[Hank70SS]

I'll have to try and remember some more Gus stories to tell. In the meantime let me tell you about my former neighbor George. We never hit it off too well but I tried to be a good neighbor and help him when I could.

So one day I see George and his 2 son's tying a rope to the rear bumper of their old Taurus wagon. The other end securely tied to the base of a 30 some year old evergreen bush. Now I can spin all 4 tires on my pickup, on pavement, with a logging chain hooked to a bush like that.

So naturally I assumed they were trying to remove the rear bumper of the Taurus. Well it didn't work, the rope broke. So they tied the rope back together, now who would have guessed it but that damn rope broke again.

Well after the entertainment value of watching them repeat this process a few more times wore off, I offered the use of a logging chain to aid in removing the bumper. Well, George informed me they were trying to remove the bush, not the bumper. So I informed him that it was never going to happen using the Taurus. I drove my pickup over and after a little pulling and chopping at the roots we got it out.

George's brother was the real mechanical brains of the family. So he came over to help change the blades on the lawn tractor. I think George hit the steel culvert that comes under the road while cutting the grass. Anyway, George and the mechanical genius lift the front of the tractor up and stand it upright, balancing on the rear tires and rear fenders.

Well they get the blades off, George goes up to HD and gets some new blades. I notice them monkeying around with a pipe wrench trying to put the new blades on and offered the use of a socket and ratchet. I take the tools over and notice the spindles have a 6 point star pattern and the blades have a 5 point star. I politely mention that he has the wrong blades. Ya, I know he says, they didn't have the right ones so I got these instead.

I asked him if he would please let me know when he was going to be cutting the grass because I wanted to put my vehicles in the garage and myself safe inside the house. I guess he thought better about his plan and put the old blades back on. Mind you the end of one blade was bent down over an inch. He used those blades for the next 3 years on the rare occasions that they went out to plow the lawn.