Speed

I have little time today.  I finally got to talk to my dad on the phone last night, the first time I have done so since Maggie passed away.  Even though a week has passed the pain from loss is still very present, as expected.  Dad broke up a few times talking about Maggie and how hard it was to see her go downhill.  He said he had her remains cremated which I expected.  What I didn’t expect was dad’s plans for the remains.  He is going to drive cross country to spread some of her ashes at each place she lived, meaning Flying Hills, Marienville, and the two places in New Mexico.

I appreciated the thoughtfulness of the plan.  Although to most it would seem like a very large endeavor to pay tribute to the passing of their dog, I hope a side benefit will be the journey helps dad come to grip with the loss.  I told him on the phone I knows how he feels as I have had similar crushing emotional reactions to the loss of pets. Hell I get wrecked when one of our chickens die.  Only time helps dull those wounds.

We have a jam packed weekend ahead.  Tomorrow we need to pick up more supplies for Cindy to finish pond scaping.  While we are out I also want to stop at Lowe’s to order my new tractor.  I am mowing on borrowed time on my old Craftsman YT4000.  I am going to buy a Husqvarna TS 242XD, the most upscale tractor I have ever had.  It has a bunch of nice features but the biggest thing I wanted in my next tractor was a welded deck which is made of much thicker and more durable steel than the shitty stamped decks lower priced tractors come with.

The three mowers I have had since owning the home all had stamped decks and all three of them have fallen apart. They rust easily, develop holes and just suck all the way around if you are using your tractor is a pretty serious way as we do.  We have a lot of property to mow.  With the 242XD the deck should last the life of the tractor. It will by far the most I ever have spent on a tractor, hopefully it’s worth it in the long run.  I have replaced a BUNCH of parts on my Craftsman over the years and I am trying to unload it before a full deck replacement is required.

On Sunday Cindy and I are driving over to the east coast to pick up the demo EUC that I will be evaluating from Mickey, who currently has it.  I then have taken off from work through Wednesday to give me time to thoroughly test the wheel on a compressed timeline.  I did something similar once before with the Ninebot Z10.  It was tiring but fun and gratifying at the same time. I am hoping for a similar experience this time around.