Short Stories

The Lawn Mower Man
Imagine a cute little house with a small front lawn. Now imagine that lawn that hasn't been mowed in about a month. Welcome to the dilemma of the $30 dollar lawn mower. (Do you hear the haunting music yet?) To go back to the beginning of the story, I've always tried to save a buck or two especially on items that may cost more money when new.
At the beginning of the summer I helped the Boy Scouts of America clean out a block of of downtown Provo City. Bags after bags were filling up with junk, garbage, and trash has been left to time to decay on the back lots of Provo. Among the heaps that were found was a small, green craftsman lawn mower. The scouts and leaders that found it, tossed it into a pile to load up and ship off to the junk yard. I couldn't resist! So I pulled it off to the side, loaded it up in my truck, and took it home.
I knew my hopes of starting the mower would be useless without a little work, so I began to dismantle the forgotten warrior. The air filter was so black that a moonless midnight looked bright, garbage. Spark plug, usable but a new one is $5, garbage. A new 1 gallon gas can $9, and one gallon of gas $3... ish. So after the internet, four trips to the Sears Repair shop, and 4 hours of fiddling I bought a o-ring gasket for $2.50, and then I mowed my lawn. Once I was assured that the forgotten warrior was going to live I then changed its oil and gave it a new mower blade.
This warrior has mowed my lawn without fail every other week for the whole summer, until September. I tried to fire it up and it would crank, but it would stall out shortly there after. After five minutes of cranking and stalling, I pushed it into the garage and said I will deal with it later. Which brings us full circle. After two weeks of not dealing with it, I decided the lawn can not wait any longer. I pulled it out of the garage and then started taking it apart, again. After 30 minutes I found the $2.50 gasket had swollen and no longer makes a seal with the carburetor. Tinker, tinker, tinker and then mowed the lawn.
I know that I will have to fix it again, but for the time being the warrior lives and will cut again another day.