Great weather these past several days and the good news is that it's going to last through the weekend! Saturday looks good for the Italian Dinner at the Joe's Pond Association pavilion - give Pam Hebert a call (684- 3655) to reserve your ticket(s). It will be a good feed and dinners there are always lots of fun.
      We've been absorbed with trying to replace our old lawn mower. The poor old thing finally gave up after sixteen years of good service. We looked around and Lowe's seemed to have the best "deal" with about $250 incentives offered on the model Fred wanted. The machine was delivered promptly, no charge, which was good, and we were told it would be "ready to go - we start them up before they are put on the truck for delivery." After the delivery guys left, Fred tried to start it. It would turn over but wouldn't start. He checked the gas shutoff was ok, but it still acted like it wasn't getting gas. There was a strong smell of gasoline, and when we investigated, we found there was a puddle of gas on the garage floor under the front of the machine. We called Lowe's and they cheerfully agreed to pick it up and deliver another machine to us. When that one came a day or so later, I said to Fred - "Don't let them out of the yard until you know this one will start."
     However, they said they weren't authorized to return it, so he'd have to go through the store if anything was wrong with it. And off they went.
     After supper, he went out thinking he'd mow some lawn. This time the engine wouldn't even turn over! Everything seemed to be hooked up - battery terminals looked good, no reason it shouldn't start, so we thought it either had some new safety feature that wasn't allowing it to start - or the battery was dead. 
     We gave Jamie a call - he's our go-to guy when something doesn't work - and he came down with his meter to test the battery. It registered something like .2 on the meter! Not even one volt. So he hooked up his charger and would you believe - the battery was so dead it wouldn't even take a charge. 
     Now I'll finish off our story. We went to Montpelier yesterday and found a mower at the John Deere store, and it will be delivered tomorrow. We know that one runs perfectly - Fred got to drive it around the lot before he agreed to the sale.  A different crew came from Lowe's today and picked up the second defective mower - good riddance.
     But that isn't all - we told Anthony, the very helpful guy at John Deere in Montpelier our problems with Lowe's - he wasn't surprised, by the way - and then when he went into his computer, he found Fred was set up there, as all John Deere customers are, no matter where they buy the product - and said to Fred, "I see you bought two machines - the first one was a used one . . ." 
    Now, can you imagine that? The first machine that leaked gasoline had been turned in earlier this summer - someone had purchased it and returned it, obviously damaged, and Lowe's just resold it as new without even fixing it.  They need more than $$ incentives if they are going to do business that way. I was exasperated, to put it mildly. 
     With the sun shining and a nice stretch of weather ahead, we are not complaining. Life is good.