I am.... an idiot

If you've read previous blog entries, you'll know that I recently acquired a new lawn mower. This wasn't planned. I had a perfectly good lawn mower that I'd picked up at a garage sale for $30 four years ago. It worked perfectly fine, until one day that I couldn't get it started.

I tried just about everything to get it started. I waited a few hours. I plugged it into different outlets. I cleaned it. Heck, I even gave it a good, swift kick. (Don't laugh - that works sometimes!)

I called around, and looked into getting it fixed; only to learn that it would cost a minimum of $100 to have a repair man look at it. Finally, I had gave up and went about finding a replacement. I made a few half-assed attempts to find something used. I scanned the Internet for end of season sales, and then one day I went to the Mecca (aka Home Depot) and came upon the Cadillac of lawn mowers. It was on for a very good price - for this level of lawn mower - and so I bought it.

I was happy. I even mowed my neighbour's lawn because I didn't want to wait for my own lawn to grow in to try the new one out. That's when I learned that I think I like the old lawn mower better.

I'm embarrassed to say it, but the Cadillac of lawn mowers isn't so great. Sure, it's earth friendly and cord-free. But, it's really heavy. If it didn't have a self propelling feature, I don't think I could push it all around the lawn. On the flip side, though; if you're using the self propelling feature and come to a stop without stopping the self propeller first, those wheels grind into the grass and leave divots. AND, the motor over heated on me 5 minutes into cutting my neighbour's admittedly very healthy lawn, so I ended up cutting the rest of the lawn at a higher level than I'd have liked.

All this is not to say that it isn't a good lawn mower. I just liked my old one, and I'm not a big fan of change. I'm sure I'll eventually get used to the new one, but I'm a wee bit disappointed.

Plus, there's the money issue. A new lawn mower was not in my budget. Because I bought it, I'm going to have to wait until I save up the money again to buy the new dresser I had planned. I haven't had a dresser in my bedroom since I moved here 4 1/2 years ago. (I have baskets in my closet to store socks and skivvies.)

Did I mention that I gave the old lawn mower away? I posted about it on Kijiji a week ago. I openly admitted that it was broken, but that I didn't want to fill the landfill. If somebody else thought that they could fix it, they were welcome to it. I posted that ad at 11:00pm last Saturday night. I woke up on Sunday morning at 7:00am to four responses. The lawn mower was gone shortly after that.


All that to say that today I needed to change a board on the front porch today. I got out my drill and my extension cord, and tried to remove the screws from the board. Except, the drill wouldn't start.

It turns out that the extension cord is broken. Not the drill. And not the lawn mower.

Go ahead and laugh. I'm sure I'll find it funny too... in a few years.