Skip to main content

The Lawn Mower Man

(It is a "moving" story...)

I was in Jacksonville, MS. I was almost done unloading a 10,000 lb. shipment (which is a story in itself), when my boss calls me. He tells me that there is another driver that has an overflow. (For you non-truck drivers, an overflow is when everything that is supposed to fit on the truck, doesn't fit.)

The other driver had relayed to my boss that there were just a few items left over, nothing that one person couldn't get by himself. He also said that everything was moved to the garage. Sounded easy.

And it would have been easy if this other driver had actually been telling the truth.

I didn't arrive at the residence, which was way down near the coast, not too far from New Orleans, until about ten at night. Now remember, I had already unloaded an entire shipment of stuff, then I had spent nearly five hours driving to this location. To be completely honest, I was pretty tired before I had even arrived, but I kept telling myself that it was just a little bit of stuff. Nothing too difficult for a mover like me!

So, like I said, I pulled in about ten that night. Oh sure, everything was in the garage, but it was a three car garage! And it was full! There were a couple of dressers and an entertainment center, two entire lawn furniture sets, several pieces of exercise equipment, etc., etc., tons of stuff! I couldn't even begin to tell you how much stuff was there. The picture that I have here barely does it justice. All I can say is that it ended up being 4,500 lbs. worth. (That is about a half a truck load.)

I couldn't believe it. Right after I pulled up to the house, the owner came out and said, "Well, I gotta get to bed. Good luck. See you later."

Umm, yeah. Sure. I'll get all of this up here.

So, I started working. One piece at time I moved all of that stuff up there. I called upon all of my many moving skills to tote, drag, and roll everything up that ramp. Until...

It was about one in the morning. I had been ignoring it the entire time, glancing at it out of the corner of my eye, but ineveitably I had to deal with it. It wasn't a little riding mower, it was one of the big ones -- heavy duty stuff here. I thought that I could push it up the ramp. I have done that before with much smaller mowers. Didn't work. Then I thought that I might be able to pull it up the ramp, so I tied a strap onto it and I was able to get it about half way up, but then I had visions of it rolling back down the ramp and crashing through the back of the garage. I quickly rolled it back down.

Then I said to myself, "I am smart guy. I know geometry, calculus, advanced mathematics... I can figure this out." I stood there for about 10 minutes, and right before I dozed off in that standing position, the solution hit me.

I want you to know that I am posting this video, knowing that I will be made fun of for this. Please take into consideration that I had been awake since about 5:50 that morning, and it was now about 1:30 the next morning. I tied two straps onto the mower, and as I tightened the straps, it gradually pulled the mower up the ramp.




All I can say is that the mower made it up there. After it was in the truck, I quickly strapped it off and drove to the nearest hotel.

Comments

  1. Hey Matt!

    Why didn't you just fire it up and drive it up the ramp?

    ReplyDelete
  2. thought of that...

    ...no gas

    ReplyDelete
  3. i was tired just reading this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know, I know. I was really beat once I got done. This had to be one of the worst situations that I ever found myself in. Seriously.

    Hey, does Sam ever want to come work for me in the summer? I had Paul Rolley work for me for two summers. It was great! All kinds of stories like this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am desperate. I can't see the picture! How did you get the darn thing up there? Gotta say this for you Matt - you sure have determination.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Leave a thought of your own.

Popular posts from this blog

The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

This too shall pass...

Gam zeh ya'avor (Hebrew) "This Too Shall Pass" Welcome!  According to Google Analytics, this is by far the most visited post that I have ever written.  If someone comes here from a search engine, most of the time they are looking for " this too shall pass quote " or simply " this too shall pass " on Google or one of the other search engines. I am sure that most of the time visitors are looking for the originations of this quote, but I have to wonder, why is this quote on people's minds? Why are they pondering the passing of events?   Here is my thought: It is probably because most of us have realized that the adult life is much harder than we ever imagined it to be. There is more pain and more sorrow than we had ever imagined as children, but we have learned that time keeps ticking. And as time continues to flow things pass. In fact, even the really big things and the really hard things will still pass. If you are here because you are thinking ...

The Minnesota Crime Commission wrote:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He's dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.