One of those things...

 One of these things is just like the others.

What do these 3 things have in common?

Issues with the mower.

Well, new to me mower!  My brother brought me his old mower, which actually used to be my dad's!

So it means a lot to me that I get to use it now.

However, Mark wasn't even home yet (3 hours away) with his trailer when I mowed the back yard and the belt fell off.  It was sheared.  We don't know how that happened.

He's getting ready for Burning Man next week so I don't want to impose on him again, however I did call him about some advice a few, maybe more, times in putting the new one on.

I finally got the new belt on and finished the back yard today.  Took it over to Meri's and did her yard too.

Before I even attempted this today, I got a message from Ryan saying that a good friend of his wondered if someone would loan him a mower as his had just broken.

I agreed to drop it off for him when I got done with Meri's yard because they live less than a block away.  No big!

Well, it was a big.  I got there and the friend's dad was already there trimming and mowing.  I turned off the mower and chitchatted with him for a bit before attempting to start my mower again to take it home.

The dad said that fire, then smoke was coming out from the front of the engine.

sigh.

It's cooling off on their yard for the moment until I come over later this afternoon to try and start it.

I might be buying that brand new one sooner than spring.

Trust me to kill off Dad's mower!