4th of Disaster

Some days you should just stay in bed.

I had the 4th off. It was going to be hot, and we were overdue for mowing. My wife had to work a 12 hour shift that day, so it was just going to be me and the yard.

It was going to get hot, 91°. I went for a run and couldn't finish it, I was just not feeling good. The next goal was to get out there before the heat really started, and I was looking good for that. I had just rebuilt the mower, putting new blades on it and reworking the drive system so it would run better. I was looking forward to having the lawn mowed before it got hot. If I still had some work left in me, I was going to trim everything and turn over the compost heaps. Then I could rest inside during the remainder of the day, maybe do some reading and things I wanted to do for leisure.

I had my podcasts loaded in my ipod, got a good breakfast, and was ready to go. I went out and started the mower and drove over to the yard. I started the mower and went half way around the yard, but the mower didn't sound right. I found out that one of the blades was loose, so I took the mower into the garage and looked at the mower deck closer. The whole hub and carrier of one of the blades was just about to fall apart.

I retreated into the air conditioning. I wasted some time giving one of my cats a haircut.

Damn. I was going to get something done. I looked up the part diagram in the manual and figured out that it was a huge part. I decided that I would tear into it. I took this huge hub assembly out and then wasted about an hour trying to take it apart, since the pulley was still good. After trying to use the broken the vice in the garage to keep the shaft still while I tried to loosen the nut on the end of the pully shaft, I had to retreat to the basement. Putting the shaft in the vice and gripping the shaft with two vice grips was not enough to remove the nut. I decided it was time to give up and buy a new pulley. The place I order the parts from was open and they were working on the fourth. So I got the parts ordered.

I thought about the way the mower deck worked and realized that I could remove one of the belts and run the mower with 2 of the 3 blades. I had to struggle with removing the primary belt to get to the secondary belt. After another 20 minutes, I had the secondary belt off and reinstalled the primary belt. Cranking it up and engaging the mower made me realize something was not right. I had put the primary belt back on around the outside of a guide and it was off and badly scuffed. I reinstalled it correctly and went to work.

This was going to take a while, I realized. I calculated that it would take 50% longer with the missing blade and struggled to make the mowing match up. I got around the yard 3 times and the mower died.

It was dead and downhill. I had to put all the muscle I could to get it up the hill, onto the gravel drive and then over to the barn. What the hell? Why did it die?

I discovered that it was low on oil. Hmmm. That was enough to kill it? After finding the oil in the barn almost empty and searching out another can of oil in the garage, I refilled the mower, but it wouldn't start. Maybe the spark plubs were fouled. They looked nasty, but after 45 minutes of tearing into that and cleaning the plugs, as well as clearing the chambers with carberator cleaner, the mower still wouldn't start. I checked the fuse by removing it and the mower acted the same. It was cranking, just not firing and starting. If the low oil had been fatal to the engine, it would be seized, wouldn't it? About half way through the spark plug process, it started to rain. Of course, this was at the point that I had the most parts and tools strewn about, so I had to carefully push the mower into the dark barn.

I gave up on the mower. I wasn't sure what was wrong with it, but it was raining, so even if I could start it, I couldn't mow now.

But I had to get something done. I could still do the trimming. Screw the rain. I started to trim and the trimmer had to be repaired, then the line had to be replaced. I did that and got back on track and kept going. I got to the overgrown courtyard, and the rain picked up. This was the worst part of the yard, and I became very determined to finish it. Then I noticed that the rain was getting into my ipod and shorting it out. I removed it and threw it inside (it didn't work well for 2 days, then recovered when it dried out). By the time I finished the courtyard, it was raining very hard. That was it.

I cleaned up and kept going. I was going to buy dinner for my wife, but it was the fouth, so the places I went were closed. So I found a Hyvee grocery store open and got some meat to grill for dinner.

I started to grill the meat and the gas ran out on the grill.

I finished the dinner in the oven and collapsed in front of the TV.

But it was the fourth. So we went out and watched the fireworks in the fog and smoke. So it ended up being a good day.