A sign of the times post,,,,

Here’s my problem,

I fight a war with grass (weeds really) every year, (every homeowner knows this war, right?)

but thats not the real problem; that real problem is I have been doing so with a lawn mower that is 20 years old.    One made by Craftsman, that is no longer making that model and there are ZERO parts available for it now.   I have been keeping it together with a shoestring and composite resins,,,   Literally in the last item: the intake manifold is this cheesy peice of plastic tubing that has a bend on one end where it goes into the engine.  It cracked a couple years back and was sucking air but no fuel.  I found the problem, found I could NOT get parts for it, and figured, “alright McGuyver, you got this, make it work”.   And I did.   Well, long story short, its that time of year again and here we go with me trying to yank start an engine that is fickle on its best days and down right muleish on its worst (today being ‘worst’)    This old shoulder doesn’t wanna, if you get my meaning,,,,  Old girl has mown untold acres of grass, shaved a few rocks flat, and has seen better days, and I don’t know that fiddlin’ with her is worth it much anymore,,,,

SO,,,, Looking around the webs, making some inquiries local,,, Looks like I am going to be coughing up a bit of cash for new, or used, and there isn’t much difference in price in either case.  

Where my sign of the times post comes in is here: Do I really want to make the investment of buying a new mower, on credit with 0% interest over 6 months,,,,

When we don’t even know if the world is going to hold together that long: IE, is there going to be work to be had to make the FRN’s to pay that debt back?

Gee,,, Wish the asshats in the Swamp were forced to account for things in the same way,,,,  Naw, they just print what they want and WE pay it back,,,,   Must be nice having a blank check whenever you feel like padding your wallet with someone elses money,,,,,Fuckin’ thieves, one and all,,,,,

Haven’t made up my mind if I wanna play the McGuyver role again and pull things apart and bandaid whatever I find. (and it will be bandaid.  new engines are MORE expensive than a complete mower,,,,) OR, bite the bullet and hope shit holds together long enough,,,, 

or bite the bullet and if things go south, fly the finger at all creditors and ride the shitty credit rating thing,,,,   Not my style, really not my style and would eat at me,,,, so really not ‘an option’,,,,

I have been playing with pullin’ old girl apart and using the current intake manifold as a pattern to cast new, or find some aluminum tubing and fabricating a new, PROPER intake,,,  Time space and money thing there; that holey trinity we all face when things aren’t ‘just right’.  

and if I do that, welp! the weeds will get taller and taller for a spell.  And they aren’t exactly short right now,,, We’ve been having weather that fits their needs quite well and they are gunning for the sun.   You can almost hear them growing out there.

and right now, I don’t even know that that, is the problem,,, could be a crapped out carb, or coil taking a crap, or, or, or,,,,   Ran good just a week ago.  Now???

grrk,,,, wallet or grubby fingers????   sigh

frillin’ weeds,,,, stoopid mower,,,,,  

((updated:: pulled it apart, intake fine, no fuel getting to engine.  Runs like a scalded dog if I shoot fuel down the intake.  Bad Carb,,,   Gonna see what I can do to clean/fix that before I go dumpin’ mad money into new.))