Breakin' Stuff...

I never mean to, but I break stuff.

A stapler. Plastic utensils. Eggs (casualty of untimely hand tremor). The handle from my washing machine. A button on my shirt. The clasp of my necklace. The wheel from the mower deck of my lawn tractor.

:::the what?::: 

This:

"See Deere go.  

Go Deere go! 

Uh oh. 

Deere hit rock. 

Bad rock, bad rock!"  (Dick and Jane called, they want their story back)

A girl who was feeling slightly "vertigo" should have "vertistopped" prior to climbing onto the tractor and taking it for a spin 'round the ol' yard.  Why?  'Cause she needed to look down to judge the distance between self and rock.  Vertigo doesn't like to look down. Rock won.

I was instantly embarrassed. My first thought? Get a picture, because my church family eagerly anticipates my lawn adventures and THIS most definitely qualifies.  My second thought, and I'm just going to come out and admit this, was:  "Can I fix this before he (husband) gets home?"

So I put the rock back:

After careful inspection, I noticed the wheel had been welded on, therefore erasing any chance of self-repair...so I stuffed it into my cupholder. 

I continued on, mowing sans mower deck support wheel, while entertaining several potential explanations against my husband's probable responses:

• "I didn't see that rock" = 'why were you mowing if you couldn't see?' 
• "I misjudged" = 'why were you mowing if you couldn't judge yourself in space?'
• "I wasn't paying attention" = 'why weren't you paying attention while mowing?'
• "it SO was not there!" = 'rocks don't move...did you take some old neurontin or something?  And if so, did you not learn your lesson the first time you mowed on neurontin?'

Truth was, I really didn't judge it properly. I mean, I saw it? But more in 'side view mirror' terminology.  And that looks like this:

But this story has a happy ending. I posted the pictures of my debacle on facebook in order to share a laugh with my friends. Within minutes, offers of help appeared. And before the sun went down, I had a repaired mower deck, freshly painted welds, and sharpened blades (woo!) snugly affixed upon the belly of my tractor. What did it cost me? Just a hug. And the hug was actually a gift to me.

The 'body of Christ' is a powerful thing and I thank God that I am just a tiny part of it. They say the words "one another" are mentioned over 50 times in the New Testament. 

I believe that :-)