Fixing the Mower

The forecast was for rain but the grass had to be cut and the chiggers were getting out of hand. Something had to be done. With no break in the rain scheduled on the weekly forecast i saw an opening between storms and got out there with my 5 blade reel mower to get the job done. The reel mower wouldn’t cut the tall wispy weeds so i had to pull those by hand as i went. I had spent a good 2 hours working on taming the landscape around me when it began to rain again. I had to run back and put the dogs in but i couldn’t leave the mower in the rain; it would rust. I dragged it with me backwards as i ran through the now pouring rain up to the gate of the dog run to retrieve the dogs and let them start for the house. As i pulled something gave way and i thought it odd that the mower felt lighter and then much heavier and lopsided. I turned around to see the mower was almost in half. At some point i had lost a little half moon shaped piece of metal that held the top half to the blades on the right side. I had no idea where i had lost it. I hoisted the mower up onto the porch of the house and unlatched the gate, releasing the dogs with the command to go to the house. They clamored inside, happy to get away from the cold and steady rain. I put them both in their crates to dry off and went back out to look for the missing piece of metal. It would be the size of a thumbnail and gray. I combed the grass, retracing my steps from the gate to the laundry tree where i noticed it was missing. I could not find it anywhere. I prayed aloud to God, begging for a miracle, that i would find this tiny gray thing amidst the grass, somewhere in the 100 feet i had run from the gate to the house when the rain had started. As the rain continued my clothes, my baseball cap, and my hair became soaked. All around me i could hear the water droplets hitting the earth and little grainy particles of mud began splashing up and clinging to my pants legs. The water was beginning to pool where the saturated ground showed no interest in absorbing yet another downpour. Soon i was standing in a small pond; one that began to move downward towards the driveway, taking sediment and unlucky ants with it. I watched as the water moved, hoping to see something gray and small dislodged from the grass by it. I saw no such thing. The water began to move faster and soon i realized there was a good chance the piece of metal could be carried down the driveway and off the property right under my nose if i wasnt in the right place at the right time when it went by. I stayed out there in the pouring rain looking for that piece of metal until my boots were full of water and my toes were swimming. The fabric of my shirt clung to my torso and anything that was in the water’s path was well down the driveway and towards the intersection at that point. I turned and went in. The dogs were happy to see me. Ever since the lightening strike Cashew had developed ptsd and seemed to think thunder indicated imminent death for us all. I pulled open the drawer and grabbed a tube of steel stix and a pair of plastic gloves. I pinched off a chunk and rubbed it together until the two substances were thoroughly mixed. I cleaned the area of the mower in question with a paper towel. Then i fashioned a new half moon out of steel stix and pressed it to the part of the mower i needed it on. I set an alarm for two hours. I still had three sections of the property to mow. In two hours the steel stix would be set and i could resume my task. I couldn’t find the piece of metal i had lost in the yard, so i made a new one.