It was deja vu. The bolt on the right front lawn mower wheel broke about three weeks ago. This morning after I made a half dozen passes, the bolt on the left front wheel broke. Same kind of bolt. Since it is Memorial Day Weekend Sunday, the Toro shop was closed.
At first I tried using three wheels to mow but that just tore up part of the lawn. Then I found a bolt that would fit the wheel part and put that on and then used duct tape to keep the wheel steady. An engineer would laugh at my temporary fix but it did get four bags of grass off the lawn. I told Neighbor Dave, the retired engineer, about it and he just shook his head.
I've only had that lawn mower a little over twenty years. They just don't make them as they used to. Back in my youth and lawn mowing entrepreneurship days, we used a two-wheel push-it mower. Now that was a man's mower and environmentally as green as it gets. A little oil and no gas and a young man was set for the duration of his lawn business which usually consisted of mowing lawns for one's own family or widows which wasn't exactly a high paying clientele but those were the good old days. When the boy got old enough, he could sell it to a younger sibling or the neighbor kid. It was free enterprise at its height.

This week we got our first citation from the Trailmark Home Owners' Association. It appears that our portable basketball hoop had been seen in the street on May 17th. Two problems: we don't own a portable basketball hoop and secondly we weren't in Littleton on May 17th. The hoop belongs to our neighbors. This group is not only anal; they are either lazy or incompetent. Kathy handled the situation with an email. It was probably a good thing that she did and I didn't.

Tuesday while cleaning out some old clothes from a basement store room, we found the suit I was wearing when I got married. After lunch today I tried it on. It was a little snug-OK a lot snug but I had just finished lunch. I'll keep it for the 50th anniversary. That will give me nine years to trim down.

I like the political cartoons showing the Statue of Liberty having been sent back to France because she didn't have any US citizenship papers.

WE DON'T HAVE ALL THE KOOKS IN THE WORLD-it just seems like it. For years the authorities have been trying to get a guy to clean up his lot of old refrigerators, car parts, etc. He just totally ignores them. Yesterday he got his day in court. The total of his fines came to $1.6 million (that's right). The judge was in a merciful mood. He told the guy he could pay 9 cents on the dollars which came to only $143,840. The guy told the judge he had no authority, etc. The judge read the law and the judge's constitutional duties and set the fine. Who knows what will happen next?
The guy did sorta tried to get even. After the hearing he filed for county sheriff-as a Republican (if you care).

IT'S AMAZING WHAT ONE FINDS WHEN CLEANING HOUSE. Sunday we found my diploma from Colorado State University. I received it in 1969 but I don't remember the last time I looked at it. It may have been when I took it to the assistant superintendent and asked for a pay raise.
I also found my basketball and football refereeing gear. One item was a red football flag. That means it was really old because football switched to yellow flags long before I retired and that was a few years ago.

THINGS I WON'T MISS:
Yes, it's spring time in the Rockies. I worked the state track meet last week and it was either raining or windy (blustery for Pooh fans) almost the whole time. I used to wear more clothes to a spring soccer match than I did to ski. When I left Saturday, I had said hello and good-bye to the people I might miss. I don't think I will be back next year if it involves driving 300 miles to eat bologna sandwiches and stand in almost one place for three days. I say that now. They told me I could come back. I think I was the only one in the workers' parking lot with Colorado plates.
Spring time: I called this morning to set a time to get my swamp cooler hooked up later this week and this afternoon it snowed.

IT SHOULDN'T HAPPEN BUT IT DOES:
I taught at a high school for six years. My annual class load was 125-150 with transfers in and out. I also knew several kids through coaching, club sponsorships,etc.
At intermission of the RAIN concert Thursday night a group of people were standing in line to buy drinks. I like to walk the halls during intermissions because I get tired of sitting. All of a sudden a guy says to a women I take to be his wife "That's my old English teacher but he won't remember me." Usually if a former student gives me a hint or a name, I will remember him/her. In this case I drew a total blank. I fessed up and said I didn't remember him. He told me his graduation year and I still couldn't recall him. Members of his class included Pete Williams, now of NBC News, and several people who have gone on to be very successful both locally and in other parts of the state and country. To make things worse I knew the woman standing in front of him. I had never had her in class but her son had gone to the junior high where I had been a counselor and we had done business. Even worse I knew a former student standing two people behind him who had graduated five years before the student I was spacing out. He said I wouldn't remember him and unfortunately I didn't. Ninety percent of the time I'll come close but this was a total blank and I feel terrible when that happens.
Well, on to the third and final day of what will probably my last Wyoming State Track Meet.