Belted

The replacement belt for the tractor showed up yesterday.  After work I pulled the tractor out front and started the work.  After forgetting how the belts were routed I pulled out the owner’s manual to help me.  I got everything hooked back up and hopped on the mower to give it a try.  I held my breath as I pulled the knob.  The blades spun to life but I immediately felt a vibration from the mower deck that seemed out of the ordinary.  So I park the mower again and rip the mower deck out to reinspect everything.  I tightened up one of the tension pulleys and rerouted all of the belts.  I put it back together again and hit the blades.  It felt better although it still seemed to vibrate more than I remember, I may just be paranoid.  

We have gotten dumped on with rain again the past few days to the point where we have substantial standing water.  The rain is welcomed, our area really has needed it.  However I wish it could let up for a bit so our property doesn’t look like a swamp while my family is visiting.  A couple rain free days is all that should be needed to suck the excess water back into the ground.

 I have to be honest, I’m not real happy with Obama shifting around his energy policies in what seems a pretty transparent move to just cater to voters.  The polls say brainless lemmings like McSame pushing for offshore oil drilling so now Obama has hedged his stance towards it as well as being open to pulling oil from the national reserves.  I don’t like that.  It’s a tough situation because the bottom line is we have to get Obama into the White House if we want any chance of things changing direction.  Are we better off if he holds rigidly to his original positions if it means that the republican spin machine manages to steal yet another election away?  No, that would be a disaster.  Politics is such a dirty game.  I wish I just wouldn’t care about it. 

After the 2004 election where John Kerry TROUNCED Bush in every single debate, coming off as a much more intelligent, well informed, progressive individual and STILL lost.  I just have no faith in the American public to be brave enough to do anything but the status quo, even if that means running us right into a brick wall.