Unearthing a life.....

This week the plane did not break down on the runway and Kelly did make it to our door. She and Bookworm have trundled off to the Unitarian Fellowship, then to turn in her rental car, then to go out to Sears and look for a new stove for my kitchen.

This morning she decided to upstage Otis by mowing my lawn. The first furrow in her brow occured when I turned the lawnmower on its side and began securing a partially loose mound of duct-tape to the mower housing with a roll of glass tape ... sort of like trying to hold a baling wire repair in place by the addition of Elmer's Glue. She yanked on the pull cord until she practically toppled over from exhaustion, but finally it started up and for the first time this year, gave out its full-throated Honda roar.

One fairly short pass through the tall, damp grass and the blade got jammed and killed the engine. So she emptied the catch basket and then gave the pull cord a jerk and WAHLAH!, the pull cord mechanism was locked up tighter'n a drum. Fah-rozen in place! Lawnmorium extincticus! The Curse of Otis had reached forth and strangled the useful life out of my equipment.

In all fairness to the fine old Honda lawnmower, it took good care of our lawn for the past eighteen years. I am not a proper hand at maintenance. I never did keep the underside of the mower housing clean, so after a dozen years, little holes began to rust through the metal. (Bring on the duct-tape!) AND, of course, that little hummer of an engine has never had an oil change OR any oil added. I did put a new blade on it once (by myself) .... because the old one was beginning to show considerable edge distortion from where I occasionally / regularly mowed a rock and/or rocks.

Now I really need to get on the stick about hiring Otis, or an Otis-clone, to get over here and get a lawn mowing contract under way. We are rapidly becoming an embarrassment to our neighborhood.