No One’s Gonna Steal My Mower

Well, now that summer is here, the sounds of lawn mowers fill the otherwise quiet weekend air. Maybe this was the year you bought a new mower. Or yours might be just a few years old. I’m sure you’d be very careful about leaving it in the yard unattended. Around here, that’d be a sure way to lose a mower, or anything else of value.

I suppose one way to guard against a theft like that might be to rent or borrow a mower. But that’s too much hassle every week. You’d probably just make sure to park it in the garage or shed each time you’ve finished cutting your grass.

My plan was a little different. I don’t own a new mower, don’t have plans to buy one anytime soon, and I could leave mine right by the street, overnight, and no one would even think of taking it. Let me explain.

Probably 20 years ago or so, a neighbor wanted to get rid of his power mower. He was looking for more exercise and had chosen a push rotary mower. You know, the kind you see in those old black and white movies. Well, my mower had just died and I’d started looking around.

So when he offered to give me his old mower, I thought, “Sure, why not. I can use it until I find what I’m looking for, new.” Besides, his mower looked like it was about ready for the scrap heap, anyway.

It had a Snapper body

 

A Lawn Chief motor

 

And looked like it might fall apart any minute.

Well, that was years and years ago, but the crazy thing still runs just fine. I’ve never serviced it or sharpened the blade. All I do, each time I’m ready to mow, is pour in some oil, fill it with gas, and away we go. Once I did back over the catch bag and had to stitch it up in several places. Now I call it Frankenmower.

I’ve replaced the long handle once

And all 4 wheels...twice!

 

The grass shoot is made from an old campaign sign from a former TV commercials client

But other than that…nothing.

The poor thing kind of reminds me of the old Johnny Cash song,  “One Piece At A Time” Here’s a link to the song on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM

So, as I said, no one’s gonna steal my mower…ever! I think this machine is a TV commercial waiting to be produced.