And so it goes
Jun. 26th, 2013 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
monkey5sToday, the 20-something guy who shows up to cut my yard managed to kill the mower. For the second time.
To be fair, the first time he killed it was only temporary, and it was because he was fighting his way through severely overgrown (not quite knee high, but very, very high) grass and weeds in the back yard. And it turned out that he just managed to pop the cover loose from the spark plug. Refastened that down tightly, and it was good to go.
Today, however, he managed to kill it in a much more dramatic fashion. He was mowing where there's irregular fieldstone steps through where the old roots from a massive maple (I cried when that tree had to be cut down. But it was beginning to drop big limbs, and was getting hollow) are slowly decomposing. The mower cut out with a LOUD complaint. He tried to restart, it finally did but was pouring out smoke. He stopped the engine and came up to the door to tell me he didn't know what he did, but it was spraying oil out the front.
Then, when I asked if he could take it to his neighbor, who had offered to take a look at it when the spark plug cover issue was not yet resolved, I found out the man had died just two days ago. Um, yikes?
He took it with him anyway, said he'd see if his father could look at it, since he kept their own mower going. If it's something like the oil line disconnected it would be an easy fix, but if he somehow managed to crack the engine block, it's toast.
And this is the main reason I wanted to get that home equity line of credit. Because I can charge a new mower, but the interest rate is way lower on the HELOC than the credit card. I figure I have some leeway, even if I have to replace it, because he did get the back yard done first, and the front yard isn't that bad yet.
To be fair, the first time he killed it was only temporary, and it was because he was fighting his way through severely overgrown (not quite knee high, but very, very high) grass and weeds in the back yard. And it turned out that he just managed to pop the cover loose from the spark plug. Refastened that down tightly, and it was good to go.
Today, however, he managed to kill it in a much more dramatic fashion. He was mowing where there's irregular fieldstone steps through where the old roots from a massive maple (I cried when that tree had to be cut down. But it was beginning to drop big limbs, and was getting hollow) are slowly decomposing. The mower cut out with a LOUD complaint. He tried to restart, it finally did but was pouring out smoke. He stopped the engine and came up to the door to tell me he didn't know what he did, but it was spraying oil out the front.
Then, when I asked if he could take it to his neighbor, who had offered to take a look at it when the spark plug cover issue was not yet resolved, I found out the man had died just two days ago. Um, yikes?
He took it with him anyway, said he'd see if his father could look at it, since he kept their own mower going. If it's something like the oil line disconnected it would be an easy fix, but if he somehow managed to crack the engine block, it's toast.
And this is the main reason I wanted to get that home equity line of credit. Because I can charge a new mower, but the interest rate is way lower on the HELOC than the credit card. I figure I have some leeway, even if I have to replace it, because he did get the back yard done first, and the front yard isn't that bad yet.
