I enjoy mending things, but I also enjoy moaning about doing it. I suppose it's a bit like poker players and bad beat stories.
Still, I wouldn't dream of boring you to death with the minutiae of my mend and make do existance... Unless of course someone were to choose a specific picture and ask for more information, then it would be my public duty.
The bottom photo please.
It's a red something - either a lawn mower or a coffee machine at a guess. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In 10 years he has never missed a chance.
I used to have a ride-on lawnmower. She was a Hayter, she was green, she was hydrostatic, she had a 16 HP Briggs & Stratton v twin and she it was beyond doubt the most cantankerous, frustrating piece of machinery ever invented.
| Click to see full-size image. |
During the summer months once a week she and I used to cut my grass, which meant that once a week, before she it would do my bidding, I had to mend her.
Well I say mend her but that doesn't accurately describe the processes. Sure, I had to attend to some or other mechanical issue, (often several) but I also had to coax her and fanny about with her, alternately swearing and pleading as I primed her carburettor, adjusted her air screws and re-set the gap in her spark plugs.
Finally, when she was satisfied with my ministrations she would roar into life and perform faultlessly, cutting and mulching the grass like it was all she ever wanted to do, then I would park her in the shed and she would purr contentedly until I switched off the engine.
The following week the whole process would start again....
We went on like that for years that bloody mower and me, arguing and fighting like an old married couple, but always getting the job done. I even used to write about our weekly spats on here, if my fingers weren't to sore to type that is. Then came that one fateful day when, like many a good man before me, my head was turned by a younger, sexier model.
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I was smitten. She had all the right curves in all the right places, she was young, she was fast, she was nice to handle, she was available and she was cheap. It's a story as old as time. I didn't stand a chance.
I got rid of the Hayter and moved the new girl in.
Proudly I posted a pic of her on here. I expected praise but tikay launched right into me. "Aww.. your poor old mower. Have you no heart? After all you've been through together. Mark my words, you'll regret it."
Now tikay may not be the world's greatest mechanic, I don't think he knows his laughing shaft from his giggling pin but he does understand about the relationship that sometimes forms between a man and a piece of machinery when they work together and depend on each other. (I think he inherited it from his dad or his grandad).
Whatever the case, he was right. I did regret it, but took me a while to realise it, and even longer to admit it.
To be continued...
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