Aaaagh -- the perversity of inanimate objects

[pameladean]

It's a cool, almost cold, June evening, with a bit of a breeze to help keep the mosquitoes away. I've been uneasily aware all week that I really must mow the lawn. I had to get over the irrational resentment that it had grown while I was out of town.

The lawn mower died, about a swatch and a half in. This is hardly surprising. The lawn mower in question is a Sears electric mower from, I think, the 1970's. It originally belonged to Pat and Jim Wrede. Pat lent it to us an embarrasingly long time ago, and then gave it to Jim during her divorce. Jim has come over at least once to replace the brushes for us, but he hasn't got much use for an ancient lawn mower and has reportedly moved to Oklahoma without it.

We did not take the mower to Sears to be repaired, because our own original Sears electric mower, acquired in the 1980's, had used up its first allotment of brushes, and when we took it to Sears they told us that they could no longer get the parts. We bought another much newer Sears electric mower from carbonel when she upgraded to one with a battery rather than a cord. However, this one has never worked for us. It worked fine for her, and when we took it in to Sears they said there was nothing wrong with it. It's still in the garage. Not working. The ancient one was lent us while we resolved this problem, but we couldn't quite figure out how to do so, and the ancient mower worked fine.

Tomorrow I get to call a couple of places like Cedar Small Engine and see if they have any interest in repairing either of these objects. I suspect, however, that we are going to have to get a new mower. And not from Sears. Sears is Just Not Supposed to be unable to get parts for any Craftsman device. They fell down on their duty. Since they also abandoned their huge Minneapolis store when the going got tough, and one has to drive to Burnsville just to be told there's nothing wrong with one's non-working mower, I think we'll just give them a miss next time.

Does anybody want to recommend an electric or manual mower, or a place to find one? I refuse to consort with a gasoline engine, and I'm the one doing the mowing.

Pamela

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

We use a reel mower for the community garden, except during plantain season or if it gets too high -- then we borrow a gas mower from an obliging neighbor.

The problem with plantains is that their flower heads just lie down in front of the rollers and the pop back up and jeer at you.

The other problem with a reel mower, which doesn't give me any more of a workout than the gas mower when things are going well, is that it's more or less useless in tall grass.

All that being said, we bought one at the Home Despot for about eighty bucks.

(Note to self: Must borrow gas mower from Rich one evening next week)