Men and machines
Posted on | January 4, 2010 | No Comments
It’s a well known and justifiable stereotype, men love gadgets and anything with an engine. A lot of us (myself certainly included) are also quite lazy.
The combination of these factors along with the fact that Newmarket was dumped with a massive amount of snow yesterday that led me to purchase a brand spanking new snowthrower.
Those who know me know that I can be somewhat clumsy (useless) when it comes to general maintenance. While I’m pretty adept with computers and software, things ALWAYS go wrong when I’m doing anything “handy” (there’s a pun here, wait for it).
So the story starts with me arriving home from Sears at 4:25pm, at which point my time in the sun is weening. Not to fear though, my new toy has a headlight on it! Which I will get to use when I’ve removed the beast from the box, removed the bolts, extended the handlebars, attached any extension rods, and finally attached the chute.
By the time all that is done it’s about 6:30, and I start the great machine up. It purrs like a beautiful red machine it is. I attempt to put it into reverse, but can’t move the handle. I attempt forward, still to no avail. At this point I’ve had her running for about 45 seconds. I shut her down so I can have a look around to ensure that I’ve removed all of the cable ties that were littered on the thing. This is when I bend down and put my hand on the exhaust.
Why does it always take couple of seconds before you notice that your skin is beginning to melt? As I’m reaching around with my right hand trying to see that everything is in perfect order, my left hand suddenly decides to tell my brain that it is on fire.
Although I didn’t actually have to stop, drop and roll, I was quite glad for all the snow that fell that day so I could thrust my hand into one of the piles.
Typing this entry was a little strange as 3 of my fingers are quite numb, but I did manage to get the machine working (all I had to do it seems was press the shifter down so I could move it, doh!) and the driveway is looking sweet.
**UPDATE**
haha, ok, wasn’t me, I live in Newmarket – Barrie police arrest man for drunken snowblowing
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