Adventures in Weed-Eating

The Woods has a yard. It isn't a big yard, and most of it is full of a cement pad. But there is an L-shaped section that contains weeds closely resembling grass, and other weeds closely resembling young trees. With the lovely, humid/rainy season upon us here in Central FL, the grass-weeds have taken full advantage of the fact that it is not often dry enough for me to attempt using the weed eater left here by the last tenant.

After work yesterday, I came home and put on long sweats and a grungy t-shirt, picked up a roll of duct tape, and dug the ancient and dilapidated machine out of the outside storage closet. What was the duct tape for? Ah, I see you paid attention! The duct tape had a very special purpose indeed. The last time it was dry enough for me to attempt a weed whacking adventure, I discovered two things to my great dismay. 1--my extension cord is way too short for me to reach the whole yard (there was an interesting arc-shaped area that was trimmed and the rest was knee-high). 2--the handle of the weed eater was only loosely fitted on the shaft and the seam where the two halves met constantly separated and came back together, pinching me each time.

I quickly decided the lawn would not get a proper whacking if I did not repair both issues to the best of my ability. The cord issue was a no-brainer. Buy a second extension cord and put them together. Duh. The handle turned out to be an easy fix as well. Especially since I don't care that the weed eater now looks like something a redneck might use as a stand-in fishing pole. But it works so there.

Oh, yes, it works. Finally done with my repairs (which I survived without either pinching myself or permanently attaching myself to the contraption), I plugged her in and let her rip (literally) into the weeds.

I got one bar of the "L" all done, and was just getting into the really tall, thick stuff that I couldn't reach before when I discovered why you don't get too close to a big oak tree with a weed eater. Whack! GHGHGHGHGHGHGghghghghgh.... (silence).

I turned off the weed eater, let it stop spinning, and unplugged it. I turned it over to see if the noise indicated some problem that I would actually be able to identify. Boy did I identify a problem! The cord was apparently not happy with the oak tree experience and had sucked itself all the way up inside the spooler, much like a frightened turtle. Only without the pee. (But that's a different story. That one's called The Turtle and The Pee, but I haven't written it yet.)

I thought, "Oh, crap, only halfway done here. No owner's manual, no guy around... Great. I have to be Wonder Woman again." So I spun around real fast to groovy, impressive action music from the 70's/80's, donned my patriotic super-wardrobe and my invisible jet and began putting the golden lasso to work.

"What seems to be the problem here? Oh, I see; the cord has been sucked up inside the spooler. Wait, I know a trick for this." Tap, tap, tap. Plug the cord back in and hit the power for a couple of seconds. Turn it off, unplug it again and see how much cord has come out.

None. . . . Hmmm...

Try again. Tap, tap, tap. Plug, power, plug, look. No cord.

I try spinning the spooler manually to see if I can locate the end of the cord within the microscopic gap between the spooler and its casing. Amazingly, Wonder Woman's super eye sight spots the end, and it is very close to the hole where it is supposed to come out. I begin using my Scissors of Amazing Agility and try to wrangle the end of the cord into the hole. After much effort, cursing, and further effort and cursing, the end of the cord is just touching the edge of the hole. I decide it's time to try the tap, tap, power, look game again. I plug the weed eater back in, tap it a couple of times on the cement, and hit the power for just a moment. Holding my breath...

Nope. No cord hanging out. I attempt again for several minutes to pull the spooler out of casing (because I'm sure you should be able to do that) only to find that another section of the cord has come loose of its shoddy wrapping job and is catching on something every time I try to pull the spooler off.

Now Justice League Wonder Woman gets involved and dishes out some swift and serious justice on the section of cord at fault. SNIP! What a surprise, the spooler pulls off with no further resistance! I take a look at how the cord was wrapped, give a tisk-tisk, and pull the remaining cord off so I can replace it with newer cord and wrap it correctly. (Because I know how it should be wrapped after living almost all of my adult/divorced life in apartments with no yards.) I quickly reassemble the weed eater (because the sun is trying to set on me and I'm hot, sweaty and thirsty) and go back to work.

"You did not defeat me!" I say aloud in a very Invader Zim voice, as I observe that not only is the weed eater working again, but it is working much better than it was. Guys, don't worry. I'm not out to take over your places as fixers of all broken things, but I'm also not about to sit around and wait for a guy while my grass reaches my butt. I'll save the heavy-duty, or really disgusting things for you all. :-)

I walked down to the beach after work today. I haven't done that nearly enough and I really hope I start doing it more often. It's a short walk really, and so beautiful and peaceful.

As I strolled along, parallel to the waves, I watched little sea birds (not sure what they were) scurry among the receding waters and pluck treats from the foam. I immediately thought "sand piper" when I saw them, but since I've never seen a picture that said it was a sandpiper, I have no way of knowing. They were pretty, though. Smallish, a little smaller than a robin, with white bodies, brownish gray wings and black legs and beaks. Watching them run this way and that reminded me of Stratos, my former love bird, and his adorable little skitter across my vanity dresser while I would put on makeup.

I watched the waves as well, but they were rather low swells tonight as the tide was a long way out. The sand caught my eye and my imagination though. As usual, it was dotted with shells of all shapes and sizes (as long as they were smaller than my thumb) and colors. The sand itself was decorated in various colors: green from algae, seaweed, etc., red from something (I'm not sure what - maybe a different kind of algae?), but most fascinating were the hints of gold and white light, as if someone had sprinkled gold and diamond dust all over the sand. It was very subtle, and very striking.

As always, the sky was amazing; giant puffball clouds surrounded me on all sides, but none were overhead. The sky was a bit hazy because it's humid as heck right now, but the sun was starting to descend out to the west (away from the water obviously) and the clouds were just starting to show hints of sunset colors.

I could have stayed out there for hours, but there were things that needed doing, so I came home to get them out of my way.