In which the lawnmower wheel falls off.

As many of you know, I loathe cutting the lawn. Just don't like it. For the last two years, (O my god, we've been in the house for two years!) I've been doing it infrequently with my weedwhacker. But it's heavy, it's awkward, and it eats string. I decided to buy a lawnmower. My decision partially motivated by the fact that Stephanie's mom and her boyfriend are coming to stay with us for a few days, and god forbid we have an unmowed lawn while she is here. (I'm not even going to go intoall of the other things that we are pretending don't exist, or that we have solved the problems of. (NOTE TO VISITORS- Don't open any drawers too quickly, as you might have an unpleasant shock upon doing so. And that stack of papers on my desk may just be holding up the actual desk, so don't move it!)

But to get back to the unhappy business of mowing, I have been putting off mowing and buying a mower as long as was humanly possible. Uncharacteristically, I decide to pull the trigger.

Having an electric weedwhacker already, I went with an electric lawnmower. Picked the CR Best Buy Black and Decker MM875. Unfortunately, many of the stores that are supposed to carry it don't have it in stock. Walmart in White Plains does, so I drove out there late last night and picked the last one.

Today I go to mow the lawn, and it's working great. Suddenly, as I'm wheeling it over to do the front part of the lawn, the frickin' lawnmower wheel falls off .

Now let me explain something about this wheel. It is not, as might commonly be believed held on with a nut that was somehow not tightened. The wheels have pieces that are welded on to hold them in place. They are not supposed to come off. Yet somehow mine did.

I called Black and Decker, who has never (at least, in the history of my American Customer Support Representative's extensive experience) had this happen before. So now not only is my lawnmower a genetic anomaly, but I have to go back to walmart, get a refund, and find this same model somewhere else.

I'm thinking about just paving it all.

And the worst part is the lawn isn't finished, and it still needs to be weedwhacked, and I'm now too hot and tired to do it.

Eva and Bob, welcome to the jungle of NY.