The piano rule
The other day (Wednesday, April 28, 2010) I was mowing lawn with our fabulous Husqvarna zero-turn lawnmower.
A zero-turn is heavy, probably 600-700 pounds.
A zero-turn is a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.
Ours is a residential zero-turn, not the megabuck zero-turns used by commercial mowing services.
Nevertheless, it's a big monster, 48-inch cut.
I headed down a path, what turned out to be a Slough of Despond.
Within seconds I was stuck, spinning the drive-wheels in the muck.
I dismounted; the mower would have to be pulled out.
I tried pulling, but it's heavy.
My wife came out.
“Here, lemme help.
UNH!”
Two creaky geezers pulling 600-700 pounds.
“What do we hafta do?” she asked. “Get it on dry ground?”
Shoving from the rear was impossible, no footing.
I contemplated pulling it out with my semi-retired rider, my other mower.
We pulled the front, and moved it a few inches.
A little more, and I was able to drive out.
Many years ago, winter of 1966-'67, we drove out into the snow-covered remains of a cornfield near Geneseo in my Corvair.
A Corvair has its engine in the rear, engine weight over the driving wheels. I thought it wouldn't get stuck.
But we did.
My wife-to-be got out and started pushing.
“WHOA!” I thought to myself.
An actual woman not afraid to help me move a piano.
Every woman I'd known previously seemed to be the antithesis of that.
Heavy work was men's work.
After extracting our zero-turn, I restated the cardinal rule.
“I married you because you'd help me move a piano.”
• My wife of 42+ years is “Linda.”
• RE: “Two creaky geezers.....” —We're both 66.
• “Geneseo” (jen-uh-SEE-oh”) is a small college town south of Rochester, NY. My wife-to-be was studying library science there. —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester. At that time I had just graduated college, and was living in Rochester.
A zero-turn is heavy, probably 600-700 pounds.
A zero-turn is a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.
Ours is a residential zero-turn, not the megabuck zero-turns used by commercial mowing services.
Nevertheless, it's a big monster, 48-inch cut.
I headed down a path, what turned out to be a Slough of Despond.
Within seconds I was stuck, spinning the drive-wheels in the muck.
I dismounted; the mower would have to be pulled out.
I tried pulling, but it's heavy.
My wife came out.
“Here, lemme help.
UNH!”
Two creaky geezers pulling 600-700 pounds.
“What do we hafta do?” she asked. “Get it on dry ground?”
Shoving from the rear was impossible, no footing.
I contemplated pulling it out with my semi-retired rider, my other mower.
We pulled the front, and moved it a few inches.
A little more, and I was able to drive out.
Many years ago, winter of 1966-'67, we drove out into the snow-covered remains of a cornfield near Geneseo in my Corvair.
A Corvair has its engine in the rear, engine weight over the driving wheels. I thought it wouldn't get stuck.
But we did.
My wife-to-be got out and started pushing.
“WHOA!” I thought to myself.
An actual woman not afraid to help me move a piano.
Every woman I'd known previously seemed to be the antithesis of that.
Heavy work was men's work.
After extracting our zero-turn, I restated the cardinal rule.
“I married you because you'd help me move a piano.”
• My wife of 42+ years is “Linda.”
• RE: “Two creaky geezers.....” —We're both 66.
• “Geneseo” (jen-uh-SEE-oh”) is a small college town south of Rochester, NY. My wife-to-be was studying library science there. —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester. At that time I had just graduated college, and was living in Rochester.
posted by BobbaLew at 6:49 AM
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