Lots of reasons why, which in the grand scheme of things dont matter
luckily no one has noticed, mainly because no one reads this thing anyway
ANYWAY
its funny that friday the 13th is what gave me some motivation
So, there is some back story I have to catch you up on
( I know, something from me, with a back story, SHOCK!)
as you know I have this lovely airplane hanger sitting on many acres of land. (well not many to some people, but many to other people)
This land grows grass and weeds and all kinds of stuff, which gets pretty tall.
I hadnt worried about it much, as long as the driveway was kept cut down it was ok. and I did that with our old push mower. (Which technically was a self propelled mower, but it is old and has lost a lot of its confidence so it isnt much self propelled anymore as much as it is propelled by the self that is pushing it)
the push mower is ok, but when the grass gets tall is takes 3-4 swipes with the mower to get full width of a push mower, because you half to take about half the mower width at a time, and usually have to run over it twice to get a good cut on it.
so while it does the job, the problem is, that takes a lot of time, and time is one of the things I dont have much of.
I know, I could just leave it, my truck drives over it just fine. But the Camaro doesnt. and I dont want to spend time picking grass out of the suspension of the Camaro.
I also have a problem with critters who live in the area who like to roam around, and the grass gives them cover from the predators. I need to even up the playing field a little, let the hawks get a better view of the field mice.
so I started looking at Tractors. Something that I could mow with and do a few other chores around the hanger.
Looked at new tractors, just too much money, cant do it right now.
Had a line on a few different used tractors, none of them panned out, and logistics there was going to be a big problem if they did. (hmm, mental note, need to buy a bigger trailer)
Time to rethink this, (because the grass isnt slowing down) Cut down the expectations some and started looking at used riding lawnmowers. (new was also just crazy expensive for what you get) Went through quite a few of them with no luck, until Friday the 13th.
Saw an ad on CL, good unit, good price, and the right side of town. Send the seller an email with some questions.
Within an hour or so I got back the answers, and the info was good. so I asked if I could come see it that night. Told him it would be 7:30 or 8 before I could get there.
Got back an email asking me what my offer was. Hmm, that seems odd. My reply was that I had not seen the unit and could not make an offer without seeing it.
no response.
about 2pm or so I get a response that says "text me at XXX-XXX-XXXX"
I text him
I get a response that says he is busy till about 4:30 and would get back to me then.
HMMM, maybe this is too crazy for me to deal with. (one of the problems with CL)
About 5pm I get a text that tells me that he wont take less than XXX for the unit and that he has already had people offer him that so he just wants to tell me that he wont take less than that for the unit.
My reply was - I understand, Are you available for me to look at it this evening, I could get out there around 7:30 or 8
no response
15 minutes later another text - I'm sorry I told you I would take XXX, because in fact i have already had offers higher than that and I wont take the money I told you earlier.
My response - do you want me to come look at it or not.
He says yes - I tell him I will be there 7:30 or 8
I grab M and he and I head to the hanger to get the trailer (luckily this mower is also on the north side of the world)
Friday the 13th rush hour traffic was horrible. Took us forever to get to the hanger (although M got a good nap in)
M helped me get the trailer out and hitched up and we were back on the road in record time. Except, when I went to grab my phone to use the GPS in it to get me to this guys house, my phone was D-E-D dead!. Even though I had just used it a few minutes ago and it told me I had half the battery left, it now told me I had no battery left.
(anyone else who thinks IOS7 has turned their perfectly good phone into a brick please raise your hands. yes, my hand is raised)
ANYWAY.
Now I had no way to find the guys house, no way to call for help, etc. (because like a total DA, I did not have a car charger for my phone in my truck. I carry it in my backpack because I travel all the time and where was my backpack, at home... yep, total DA moment)
so I had an idea of the area the house was in because I had looked at the map already, I headed that way, cutting around as much traffic as I could, and looking for a place I could run in and buy a charger.
finally spotted a Radio Shack. M and I run in (slipping on the sheet of ice that still covered the sidewalk in front of the store) and bought a charger. Had the package ripped open before I even got back to the truck. Plugged in, phone booted. Set the GPS to take me there, and sent text to the seller telling them traffic was terrible and I was getting there as quickly as I could.
of course during all this time M and I are having the most fun making fun of commercials, and the cars around us.
"drug to help shift work people sleep - side effect. Sudden death, in-ability to fall asleep." Hmm, that seems like a great deal. A sleeping pill that may keep you awake and might kill you.
stopped at a light. Car in front of us was a Dominos pizza delivery car. License plate..... Arkansas.
(yes, I know, I should have gotten a picture of it, i tried, I was too slow and missed it)
All I could think about was a big guy and little guy dressed in matching suites going into a Dominos in Arkansas. "I need you to run to Texas and pick me up some pizza and be back here in 18 hours" "Why do you want so much pizza? because he's hungry dummy!"
(if you dont get the movie reference, then you need to re-evaluate the way you been livin)
no the car was not a black trans am.
Showed up at the sellers house before 8, it was of course pitch dark. pull into the driveway and out comes a guy.
Running up behind him is a teenager.
Guy introduces himself to me, then proceeds to tell me I have been communicating with his 16 year old Son all day long.
WOW, that explains a lot.
Turns out the kid had bought the lawnmower to start a little business of mowing lawns, and had done nothing with it. So now the dad told him he had to sell it to get the room back in the shed.
Mower looked ok, ran ok, drove ok, etc.
Paid the kid his money and we loaded up the trailer, and drove off.
(The dad kept on saying, Wow, thats a nice trailer, boy this sure is a nice trailer, man, this is a nice trailer. I'm not sure, but I think he liked my trailer.)
making our way home through some back roads, trying to stay away from the jammed up highways, and at the same time, looking for gas,
yes, during all of this I was all the way down on "Enough" and the little light was on and the little dinger thing was dinging away (except it wasnt because the dinger thing doesnt ding anymore on my truck, I think the guy in there got tired of ringing the bell for so many years. He now just sits there and watches the world go by)
luckily, we did manage to find a stop n rob before we ran out of gas.
oh yeah, in case I didnt mention this, it was raining off and on during all this also.
We did make it home, parked on the street, decided I would deal with hauling it out to the hanger later, I had enough for one night.
M and I already had the conversation of what else could go wrong this evening.
After spending Saturday celebrating Christmas with a couple of our family members, (umm, couple, yeah right)
Sunday morning D and I got up and drove our little guy out to the hanger. I took her for a test spin and DAMN this is a cool mower. Cuts great, takes the tall grass with the full width of the mower without bogging down, drives fast, really tight turning radius. All around great mower. D can tell you I was all smiles running back and forth the field cutting with that thing.
I know, I guess there is something definitely wrong with me if a lawnmower can make me smile. That might be one of jeff foxworthy's jokes. If your riding lawnmower makes you happy.... you might be a redneck.
so anyway, I guess the good part is, it is green and it does run like a deere so I wont get thrown out of the family for buying something that was orange or red or whatever.
and who knows, maybe its a baby step to a bigger one down the road. You never know.
for those of you that got all the way to the end of this one, you must be really bored
Merry Christmas!
Cherry Pie
DD
No comments:
Post a Comment