A brief diversion.

We'll get back to the "travelog" at some point in time.

I'm sure you care.

Remember when people would go to far off places and bring back slide shows, and you'd pay a couple bucks at the library and they'd do a little show and tell?
I guess blogging pretty much put an end to that little cottage industry.


But I digress.


Today's plan involved Gabe going to the salon for "kleur" (colour) so I had made an appointment yesterday for first thing this morning. That's because I'm the "go to" guy when it comes to making reservations or appointments on the phone. Ya gotta know the lingo...
This usually involves me dropping her off with the car and then fetching her again after an hour or so. There was also some treats to be picked up for the accounting staff (I guess since she's getting out of Dodge).
and well, the long and the short of it is, I ended up with the car for the day.

This meant I could go to my favourite store ever, and see if I could find a couple things.




Here's the thing.

If all goes according to plan, and notice is given to our Landlord by the 15th of this month, that means we're still effectively here for another 60 days.

That's the deal.

What this means is, Muggin' here has to cut the grass what? eight? nine more times? That would be my guess.

Now, last year sometime our good ole' landlord said he would fix the lawnmower, since the handle was showing signs of wear but alas, that never happened. He was also going to come around and fetch the thing, have the blade sharpened.....bla bla bla.....

(Hey....it's his flippin' lawnmower, OK?)


Whatever. In two months, he can....well, I won't say what he can do with his "wonder machine" or the dryer....or his lawn mower. But you kind of have the idea that there's a metal recyclers around here somewhere who really needs to be paid a visit.

The thing is, I don't really mind cutting the grass. I never really minded cutting grass. It all has to do with the equipment. If you're using a piece of junk, it's not a lot of fun. Our last lawnmower was a two stroke, and in spite of the several good features that it had, the fact of the matter was, it stunk.
So getting others to use the thing was a bit of a chore, and I wasn't overly keen on using the thing myself either.
What that meant was that way, way back when we went to Puerto Rico and got a lawn service, we decided that grass cutting was no longer going to be high on our list of things one simply did as a matter of course.

Meanwhile, here I am, once again stuck with a piece of junk, and I somehow have to keep the handle from breaking off.
See, the machine is heavy, and under engineered. To simply order a new handle isn't going to fix the problem, since it's too frail to start with. It was beginning to give up the ghost last summer already.
If you look closely just to the right of the knob, (click the pic) you can see the bloody handle is nearly fatigued all the way through.


Ideally, finding a piece of tubing just one size smaller and inserting it would probably work.
Good luck with that.
I could probably come up with a couple places around Burlington where I'd begin to search, but over here? C'mon!

So....here are the items that we have to work with.
Oh ya. That's duct tape. I do have some grey in my tool box, but decided to spring for some black, just for the aesthetics. Plus the hope is that the little "splints" will keep the thing from completely coming asunder for a few more weeks.

I just can't wait until next week to try it out. Phuh.


It's still a little bit wobbly, but the handle's not going anywhere.

Keep yer sticks on the ice.

(just in keeping with the duct tape theme)