Monday. Since Sunday is our church's big Easter picnic, we need the grounds to look good, so I planned on doing about 4 hours of mowing today. When I went to start the mower, it would not start. I kept trying until I was afraid I was going to run the battery down. I called Ron at Arlington Lawn Equipment and he said he'd come get the mower today, fix it today and return it to me today. Here's how it went:

• 11:00 AM - Finally got out to mow. Mower would not start
• 11:50 AM - Call Ron at Arlington Lawn Care and tell him about problem. Ron says he'll come pick up the mower, service it and bring it back to me today
• 1:10 PM - Still no Ron, so I decide to try starting the mower again....and of course it starts right up. Went to mow and found that belt was loose and fluid was low. This caused the mower to move very slowly and get 'stuck' sometimes, but at least grass was being cut
• 1:45 PM - Dang it! When George and I trimmed down a dead tree, I did not cut the root down deep enough. I found what was left of the stump with a mower blade and bent it beyond repair. Called Ron and told him what was up. He said he'd have to take it back to the shop (again) to fix what was wrong with it.
• 2:00 PM - Do more yard work outside (beginning stages of bad sun burn)
  
• 3:30 PM - Ron picks up mower and says call him at 6:00 PM if he has not called me back before then. Says mower can be finished today and delivered to us.
• 10:15 PM - Mower is finished (yes, that is 10:15 PM...at night!) and Ron personally brings the mower back.

Needless to say, I did not get all the mowing done that I needed to today, so I'll have to finish tomorrow. I'll also have to cover up better while I mow so that my sun burn does not turn into super-bad-it-hurts-so-bad stage.

Although it took 2 weeks to get my mower back, I think I was mostly to blame on that. Who in the world expects to drop off your mower at this time of the year and think you are going to get it back next week? I did NOT like waiting two weeks to get my mower fixed, but Ron worked the church a good deal, he picked up the mower and delivered it back to me. Anyway, the mower problems got fixed and Ron was working WAY after business hours. I will take the mower in earlier next year.

Today was not such a good day for lawn mowing!