“How does decompression handle work on lawn mower” – I spotted this today under ‘Top Searches’ in the wordpress site admin section of my blog, exclusively for my viewing, I guess. Hmmm. What was I supposed to do with this information? What in the world does this phrase mean and why does it comprise a ‘top search?’ I typed the words in as a search to see if the phrase would bring up my blog. But it only brought up numerous <a href="“>lawn mower sites. When you click on this and scroll to the bottom of the page you will also see a site: “New Tanaka chainsaw features automatic decompression.” Now that could prove handy as a stress-buster!
Getting back to the initial question, I can tell you how my decompression handles work on lawn mowers: badly. It does work better if I decompress both before and after I have to deal with the mower. Pushing it, for one thing. That is backbreaking work, since the self-propulsion on the wheels doesn’t work. That feature went kaput last fall, which is what landed the mower in our basement, where my husband was determined to fix it (it being November by now and way too cold to work on it in the garage). He took the mower all apart, ordered new parts for the wheels, put it all back together and zing!started it up! (Yes, down in the basement). The wheels were propelling themselves so well that they dragged the mower instantly to a 5×7′ rug, where the blade, just freshly sharpened, sliced a big hole in it and then lodged itself in a corner of the rug, stalling the engine. I, in the meantime, flew down the stairs to investigate the engine noise, which I knew had to be related to something much more serious than, say, the water heater going out or something. What the hell was going on in the basement and where is my husband? – were questions I was asking as I jetted to the basement. The mower was quietly at rest when I got there and I proceeded to help my hubby un-impale the mower blade from the rug.
He knew right then and there he had me where he wanted me. Because next, my husband looked at me straight on and inquired as to whether I would be willing to help him get the now perfectly fine mower up the thirteen stairs from the basement to the garage (where it would be ready to go and mow come spring!). Well he obviously couldn’t accomplish this Herculean feat by himself! So of course I agreed to get on the upside ‘handle’ end of the mower and pull on it to help him (who was engine side, pushing) get the mower out of the basement. (I pick up right here on this story in about the seventh paragraph of my ‘Ping Pong vs. the Lawnmower’ Blog posted in March – which was written in connection to the 14 or so sessions of physical therapy I ended up getting to fix my back …)
“How does decompression handle work on lawn mower” Well, luckily I haven’t had much to do with the lawn mower since we got it up out of the basement. My hubby stoicly fired it up for it’s maiden spring mow of 2009 and it worked beautifully. Just that once. The next time he fired it up, he had to push with dynamo strength to keep it moving. The self-propulsion had gone out again. But he had worked so hard – had gotten the mower into the basement and succeeded in fixing it himself! We had dragged it up the thirteen stairs to get it back out of the basement! I subsequently went through 14 physical therapy treatments to fix my back! There was just no way he was not using that mower! So every five days he’s out there mowing our grass with that thing, wedging the handle against his belly, pushing with his body weight to propel the mower, digging in his toes. He doesn’t expect me to do it and I don’t ask. I have suggested we give up on the thing and purchase, say, a riding mower. Then I would mow for sure. And if the thing crapped out we could just roll it down the stairs into the basement for my hubby to fix it and then drive it back up the stairs to get it back out again.
In the meantime I have to decompress over the fretfulness and strain I experience just watching him mow the front and back lawns. But I guess that beats decompressing over me having to do it.
Tags: decompression, lawn mowers
The Decompression of a Boomer 
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