Library Notes
May 17, 2003
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
I was up to Suzanne's the other week-end. Her yard and her "pasture", as Cheyenne calls it, needed mowing. So she and I set out to see if we two ladies could get the riding mower started, to do that very thing.
The WD-40 went with us to the shed to try and "encourage" that mower, as I do mine.
My mower is a John Deere and theirs' is a Craftsman. And, honey, they sure don't look the same under that hood! I raised that Craftsman hood to spray the carburetor like I do mine and I couldn't even find a carburetor. I'm still not sure it has one.
I told Suzie I could just spray over the whole kit and caboodle and maybe it would soak in where it needed to be. But we thought better of that idea. It might have blown up!
Suz tried starting it without the benefit of WD-40 and had no luck. We finally had to give up, walk off and leave it. It's very hard to walk off and leave something like that when you've made up your mind to do it already.
The next week Suzie thought she'd give it one more try, as the grass and weeds continued to grow diligently. That time she thought she'd check the gas before starting. She looked in that gas tank and it was almost bone-dry! Well, excuse us, lawnmower, we'll take back all those ugly things we said about you.
She filled up the empty tank, aired up two flat tires, hopped on that little darlin' Craftsman and it started right up, after setting all winter. Well, will wonders never cease?
She didn't get the mowing started very quickly, however, because she soon discovered that the belt that operates the blade was off. So, what did she do? Just what her lawnmower-mechanical mother would do -- lay down on the ground and figured out how to put it back on.
Much-maligned Craftsman started up again and off she went. She had to stop after every round to air up the back tire that kept going flat.
That flat tire is the rest of the story, that'll have to come next week. It was necessary to continue with our mechanical abilities the following week-end. Cause that thing had to go to Walmart for a tire with more tread on it and no plugged hole in the side of the tire that kept losing the air. So we'll just leave that mower jacked up til next week and hope it doesn't fall off the jack before then. And hurriedly tell you about "Absolute Rage" that Robert Tanenbaum has written.
"While New York City sizzles beneath a blanket of early summer humidity, the Karp family is happily taking refuge in their renovated farmhouse on Long Island's north shore. Karp's battles against the City's corrupt politicians are never-ending. His wife, Marlene, is training guard dogs on their picturesque acreage; Lucy is enjoying her summer break from Boston College and playing the part of the dutiful daughter, assisting with the running of the business and tending to her rambunctious twin brothers.
The tide quickly changes, however, when Marlene befriends her beachside neighbor, Rose Wickham--Heeney, a northeastern aristocrat turned wife of West Virginia coal mine union leader Ralph "Red" Heeney. Soon after the fun-filled weeks of family barbecues and lazy afternoons with the Heeneys, the Karps discover that Rose, Red, and their daughter, Lizzie, have been brutally murdered back home in McCullensburg. Irresistible force meets immovable object when the West Virginia governor appoints Kark as special prosecutor to bring justice to the corrupt town, its union chieftain, and his band of merry thugs. Marlene joins Karp as he searches for the killers and works to save his own family from an evil that runs as deep as the mines that fuel it. "