Red 'n Shiny: Part 2

Hey! there's our truck! Also shiny and red... but not so new as that spiffy lawn mower. This is the BAD part of the story. (Although the truck is shinier than usual because Bob carefully hand washed it before our trip.)
Bob needed to go to Vermont to install two sculptures; one at the North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show (or NBOSS google it) and another at the Bennington Museum. Despite COVID 19 throwing monkey wrenches into travel plans (like not being able to stay at the motel we typically stay at due to our hailing from a "restricted" part of Connecticut), we decided to go up for the day. Just an efficient whirlwind tour up Route 7, drop the sculptures, maybe eat some lunch and motor home. There are people we like to spend time with in Vermont and other attractions we like to visit (like MassMoca) but many are closed and humans are socially distancing. So it was going to be a no-frills sculpture install.
I drove us up as Bob is The Maestro and I wanted him relaxed and fresh for moving his sculptures. The truck ran like a top and deposited us in front of the North Bennington railroad station, where Bob's entry into last year's show was placed. Bob dismantled his (old) sculpture, unloaded his new sculpture and was going to move the truck across the street... when it wouldn't start. No noise, no nuthin'- just silence. While attempting to maintain a semblance of rationality (and inside screaming, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!! How can this be happening?!?!?!"), Bob called AAA and tried to read off a 15 digit number and explain what was up with our truck while a huge freight train rumbled past (great timing! Lots of railway crossing clanging and that long lonesome wail of the train's whistle). I meanwhile jiggled some wires and Hey presto! The truck turned over and we drove it across the street to the new location for Bob's new sculpture. (*2)
At this point, we were still awaiting AAA. Bob had the sculpture to install and our friend Andy (another sculptor from Connecticut, also in the show) arrived and between him and Joe (the curator of the show and a big fan of Bob's) they made quick work of setting up Bob's piece. I bought lunch somehow hoping that refueling us would magically cure the truck, or at least temporarily lift our flagging spirits.
AAA arrived and pronounced our starter a non-starter but managed to pop the clutch and get the truck started after Andy and Bob pushed the truck with the AAA guy driving (*1). The AAA man helpfully told us, "Don't turn it off. Just keep it running." I'm thinking, "Let's just get in the truck and fucking drive home..." but Bob had yet to load the old sculpture and install the one at the museum. I for one was not having a good day.
But we did eat lunch and Andy and Joe graciously suggested that THEY would take Bob's sculpture to the Museum and install it (apparently that show was on a hill in a field behind the museum. There was no way we were going to drive up there, risk stalling the truck and have to call AAA to some outlandish hillside pasture location). So good friends to the rescue! Three cheers for fellow sculptors!
I told Bob that I'd drive home, thinking that my nerves were so bloody frayed that at least driving would focus me and maybe I wouldn't completely melt down.
Long story short is that we made it. We didn't stop for anything (luckily, we needed neither gas nor a bathroom break) but I didn't breathe easy until we turned into our driveway. The truck is now at the garage for repairs. Guess what? The truck started on the first try this morning so it's probably not the starter, but a wire or connection. Hahahahaaha!
And if you're squeamish, skip the picture below, because it's not just lawn mowers and trucks that are red and shiny. How about my festering flesh?

Yuck! I look like the village leper but I guess it serves me right for "playing" in the poison ivy. You know me: live dangerously. (It actually looks worse than it feels.)


(*1) I myself became expert at doing this when I drove Triumphs and MGs all those years ago. This is one of the many beauties of standard shift vehicles.
(*2) The further irony here is that Bob had taken the ruck to be serviced the day before. He had had an oil change and an "all points check". Battery good, truck seemed fine and ready to go, so this wasn't some kind-of-expected "oh we should have maintained it better" episode.

Red 'n Shiny: Part 1

Look what we bought! For all kinds of reasons... primarily because our old mower was having "issues". Like not mowing well (at all!!) and being so bloody hard to push I thought I'd kill myself mowing the lawn and I actually am one of the very few remaining people who admits to LIKE mowing the lawn.(*1) So a new mower it is!
But the way we paid for the mower was another story. I would have happily used my/our bank debit card as that way it's paid for, no bill arrives in the mail and that's that. But earlier in the week, I had received a surly missive from Chase Bank stating that my credit limit was being lowered because I didn't use the card. (Which made no sense at all and I worried my credit would be "dinged".) After several wasted hours of attempting to call them ("Due to COVID 19, our call centers are staffed at lower levels..") and "visit the website" which only circled me around and around with nothing resembling what I need to know at all) I vowed to visit in person our local branch. I called to get the hours of operation and was apprised of the intelligence that due to COVID 19, this branch was only open for safe deposit boxes. I was losing it at this point and was ready to cancel the card (which would have "dinged" my credit...) but I actually reached a representative on yet another phone call. He basically informed me that because I had called, my credit limit would not be lowered (*2) and that I should USE THE CARD. Hence purchasing the mower with the Visa...
Anyway, the mower is a swell addition to our arsenal of power tools. We're keeping the old mower to do rough stuff like run over rocks and mow the horse field. We haven't had to use it yet as we had just mowed the lawn (based on Bob's Moon Calendar so as to inhibit new growth) but I'm actually anticipating a glorious, effortless experience. This new has many bells and whistles: it's self propelled and has an electric starter (no more chord pulling!) and bags and mulches and will probably sing us to sleep, too.

(*1) I realize there are all kinds of (almost) political and moral reasons for despising lawns nowadays. The main one is that so many people use lawn chemicals to attain that perfect greensward, and often the lawn is a bizarre mono-crop and unhealthy to begin with. We will never apply evil chemistry to our lawn, which remains a lovely and durable carpet of clover, dandelions, various plantains, knuckleheads, and other denizens of the so-called broad leaf weeds so reviled by turf purists. But I also remain entirely in the camp that asserts nothing sets up a garden bed better than a lovely green lawn.
(*2) These are the things that drive me crazeee. (Quoting Big Audio Dynamite (*3)). So my credit score- if lowered- could be re-raised but I'd have to under go a new credit check and that would "ding" my credit. And we all know that the credit card company is hoping that we'll use their card, carry a balance and wrack up those charming fees that make them money.
(*3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy44Fm-CS04&t=50s