My new Lawn Mower!

Well, this week my wonderful old beauty of a lawn mower bit the dust. I bought it off a neighbour about five years ago for the great sum of $20.00. He says it's about forty years old but it never failed me even though it was rusty and had bits missing. Every year I would haul it out of storage, pull the rope and off she'd go. The old fellow next door would just shake his head and in great amazement say he couldn't understand why it was still working. I guess everything just gave up inside it this week, a large peice fell off it and there was smoke and gas flying everywhere. So, now I had to get a new one. I heard they were on sale about an hours drive from us so Friday morning we hopped in the car and set off. I don't know what I was thinking, I thought it would come assembled, ha, ha. I was given a box and told it was just the wheels and handle that had to be attached. I can do that, I said to myself, so we put it in the car and made our way home. We got home in time for a quick lunch then out I went to open the box and see what I had. A lovely bright red machine. There were the wheels, the handle in two parts and a funny cable that went somewhere and of course the usual bag of nuts, bolts, washers and screws. I could see trouble on the horizon. Now, most times, I'm pretty good at getting my head around how things go together while my partner is absolutely hopeless at this sort of thing. Hence, we can never work together without me blowing up with frustration. He offered to help, but I said to stay away from me, I would manage it myself. lol. Now to the instruction book. I couldn't understand a word of it, might as well have been in another language and oft times these instructions are. I laid all the nuts and bolts out, looked at the book, the pictures and the parts. Tried attaching parts, no didn't go on right. After about an hour I was so frustrated I was at the point of throwing up. I had to break down and ask my partner for help. We were at it for about three hours and I can tell you it wasn't a pretty sight. Well, we finally got it together but couldn't figure where this cable went. I was beyond frustrated by now and after kicking the machine, said to put the bloody thing back in the box and take it back to the store. Right about then friends phoned and said they were coming for coffee and asked me what was wrong as my voice didn't sound right. I explained the situation, and my friend said maybe they could help as it sounded like the one they have. My friends husband looked at the machine and said that something didn't seem right. We had the handle on backwards for one thing. Anyway he knew how the cable went on and fixed things the right way around and finally pulled the cord and off she went. This little red beauty cuts the grass ok, but alas, it will never take the place of my dear old green one.