Sunday, July 11, 2010

Taking the Bad With the Good

The Bad

Yesterday morning, A. took the lawn tractor down to the beach to start the water pump. When he tried to start the tractor again to come back up to the house, the engine blew. Like, oil-leaking-everywhere, no-hope-of-recovery blew. And it was on the wrong side of the road. Beyond the bottom of the driveway. Uphill all the way to the house.

At first we thought if we could just get it to the bottom of the driveway, we could chain it to the truck and pull it the rest of the way up that way. So we pushed it up the little ridge from the lakeshore and waited for a break in the heavy traffic of a Saturday morning in the summer. Then we started pushing it across the road. And then some kind of special lever on the back that disengages to put the tractor in neutral randomly re-engaged, so it wasn't in neutral anymore. Which meant the back wheels were dragging and pushing suddenly got about five times as hard. And then a car appeared. Whoops.

We did manage to get it across the road with some difficulty, but no bodily harm. But our plan to hook it to the truck the rest of the way didn't work, because it wouldn't stay in neutral to roll up the driveway. A. needed to be next to it so he could kick it back into neutral when it slipped out. Which meant we needed to push it. Or, in my case, pull it. With the rope we had looped around the axle. So I pulled like a draft horse on the front, A. pushed from the back, and we slowly slogged our way up (and I do mean UP--everything is uphill when you're coming from the lake) to the house, finally leaving the tractor on the lawn by the house.

Then A. spent about half an hour disconnecting things so he could lift the engine out, with the idea that he would just order a whole new engine and put it in himself. I guess no one rebuilds small engines anymore--like so much else, it's cheaper to just buy a whole new one. But after he got it out and figured out what kind of engine he would need, he discovered those particular engines are not cheap. And it will actually be cheaper to buy a whole new tractor.

So that was not such a good start to the day.

But then!

The Good

Yesterday was the annual village festival. We didn't attend most of the events, but we did go to the parade. With Cubby, of course. Who loved it, of course. Especially the fife and drum corps. All that wonderful noise was just his scene. This year, the festival had a circus theme, so there were several clowns in the parade. And, this being upstate New York, several of the clowns were carrying beers as they cavorted their way down Main Street. Awesome.

Plus, we got to play with the granddaughter of one of the MiL's friends, a little girl only a few months older than Cubby who is OH MY GOD SO ADORABLE with her little curls and blue eyes. Of course, with babies under a year, "playing" is a relative term. Mostly, Clementine (even her NAME is adorable) grabbed at Cubby's feet in the chariot and attempted to grab his face. And he just stared quite solemnly at this other grabby small person. But it was still beyond cute to see two babies examining each other.

So at least we ended the day on a good note.

8 comments:

  1. One thing about folks who live like we do is nothing gets them down for long.
    Hey, look at it this way....it will be heavy for scrap. Or you can sell it for parts to someone who may need them. There are all kinds of parts on a tractor besides the engine.
    Sure hope your day goes better today. Beth

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  2. Clowns with beer in a parade? Damn, why wasn't that a tradition when I was 17 and in Mayberry's Clown Troupe, being bussed to the far reaches of Oklahoma to participate in parades?!

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  3. ::laughing my ass off about the clowns with beers::: I live near syracuse... I truly understand (and sometimes I'm one of them *grin*)

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  4. Did you have clowns listed in the good category? Must be a mistake, right?

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  5. For A. go to Green Magazine dot com (yes, I work for them, but this is free) and go to the message board. LOTS of helpful guys there who could help him rebuild this engine. Also, we have Tractor Shop magazine which is non-JD tractors, but it's not "free".
    Have him check out the links also, for more knowledgeable help.

    (I dont' get compensation for this, just like to help those guys who love their tractors.)

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  6. It is so fun to see babies discovering each other! As for clowns with beers, that would go over well in Wisconsin. Beer is practically our state beverage!

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  7. It's amazing how much a parade can lift your spirits. And clowns with beer take a parade to the next level. I'm glad someone sees how strange it is to say that one-year olds are playing together. It's more a combination of discovering and clobbering each other with blocks.

    And you're right. Clementine is such an adorable name!

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