Doug Van Pelt

Laughing At Doug

If anyone in heaven (or even nearby in a field ... with binoculars) was watching me last night -- they had to be laughing at me quite a bit. I don't know if saints look down here; but we know angels do (and they are amazed by us and the grace we are given) and our Father does. I have a friend who's convinced that the saints could care less about what goes on here. "They're too enthralled with what's going on in Heaven, dude!" He would say. I don't exactly buy that. The list of "Hall of Faith" members in Hebrews and then the verse, "Since you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses..." leads me to believe that they witness what we're doing ... and that we're running a figurative "race" down here.

Well, in order to "unwind" from constant deadline pressures here last night, I decided to spend the last several minutes of daylight to get the riding lawnmower going and trim down the paths I've cut out of the property (for walking, running or riding). After getting a good amount cut and widening the paths from the overgrown weeds (we've had record rainfall here in Central Texas this year), I decided I would check out the possibility of crossing the ravine into the other portion of pasture here. It wasn't likely that I could, as the soft mud would make it non-tresspassable, but when I got close I noticed a ton of rocks. There were so many rocks that the thought occured to me, 'Did someone show kindness to me by dumping a large number of rocks here -- to make it easier to pass over?' That couldn't have been the case. The massive rushing waters carrying all those rocks over was more likely.

I decided to lift up the cutting blades (deck) and make a run for it. I soon found out that it was too muddy. I got out to push and was sinking on the rocks! It must've been just a shallow layer of rocks. Oh boy, did I get muddy. I walked back to the office and retrieved some long 2' x 6' boards and placed them under the tires, to see if that would help. After much work and thoughts of giving up (and lots of prayer asking for God's help, and admitting that I got myself in a silly mess), I was able to lift the back tires and shove it forward onto an "island" of non-sinking rocks. It looked passable to go up the next hill, but then I was stuck again.

I walked over to my neighbor's house to ask if he'd pull my mower out of the mud. I didn't have any ropes. He wasn't home. That saved me some embarrassment. When I came back I latched onto (and then abandoned) the idea of using one of my garden/sprinkler hoses to tow the mower out of the ravine with my car -- a small VW bug. I figured the strain and weight of that mower would rip the hose fittings right out of the hose. I found a metal dog leash/wire thing encased in plastic and tried to see if that was long enough. It wasn't. The drive around the fields on the path I cut in the car wasn't as easy as I thought. There was some slippage, which concerned me about the possibility of getting both vehicles stuck. Oh boy.

There is a tow bar in the back of the bug for towing it (not using the car to tow stuff), and it wasn't allowing me to slip the hose through with the nozzle/fitting end, so I doubled the hose over and pulled the flexible part through. There were two holes under the seat of some secure parts of the mower that I fed the hose through there. I had the car far away on top of a hill (as I wasn't about to try any hill climbing in this mud). There was enough slack in the hose to make a loop and use the fittings to close the loop. I was worried about the strain yanking those fittings right out, but the whole plan actually worked! I was able to pull the mower up the hill, then drive it back to the office and then the car.

Wow. I felt like McGyver -- using a garden hose to tow a riding lawnmower out of the mud. Ha ha ha.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at July 24, 2007 01:05 PM