Hauled my lawn tractor to the Wizard of Lawnmowery for a spring check, tune up and general readiness for the season's work ahead. It was pleasant to finally meet the Wizard in person, and I also met Mrs. Wizard!
While I was suffering the expensive, inept brutality of the Sears extended warranty for four years, I was able to mow using this tractor maybe twice a season. I came to hate it as an expensive, failed solution to a real problem. I had to push a regular mower around. I had opportunity to cuss in magnificent blazing torrents as I continually struggled with machinery and grass 16" tall and heat and humidity and my own waning physical strength. Oh, it was surely one of the seven levels of hell. I likely deserved every moment of it for all past, present and future transgressions but I certainly did not feel as if I deserved it at the time. I felt victimized and I felt really, really sorry for myself.
When my new house was built, the brother-in-law of the builder offered to take a look at that tractor. He fixed it - healed it, actually - and also told me about Stabil, a gas tank additive. Since then, I have loved my tractor. I actually sing while mowing (no one car hear) - unless it's so hot and dusty that I have to keep my mouth shut for practical reasons. It starts every single time, and I can mow the whole yard with not a single word uttered in frustration or anger or despair. Amazing.
Monday, when I retrieved the tractor to bring it home, it looked almost brand new. It was amazing. That little engine runs so smoothly now - like a Chevy 327 small block V8 engine. (Yeah, that sweet!) Every mowing season, I am so thankful for this good fortune! Most of my entire adult life, short-lived marriages aside, I was responsible for mowing. It NEVER, EVER, EVER went well. It was awful and I dreaded it so much. I did not mind the work, but the machinery and I could never get along. But no more. Mr. Wizard took care of that plague on my life. I am very thankful.
If it is lawn mowing season, it is also snake season. On the way to pick up the lawn tractor, there were two snakes crossing Vera Road. The plumbing and heating guy was out here yesterday taking measurements for water and electricity to the barn, when he spotted a very large black snake. I see this snake every year. I fancy it is the same snake but for all I know there are dozens of black snakes living on my property. The plumbing guy actually walked toward the snake and I almost fainted. The serpent was frightened and kicked into high gear in a very horrific snake-like slithering toward cover that has kept me in the house since.
Plumbing man says, "That is such a big snake, I wanted to make sure it was a black snake and not a big timber rattler." My blood pressure dropped precipitously and in a faint voice, I asked "Timber rattlers get that big?" I did not know that. In fact, I did not know there WERE timber rattlers in this part of Kansas. "Oh yeah!" he cheerfully affirms.
Oh no.
Soooo, that concludes going to the barn at night. Ginger and Wally, my horses, are now on their own from twilight until sunrise, or the temperature drops below 40 degrees.
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