Keeping Busy
When I poked my sleepy head outside this morning, I was greeted by a rancid, smoky odor, so I got a late start on my yard and garden work. But it cleared out after a while, so I set to work repairing my electric mower.
I learned some things about the mower today. That big flat disk above the blade is called the "fan" and it's not supposed to be a flat disk. It's supposed to have these big fins sticking out of it...who knew? No wonder the mower kept getting all clogged with clippings. I have no idea what happened to the fins...I guess they either broke off or wore down.
And I also learned that if you replace all the parts in a piece of equipment that are cracked and split or worn down to stubs, it works a lot better. I did a little mowing, and it was much easier than it had been with everything all worn. I guess they just don't make plastic as well as they used to. No wait, when I was a kid, they did not have plastic...nada...zip. They made things out of something called "metal" or something called "wood". OK, sorry, irrelevant history and TMI...lol. Cars made out of metal...hard to imagine, isn't it?
Years ago, I happened on a site of a car wreck down the street from where I was living in Miami. The road had low spots and dips where side streets joined it, they were designed as "crown" roads for better drainage. At thirty miles an hour you hardly noticed that, but the driver of the wrecked car had been going much, much faster than the thirty-mile-an-hour limit.
He'd gone airborne and got stopped by a roadside tree trunk. What was remarkable, everyone at the scene was talking about it, was the fact that you could not pick out any part of the car as something recognizable. I saw part of one wheel and tire, but the rest was just twisted garbage. And of course somewhere mixed into all that was possibly human remains. The EMT's were standing there dumfounded. There was essentially no body left. They said they had never seen that before.
What I found really remarkable was the fact that the tree the car had impacted was not seriously damaged at all. There was some bark scraped off, but that was it. Now there is some food for thought as many of us get ready to drive around at high speed this holiday weekend in our plastic cars.
I'll be staying at home with my trees and cats.
I learned some things about the mower today. That big flat disk above the blade is called the "fan" and it's not supposed to be a flat disk. It's supposed to have these big fins sticking out of it...who knew? No wonder the mower kept getting all clogged with clippings. I have no idea what happened to the fins...I guess they either broke off or wore down.
And I also learned that if you replace all the parts in a piece of equipment that are cracked and split or worn down to stubs, it works a lot better. I did a little mowing, and it was much easier than it had been with everything all worn. I guess they just don't make plastic as well as they used to. No wait, when I was a kid, they did not have plastic...nada...zip. They made things out of something called "metal" or something called "wood". OK, sorry, irrelevant history and TMI...lol. Cars made out of metal...hard to imagine, isn't it?
Years ago, I happened on a site of a car wreck down the street from where I was living in Miami. The road had low spots and dips where side streets joined it, they were designed as "crown" roads for better drainage. At thirty miles an hour you hardly noticed that, but the driver of the wrecked car had been going much, much faster than the thirty-mile-an-hour limit.
He'd gone airborne and got stopped by a roadside tree trunk. What was remarkable, everyone at the scene was talking about it, was the fact that you could not pick out any part of the car as something recognizable. I saw part of one wheel and tire, but the rest was just twisted garbage. And of course somewhere mixed into all that was possibly human remains. The EMT's were standing there dumfounded. There was essentially no body left. They said they had never seen that before.
What I found really remarkable was the fact that the tree the car had impacted was not seriously damaged at all. There was some bark scraped off, but that was it. Now there is some food for thought as many of us get ready to drive around at high speed this holiday weekend in our plastic cars.
I'll be staying at home with my trees and cats.
Replies
Stay home with your trees and cats Richie. The thing that really irriates me is that right before the holidays, they always start advertising alcoholic beverages on the TV. It\'s like PALEEEEEZE! My kid is out there drivin to work!!!
Sad story about that accident. Demon alcohol. And it\'s not one drink that\'s gonna hurt ya. One drink is healthy! It\'s the abuse, and the young kids that steal it from mom and dad, then get behind a 2000 pound killing machine and drive on the expressways. Off the soapbox now, sorry!
AHA! Your lawn mower was missing it\'s fins! Good thing that hasn\'t happened to my fish!!
Have a happy Thanksgiving Richie. Do something yummy with your mustard greens and make yourself happy. I\'m down with a crash that is just unrelenting. I doubt I will be going anywhere tomorrow.
We shall think of each other....and how we are safe at home, with our mowers, and fishies..and, of course, some plastic.....somewhere!!
Oh my - it is too true about plastic. I only drive my Chevy S-10 around about 50 miles in an entire year. I get to miss most of \'road kill\' out there.
I\'ll be here resting tomorrow so no chance of harm there either - well unless some \'plastic\' part fall off some airplane and lands in my home LOL
((hugs))
:-) Patricia
So true. Alcohol, speed on the roads with tired & distracted drivers. Scary - we are no match for a tree. Have a peaceful day tomorrow. Hugs, Linda
Happy Thanksgiving Richie you will be in my thoughts and prayers Thanksgiving Day. Are ya gonna watch the parade? I have watched the Macy\'s Day parade since I was a little girl. Which was many moons ago HeHe. Always was excited to see Santa at the end. My son is cooking this year...usually it\'s my hubby but he\'s working. They are both good cooks. Wish I could send you a piece of my pumpkin pie I made today. Anyway you are in my thoughts & in my prayers. Glad to hear you got the mower working better. Less energy for you to use up. Hugs, Grace
It\'s so true about the cheap way that cars are built now. You get a little bumper thumper and you have to replace the entire car. I remember when I was little my mother fell asleep at the wheel and rammed a giant gasoline tanker truck on the highway. That old Studebaker surely saved all our lives. No seat belts back then. Those old push lawn mowers are still churning fine. Maybe need a blade sharpened every ten yrs, but still going strong....
Soapbox comments welcome in this space...long live soapbox freedom.
Thanks for all the wishes for Thanksgiving. I\'m having a virtual dinner online with some of my friends where we can have all we want of virtual food and drink. In the real? world, it\'s just another day...might get some mowing done.
Yes, they still do sell push mowers with reel blades and no engines, isn\'t that great? Mine\'s electric, but I do have to push it around. I like it because it\'s light weight and I don\'t have to tinker with the carburetor or the spark plug...and no exhaust fumes to bother my asthma. Our Florida grass has a lot of silica in it, so the mower blade does need sharpening frequently...maybe ten times in a season.
So I do like what plastic can do...make things lightweight but strong...and let\'s not forget low-priced. The newest jetliners use a lot of it, and use less fuel because of that.
But on the highway, I drive a GMC Sonoma...lots of metal around me...too many drunks on the road to suit me....and not enough people staying within the rules of the road. Forty-five means forty-five...not fifty-three.
Although I prefer plastic cars to metal as they don\'t rust and you can bump into things and it pops right back out (like the time I side swiped one of those short orange poles in a parking garage). But in general, I hate plastic and the cheap construction of things these days.
The body of the car does not absorb impact anyway. All the crash absorption is underneath the body panels. Yeah, in the 70s you could run into a tree at 100mph and the car would survive w/ nothing but a scrape in the bumper, but the driver was 300ft down the road.
The problem now is everyone drives these teeny little import death traps because they want to save a few hundred bucks a year on gas. Not worth it. It\'s like driving a tin can down the road. I drive a nice big Cadillac and I prefer the feeling of safety around me rather than the thought that I saved $1.20 on this trip. Mine is an all wheel drive v8 SUV, the gas guzzliest of them all. But I don\'t care. I\'d much rather feel safe. I can\'t stand being in tiny cars
My aunt and uncle just recently got in an accident at a good rate of speed. They were in a Lincoln and the other driver was in an import. You can barely see any damage on my aunt/uncle\'s Lincoln, but the import was totaled.
Maybe we are not environmentally correct in this, Smith. But until they get compliance with rules and get some of these drunks and druggies off the roads, I\'m staying with my pickup truck. In Britain they give out tickets for speeding \"just a bit\" and running stop signs or red lights.
When they try to do that here, people raise the roof over it.
Here\'s to our Florida troopers out working full force today trying to get people to obey the rules and stay safe.