Kicking grass and taking names, playing dead, tether time, if you don’t suceed try, try, try, try, try, try again…
Yesterday I left work early to meet up the with the people delivering the new mower from Sears. Up until this point I was impressed with the communication regarding the purchase/delivery. I had been contacted 2 or 3 times to verify everything was in order.
I received a message Wednesday night that the delivery window was from 1:15 to 3:15 on Thursday. A little after noon I received another message that the delivery guy was actually ahead of schedule. I called the delivery guy and let him know I was planning to be home around 1 but I would leave immediately.
When I pulled up to the house the delivery truck was already in front of my house and the tractor was sitting at the end of the driveway. I did a walk around of the tractor as the guy was organizing the load in his truck to make sure there was no transit damage. Everything looked great to me.
The driver pushed the tractor up into the garage for me. He said all it needs is gas and you are good to go. If I wasn’t so rushed I may have tried to make sure I had some cash to tip the guy but all I had was a $20 bill so all he got was a firm handshake and a promise to rate him highly when I get the phone survey regarding the delivery.
After the guy left I admired the new tractor some more. A few things stood out as noticeable. First the tractor has very wide rear tires, considerably wider than what is on the Cub Cadet. Who doesn’t like fat tires? The mower deck design looked pretty smart. The blade pulleys are mounted in an elevated position from the deck, leaving at least 6 inches between the pulley and the deck surface. This is in contrast to the Cub where the pulley is right above the deck and as a result becomes constantly clogged with grass in short order.
I also liked the way it handles mowing reverse. With my Cub Cadet you could NOT mow in reverse unless you weren’t willing to McGyver your tractor. I actually disabled a switch to enable it. With the Craftsman tractor all you have to do is move the key to a secondary position once the tractor is on to enable backwards mowing. This is a much better way to do it.
I read later that the mowing deck actually has a wash port. After you are done mowing you attach a hose to a fitting on the deck to blast out the crud underneath, keeping the area free of debris for maximum efficiency, how slick. The tractor looked physically bigger than the Cub even though it sports the same 42″ cutting deck.
I needed gas for the tractor so I loaded up the girls and filled up two of my 5 gallon containers. By the time I got back I was surprised to see Truly Nolen was there, they were early as well for their pest control appointment.
So I gassed up the tractor and had at it. There were some minor control differences from the Cub. Instead of an electric PTO clutch you actuate the blades with a big handle. The accelerator and reverse pedals are 2 separate things in the Craftsman mower instead of one in the Cub.
Immediately I noticed the huge jump in power. The tractor ripped through high grass like nothing and shot grass out the side chute like a submachine gun. I could pretty much mow as fast as I wanted to go. This tractor also has an 8 inch turning radius which allowed me to pull off new moves I previously could not do before. I mowed the entire property, some of which had high and thick grass, in record time.
Ironically I also received the parts to fix the Cub Cadet. After I got done mowing with the new tractor, I pulled the old tractor into the garage to complete the repairs. After I put the new pulley on I gave the Cub a bath to prepare it for sale on Craigslist. It never hurts your bottom line to clean something up before you sell it. I told Ali after using the Craftsman I wouldn’t want to use the Cub anyway. Plus it will be nice to get a few hundred bucks to offset the cost of the new tractor.
After I got done outside I jumped in the pool to do some tethered swimming. The first time I tried tethered swimming I couldn’t last more than a couple minutes at a time. I did something like 15-16 minutes of tethered swimming and I probably could have done more. It really is a good way to train for open water swimming since it is non-stop effort with no wall pushing every 25-50 meters.
Yesterday at work I saw a tiny baby anole lizard in the warehouse. It couldn’t have been much more than an inch and half long.. I knew if it stayed inside it would die in short order so I corralled it in my hands. As soon as I got it in my hands it stiffened up and looked like it died. I thought perhaps I gave the little thing a heart attack. I carried it outside with my palm upright as it laid there, motionless. When I got outside I gave it a couple bumps to see if it was just playing dead. Luckily it was as he moved an arm. I put him in the mulch under a bush. I am awaiting a comment from Randy Romero.
You may recall that I was stuck forever on the Vulcan level of Tower Defense: Lost Earth Iphone game. I resorted to looking for help on the internet to get by this level that seemed impossible. Finally by using some advice and a picture of a recommended tower layout and then expanding upon it I got by the hellish level. It was pretty smooth sailing until I got to the final level where again I ran into repeated failures. I eventually managed to figure out a strategy on my own to get by it. The game is officially beaten although I may go through it again on the harder level on Ali’s Ipad. It will be a good way to pass the time on the airplane.
This weekend Ali has another massive training run to undertake, 17 miles this time. I am again going to be her support team. I am going to be exclusively on the bike this time. Running with water is a pain in the ass. I am planning to have my bike loaded up with water as well as donning a back back to carry more H2O. We are going to get out there before the sun rises to both beat the heat and get the damn thing over with. I figure if I want to get my own running in I could do it as part of a Sunday brick.
This weekend Ali and I hope to dedicate some time to mapping out our NYC/Ireland trip a bit more. We have a lot of sources of info to go through. Ali is very good at getting the details lined up when it comes to travel.