rocketman Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Well yesterday I found out the hard way that geeks (me) shouldn't work on lawnmowers. The day started out fine. Just another beautiful day of spring, sun is up, birds are singing, the air has a nice smell of honeydew, and all that crap. I got up early for nice long bike ride. Then I decided to mow the lawn for the first time this year. "Should I do it later or get it done in the morning?" I decided, "I'll do it early so that I can enjoy my day." So out comes my big 'ole riding lawn tracker. Now mind you, I do take care of it by replacing the oil, spark plugs, filter, etc., just before winter. I also have a trickle charge on my battery. I put the battery in, gas 'er up and hit the ignition switch....nothing!! Check the battery and it's dead. Off to Sears I go (the first time). I come back and success!! It starts up. I then engage the mower...nothing!!! The belt is looser than Madonna. Off to Sears I go (the second time). I get the old belt off but didn't think to see how to put it on. But, hey, I'm rocketman, right? Mr. Ph.D. who worked at NASA and designed spacecraft that are flying millions of miles away. I can figure out this belt; no problem. Well two hours and a number of swear words later (both in English and in Greek because I ran out of English words), I finally get it on properly. I engage the mower and success!! I do a few spins around the lawn to "work it in" a bit and then notice that the left side is down way too far. It's so far down that it's practically digging in the mud. "Houston we have a problem." What the $#&% is going on now? Well I lost a retaining bolt when I put the mower back on. Off to Sears I go (the third time). I get home and my beautiful wife says "nice looking crop circles on the lawn." Thanks honey... So the lawn gets done. I put everything away and by now I'm done with the outdoors. All I want to do is go inside and play my guitar. I go to close the garage door...nothing!!! I'm about to have a Hiroshima!!! It took a little while but I finally found the culprit, which was a corroded wire. Got the electrical kit out and managed to fix it (no trip to Sears this time). So what started out as a 1 hour project ended out to be 5 hours of hell!! Today was a better day though because I didn't do a thing except laze around and play my guitar... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pumpkin Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 I get home and my beautiful wife says "nice looking crop circles on the lawn." Thanks honey... bwahahahahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSG_Standard Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 They are supposed to take your tools away when you get your PhD.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky4 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Riding mowers and alcohol mix for mayhem also. I used to live on a 1 1/4 acre lot by a lake. There was a levee adjacent to it. My neighbor and I would attempt to mow the steep side of the levee after a few. I tried the downhill method and was catapulted off after the front tire stopped on a hidden stump. My neighbor with his uphill method wound up flipping backwards down the hill. He got on and tried again with the same results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted April 27, 2009 Share Posted April 27, 2009 They are supposed to take your tools away when you get your PhD.... Shouldn't wait for the PHD the second Masters is enough. I hate mowers and they hate me and it went on for years finally a few years ago I lost it and smacked the lawnmower several times with a large socket wrench. Boy did I teach it a lesson the last blow broke the fuel line spraying gas everywhere including the spark plug wire which set the whole mess on fire. I walked over in disgust got the hose and began putting out my happily flaming lawnmower and yard out. Before long the fire department showed up, guess the wife had seen the whole thing through the window and had about as much faith in my fire fighting skill as my mechanical ability, pretty soon the yard was full of some kind of foam the fire was out and I got to explain the whole thing to the fire department and the neighbors. To their credit nobody laughed probably more out of fear than kindness as my wife had shared the whole wrench beating episode that I had somehow left out. I guess something positive did occour though as since then we have used a service and I no longer even own a mower... Maybe some day I'll explain the garage door episode and everyone will understand why I'm a executive and not allowed to repair things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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