"Bye honey, is there anything I can do for you while you are away?". Eric said no and walked away. Before leaving, he turned around and said, "as a matter of fact, you can. You can weed whack, edge and if you want, mow the lawn". OK I thought. I love power tools. After receiving instructions on how to work the thing he left. I go outside, find it, read the instructions on the side of the whacker (which was Eric's instructions to me..."Just read the instructions on the weed whacker"). Pretty simple. Push the air button 10 times, move the choke to full throttle, pull the pull start three times. Move the throttle to half speed and pull the pull start until it starts. About 4 pulls and I have power....COOL. Put on ear protection and off I go. Took a few minutes to figure out exactly how to "edge". If you are not careful, you can pull up chunks of grass...I know. And if you get too close to the ground or tip it certain ways you can also pull up chunks of grass. I figured that out, too. It was like a divit in golf. But, once we were past the 7 divits, I got the hang of it and it was really fun. This, I have to tell you. is no ordinary whacker. High power, heavy and gas - which is another thing...gas or gas and oil? I'll get there in a minute.
I whacked the sidewalk and edged it. I did under the playset and edged that, too. I did along the rock wall and was about to the side of the house when it ran out of gas. I go to the garage and start looking around. I see a little thing on the whacker that had a gas symbol and a drop symbol and I figured it is gas and oil mixture. But we have three red gas cans and one blue one. I start with blue...definitely kerosene. Next...empty. Next, think it smells like gas and the last I really wasn't sure so I used that one. After pouring 1 gallon on the driveway, the little tank was full. I pushed the air button 10 times, put the throttle full, pull three times, move throttle to half, pull a few more times and viola - we have power...
And that's when it happened. Like a bad dream. The pull start rope thing wouldn't go back in and it stalled. It was like it got stuck. I couldn't pull start again because it was stuck in the out position with the rope/string thing hanging down. OK, I debated taking it to the shop to have someone fix it, but thought surely I can rewind the thing. I found the right screwdriver with the little star end, unscrew everything to take off the cap to the pull start housing. Still couldn't get that white casing to wind. I tried winding the rope around manually but you couldn't because there was no space to get it in, tried winding left and right and it was dead stuck...wouldn't budge. Oh, I see one more screw right in the middle of the white thing that the rope pull start winds around so I figured that must come off, then I can wind it up and call it a day. I unscrew it and that is when it happened. Like a slinky that was bound in a 2" box when you open the top, it sprang off with such force that it actually scared me and I screamed. Apparently there is a wire spring (like 10 feet long - honest it was) that is between that little white thing that holds the rope for the pull start and the whacker...it must serve some purpose cause it was there. The entire end of the whacker sprang into pieces...crud! CRUD! What am I going to tell Eric? I am going to be permanently banned from power tools! So, I figure if I can rewind the metal and pop it back together, it will be fine, but let me tell you one thing...If you even have 1.5 hours to kill, get a thin piece of metal (like stripping) and make sure it is AT LEAST 10 feet long, then try to wind it into a final circle of about 2" in diameter! I give up. So I call Eric...
"Hi honey, how was your flight?". "Good, what's up?". "Er, how much do you think it costs for a new, gas powered weed whacker?"...I heard some noise at which point I stopped listening. When I leave here, I am stopping at Home Depot. I think they will know the price and it will be audible words that I can understand.
Until next time...
