I mean, it wasn't a total disaster, but sure got me.
First: Last night (or yesterday evening, I loaded up the push mower, the weed eater, gas, hooked up my trailer and loaded up the riding mower. Getting ready to head out this morning. to go take care of my Dad's yard at his Home. Now, it had been about a month since I had done this and it was up a bit in the back. Plus it was still wet from the rains, but I really needed to get it taken care of. Well, first I decided to wait til this morning to tie down the rider and things were going fairly well, so I thought. I made a big mistake of buying my tiedowns at Wal Mart (fancy crankdown type) and they aren't worth a crap! I went over to get Joey (about a 3mile trip one way) and by the time I got back, the rider had moved enough to worry me (the straps had worked loose somewhat.
So, I straightened the mower up and attempted to retie things. I thought I had things under control. Key word being "Thought". I took Karla and Joey to Bost and as I left to go to my Dad's apartment, Karla called me on the phone to say that the green strap was dragging on the road. I thanked her, thinking that it was the end of the strap. I was so wrong, the front straps had come loose and the mower had moved back about 2'!
SO, I realigned the mower on the trailer, retied that sucker down and left once again. The rest of the trip down, was fine. We got there, got things unloaded and started taking care of business. The back yard was for me, since it is big and it had grown up so much. I had to stop and clean
out the tube to the grass catcher several times and finally decided to leave the grass catcher disconnected and cut the grass with the deck at it's highest setting at first. Well. I did that and still couldn't keep the tube to the grass catcher from clogging up! So, I just started making passes across the yard, in an effort to throw the cut grass toward the lake. Next thing I knew, the large amount of grass had caused the mower to kick the belt loose.
So, we just got loaded up and proceeded to leave. We were running out of time anyway, I needed to get back to Fort Smith to pick up Karla and Joey. We stopped by and got lunch at Wendy's and got on I-40 heading West. About halfway back, I noticed something in the road behind me (in my mirror) and didn't remember seeing anything as I went through there. Then it hit me, my bagger has 3 of those collapsible bags and I was looking in my rearview mirror at one of MY bags! CRAP!
I took the first exit and went back to get it. When I got back there, it was gone. Crap Again!
So, I took the other 2 bags off and put them in the van, so we could head out again. After a little while, I looked back at my rearview mirror and suddenly realized that the whole bagger was gone!
What I didn't think about was the fact that the main part of the bagger just sits down on 2 round upright pieces and apparently, with the bags themselves being gone, allowed the wind to come up under the remaining part of the bagger and lifted it right up off of those mounts!
I can only imagine the folks who were behind me, as they were trying to dodge that thing. I'm surprised that someone didn't try to run me down to tell me or complain about the incident. I don't remember how much that thing cost, but now, I'll have to get another one. All in all, it's been a pretty expensive and stressful day that I just want to forget about. Thing is, I really wasn't looking forward to going and wished I could postpone it, but had already rescheduled it several times because of the weather and a back muscle problem I have now and again.
