My husband and the lawn mower have had a love-hate relationship for the last year or so. He managed through last summer, but recently it's died without explanation twice. And this last time was the final straw.
I came home from the grocery store and my son came flying out the door to the garage to meet me. "Um, you probably want to stay away from Dad. The lawn mower just died."
Uh oh. Apparently no swear words had flown yet, but sometimes it's better to stay out of the way. I peaked out the window to see him looking at it as if it was a puzzle. He'd fiddle with it, try starting it, it would die, and he'd try again.
The lawn was 3/4 mowed. He had to borrow the neighbor's to finish the job.
He decided a replacement was in order. He spent some time researching online, then started checking craigslist. He found one new, in the box, for $50 less than retail. Because that's what Hubs does - he researches and gets the best deal. I'm lucky to have him, because I'm not sure I have the patience to do the same.
Anygrassclippings. We got the mower. But then we had to get rid of the craptastic old mower.
There was an ad on craiglist for someone close by who sold refurbished mowers. Apparently the guy had a little business of repairing old broken mowers and selling them. Hubs called him up and asked if he'd be interested in taking the old mower off his hands - he could see if he could fix it and have it to sell.
Hubs showed up with the mower, and the guy turned out to be a kid in his late teens.
Hubs: "It'll start but then it just dies. I don't know what's wrong, I've tried, but I'm tired of fighting with it."
Kid: "Oh yeah, the carburetor probably just needs to be cleaned out."
Hubs: Shit. Grrr. "Whatever. You can have it."
The kid will probably make $150 bucks off it.
Hmmm, maybe my son should learn how to fix lawn mowers.
***Ally
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7 comments:
He sounds a lot like me. When it comes to buying something, I usually look it up on Consumer Reports. Then I check review sites for the product to see what others who already bought it have to say about it. My wife, on the other hand, is like you. She doesn't have the patience to be bothered with it. She would just go to the store and look around for a second or three and pick one out.
Ironically, my push mower recently died and I can't figure out why either. And ironically again, there is a local 17 year old kid who has his own landscape business who recently put down mulch for us. I'm going to be asking him to take a look at it and see if he can get it started.
It would have been better if the kid had said he'd probably never get it running. The lie would have felt better. ;)
Love this because we have this fancy lawnmower that is doing the same thing - it keeps stopping mid lawn mow. My husband has done several things to repair it/maintain it. Recently, he was seriously PO'd about the whole thing and stomping around. Later, he realized he'd forgotten to put gas in it! Too bad that didn't actually solve the problem long term. That's awesome that your husband just gave it to the kid. :0)
Totally funny - I am sure Blue is correct, but kids don't have that filter always. ;)
My dad used to fix lawn mower in his spare time and even with his knowledge - oh, the swear words.
You should have your kid do that! At least your husband wouldn't have to worry about his lawnmower death curse.
Lawn mowers will get you every time. *shakes fist in air.
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