The Week In Review

'The Week In Review,' sounds impressive, doesn't it ? ? ? The problem I'm having is that I don't have anything real impressive to review with you. Such is the life of a professional mower driver.

Anyway it all started on a rainy Monday morning. They called me and said to stay home till and would call me if it cleared up and didn't dump a whole lot of rain on the course. Well, someone was supposed to call me a lot sooner than they did. I started mowin around 1 PM. I mowed till 5. Quitting time is 3. No one was on the course and the weather report for the week wasn't all that great anyway, so I just kept mowin.

Tuesday was pretty non-eventful except for the cottonwoods. They cut loose. Cottonwoods make me feel like I have steamer trunks (not bags, like most people) of sand under my eyes. They get dry and itchy. I usually get pretty grouchy cause I can't read, watch tv or feel like doing anything else. I usually go to bed pretty early when the cottonwoods are floating around. Talk about cold !! I almost put on my Carharts, but didn't. Got by with a sweatshirt, my vest and my rain jacket to break the wind. It was cold mowin all week.

Wednesday started out ok and was ok for about 10 minutes. I noticed an oil leak on my rough mower. A hydraulic hose going to the cooler back by the radiator was leaking. This is the third time the big mower has been down and the second for a hydraulic leak. The other time was the seized wheel a couple weeks ago. Couldn't get a replacement hose till Fri. PM at the earliest. I spent the day driving the Toro around. It only cuts a 5' swath and rides really rough. Beats the heck out of me and makes me think I'm a human bobble head doll. The cottonwoods were still bothering me. At one point I was mowin with tears literally running down my face.

Thursday I was back on the Toro. It is really a trim mower, but, what are ya gonna do ? ? ? About 45 minutes before quitting time, I smelled hot rubber and my blades quit turning. One of the belts decided to shred itself. So Friday I got to drive the old rough mower, a Jacobson 5111. The 51 stands for horsepower. The 11 stands for the size of the cutting swath. The problem is that the 2 wing decks don't work and have been removed and there is only 5' deck left. It should be called a 5105. It rides like the Toro. I don't like the way it handles and cuts, probably cause it was designed for 3 decks and only has one left. So I drove it till about 1:30 when the annual YMCA outing began. About a half hr. before I quit, the replacement hose arrived and I will have the big mower next week -- at least till I start it up. That mower has been a lemon since they bought it.

The week wasn't a total loss. I heard on the radio that Tetrus, a computer game I used to play a lot back in the Window 95 & 98 days turned 25 this past week.

Oh, yeah, I read in a newspaper where a Viennese chemist concluded that bellybutton fluff is a combination of clothing fibers, sweat, dust and fat wicked into the navel by body hairs. He went on to say that if one shaves one's belly, the fluff will not appear. All this was his conclusion after a three year study. Don't know about you, but I'm sure glad I know this.

Also had my annual trip to the local dermatologist. Left there with a clean bill of health. Monday I have my monthly session with the chiropractor. I wonder if he will try to stretch my back out.