Aug 7, 2018 3 min read

It has been said that life is what happens while you’re making plans. Well, folks, life has been happening.

I had plans for this weekend, like I do every weekend. I think I’ll achieve so much in the day and a half I have off, but more often than not, I barely manage to get my dishes done and enough laundry complete to show up clean for work Monday.

There is just not enough time in a day.

Friday night, I ended up sick and never made it to bed until mid-morning on Saturday. I had to call off work, which is so very rare for me. When I finally awoke Saturday evening, it was too late to accomplish anything.

Sunday, I attended church and then planned to tackle some yard work at my dad’s. My friend came over last week and dropped the deck from the lawn tractor to replace the belt on it, and I’ve had no trouble with it since. My son would mow every day if I’d let him, so I turned him loose.

My middle girl, who had broken two fingers earlier this summer, was healed up enough to trim some places with the push mower, and I planned to follow after her with the weed whacker.

That was the master plan.

Before I got started, however, my son asked me if there was any way I could cut the tree limb out of the edge of the yard, so he could mow to the tree line. So far this year, I have had no luck getting a chainsaw to stay running, but I agreed to give it another go.

I put fresh gas in the tank, filled up the bar oil reservoir, and gave the cord a few good pulls. By some miracle, it fired up. I walked with it to the tree line and proceeded to cut the limb. Then I continued to cut, as there were several other limbs in the vicinity. I had never really cut firewood for any length of time, and it felt empowering to do so.

Just when I was really getting into it, the chain popped off the bar and I had to shut it down. I spent the next hour trying to put it back together and getting it to run again, with no success. During that time, my girl ran out of gas in the push mower and was unable to get it to start again. I paused in my efforts to give her cord a few pulls, to no avail.

She switched to the weed whacker – until she ran out of string.

Really?! We were so close to finishing, but none of our equipment would function long enough to see it to completion!

As dusk approached, I had to accept defeat. The yard would not be finished again this weekend. And to top it off, I now have three machines to repair or replenish before next weekend when I try again.

If nothing else, life sure keeps me on my toes.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.