Laughing At Yourself, Or At Me

In my little welcome speech on the left I say “bad days come and go, the good ones stick in your heart for a lifetime, and that you have to laugh at yourself to really enjoy life because if you don’t then you just hear the laughter of everyone else”, with that said I have poked fun at Cindy a good bit here and she has been a good sport about it, so let’s turn the table a little once just for her and the rest of you too.

I like good days because they do outnumber the bad ones, and I do like laughter whether it be from a little kid, you know what I am saying those belly laughs that just go on and on till you can’t stop yourself from laughing to the snickers you hear over your shoulder from someone you love who you didn’t know was watching you when you messed up, although it may get under your skin for a minute you know that you would have laughed too had the shoe been on the other foot, and speaking of the shoe being on the other foot I said I would turn the tables here today for Cindy.

Have you ever had a bright idea that just didn’t work as well as you thought it would when you thought about it, kind of like the time the ignition switch was broken in my old pickup truck and instead of buying a new one I installed a couple of light switches like you have in your house, one for power and the other to be held in the on position until the truck started, I even had a switch plate cover on it and it did look out of place sitting there on the dash looking like it should be on a kitchen wall but that’s another story, today was mowing day here at our house, last week was hell as the mower broke down and me with my extensive mechanical abilities and hardheadedness finally gave up and read last rights to the lawnmower, well almost read last rights because I don’t give up that easy and you can start a truck with two light switches if they are installed properly or proper for this application.

I did everything I could from taking the top off of the mower and attaching a piece of bailing wire to the carburetor linkage thingy so I could manually adjust it while I was starting it to keep it running, I can hear you laughing already so go ahead because this is what this post is all about we are laughing at Jimmy today, here I am with my fingers slipping off the wire while I am pulling on it while at the same time I am pulling the start rope and holding the bar against the handle at the same time, OK do you see the problem here? That takes three hands; so back to my mechanical abilities/Southern engineering or what ever you want to call it, I first bend a loop in my wire so my fingers don’t slip and I go get more bailing wire and I know this is a no no, but I did tie down the handle thingy so I didn’t have to hold it down while I was pulling the wire and the start rope at the same time, now I had to add pushing the primer bulb over and over once it started while adjusting the wire thingy and I actually had it running until the wire slipped off the handle, Yes I said a bad word and Cindy came off the porch with tears in her eyes to offer her assistance just about the time I was giving it CPR, I thought she would maybe pull the start rope and hold the handle while I pushed the bulb and adjusted the wire, but No she had to have a better idea, she read last rights to my mower and drove me to town to buy a new one which works much better after all, I don’t have to tie anything down and it starts on the first pull. The old one is now behind my shop just in case I need it.

Today I got out the new mower and had the yard done in about a quarter of the time and Cindy’s Dad mowed the back on the riding mower, I got out the blower to clean up the mess from the clippings blowing on the driveway and just knew that the small amount of gas would last for this one small job which it didn’t and about three quarters of the way through it ran out, I took it back to the garage and found the gas can empty, this blower takes the gas you mix with oil so I get the oil and add to the can, I fill it with gas and replace the cap and give it a shake to get things mixed up whew glad I got the cap on tight, now to finish up what I started I walk back down and give the start rope a pull, it fires up and runs for just a minute then stops, OK I had run it out of gas so I figure it hadn’t picked up yet so I prime it good and give it another pull, it fires right up and runs until I pull the trigger, I do this three more times, pull the filter and sit to think why it wont run now when I look down to see the still empty tank, I mixed the gas and shook it good but never put any in the blower..go figure.

After lunch I go to my shop to hopefully finish up the chicken coop which is coming together nicely if I say so myself, I will post a picture when I get it finished. I am working on the rafters figuring the angles to keep everything looking straight, I only messed one up before I got the next one right, as of right now I have one done so cross your fingers for me because this shouldn’t be a big project with only a couple more to go.

Flies really bother me and I keep a can of Off to spray myself while I am working with power tools especially, and I don’t always remember to spray myself before I am in the middle of something, you know that fly you swat at that you always miss to return right back where he started as many times as you want to swat at him, well this one was on the hand I was guiding the skill saw with, and his little friend had landed on my nose which really freaks me out, so I take a deep breath and shut everything down, walk calmly over to my workbench, pick up the spray and walk back to the door, I spray both arms and the back of my neck, I think about the one that was on my nose and taking a short cut which I know is a no no, I decide to spray myself in the face, I tightly close my eyes and feel the spray hit my face as it should have, I hold my breath for a minute waiting for the air to clear and open my eyes to see that I can’t see, now this is what happens when you spray your glasses with Off.

I was sure happy for Cindy to come out and ask if I wanted to take a break and during this break I am writing a post so that all of you and Cindy can laugh at Jimmy, because right Jimmy is laughing at himself and hoping that nothing else happens today because that would be too funny.