Just a few good tugs

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

I’m admittedly not great at scheduled routine mainenance. For example, I will stare at that “Oil Change” notification on my dashboard for at least a couple of weeks before I finally get around to changing my oil.

I’m the same way with the filter in the central heating and air unit. How often do you really need to change those, right? Well, for me it’s usually right after the guys calls to schedule my semi-annual cleaning and inspection.

I’m especially bad when it comes to lawnmowers. I know there’s a “right” way to put them up for the winter, like you’re supposed to “do stuff” — like drain the gas or the oil or something and knock all the grime and debris off of it… well, I don’t do any of that. I do good to remember not to just leave it sitting by the side of the house when I’ve mowed for the last time in the fall.

For that reason, I tend to think of lawn mowers as more or less “disposable,” since I’ll pay $150 or so for a cheap one and just use and abuse it until it dies, which is usually around two or three years.

But this last mower, which I bought in 2019, the spring after we moved into our current home, has really proven

See VIEWPOINT, page A5 VIEWPOINT

From page A4

itself hard to kill. Despite my complete lack of upkeep and general disregard for running over sticks and stumps and whatever chew toy my dog has left in the tall grass, it just keeps on rolling along.

It made it through 2019 and was promptly tossed into the shed. It survived 2020, even though I mowed like once a week whether the yard needed it or not, just looking for something to do at the height of coronavirus. The 2021 and 2022 seasons saw Old Reliable back in the shed to await another springtime… which came just a couple of weeks ago. And so, like I have always done, I crossed my fingers and headed out to the shed to create a path out for my lawnmower, clearing away the boxes of Christmas decorations, roughly three miles of extension cords, my wife’s bags of chicken coop bedding and everything else that blocked its path from the back corner of the shed where it had sat, still with last fall’s oil and gas and caked on grass curttings.

I got her out, topped off the gas, pumped the little primer button on the side, pulled back the starting level and yanked on the ol’ rip cord.

And wouldn’t you know, a little belch of smoke, a little choked-up chugga-chug and we were off and mowing for another year…

Now that’s a quality product, my friends!