Oh I WANT one….
Margaret
Not sure what it is, not sure what I’d do with it if I had one…. But I seriously WANT one.
Allow me to explain.
I was dropping off my rototiller at Bryant Tractor & Mower in Renton this afternoon. This being the beginning of the sixth season I’ve used it, I figured that having someone do a basic tune up wouldn’t be a bad idea.
I left the tiller at the service desk, having made arrangements to have it serviced. I went back out to my car, I pulled around to get back to the street through their somewhat narrow, equipment lined drive way and there it was.
About the size of a riding lawn mower, it runs on tracks with a riding platform in back allowing the operator to ride with the doohickey as it trundles along. Hand instruments for go forward/go backward/left track/right track and a set of joysticks for lift the bucket up/dump the bucket/put the bucket back down. On the front, a wee little excavator bucket probably twice the volume of a regular wheelbarrow or, perhaps, about the same size as the bucket on a Bobcat.
It (a mini front end loader? a power shovel?) was just so damn CUTE. Absolutely thoroughly impractical for a suburban gardener, but when did practicality have anything to do with infatuation? Now I want a little organic farm so I’ll have a practical use for this whatsis and can justify its purchase and abundant use.
Honestly I’m not sure where this odd passion of mine for machinery and equipment came from. God knows I’ve no talent for anything mechanical. Witness me taking my tiller to a shop to have it serviced. But tractors, rototillers, riding mowers…I spent several hours in the depths of a paddlewheel steam boat on the Illinois river one time just watching the engine run. All the way up to airplanes and rockets. I just want to sit back and make bbbbbbbbBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRMMMMMMM noises. Probably comes from having grown up a Boeing baby.
4 Responses to “Oh I WANT one….”
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April 10th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I’m sure this comes as no surprise to you, but I can totally relate. I once had a really fun business trip to SoCal where together with another engineer I discussed the noise certification and hardware details of the little BR715 engine (powers the 717) with the Los Angeles FAA office. Our meetings concluded much earlier than expected, so we were left cooling our heels before our evening flight. So we went to tour the Queen Mary. We had lunch in one of the fine restaurants (gotta love those expense accounts!) and then did the self guided tour. We spent most of the time in the engine rooms. It was really surreal, earlier in the day we were talking about this very small jet engine (I call it the “Barbie” engine) which is very compact and has tight clearances and then here we were essentially walking through an engine. It was almost like we were in an engineer’s version of that movie “Fantastic Voyage” only instead of being miniaturized and traveling through a human, we were miniaturized and traveling through an engine. Awe-some. I thought touring the QM would be a bit cheesy, but it turned out to be fascinating.
April 11th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I can completely relate. And I’m still drooling over your rototiller.
In other gardening news, I tripped over cute wee 1.5 pound bags of various seed potatoes today, and couldn’t resist getting a bag of Yukons and a bag of All Blues. I’m sure that I have more than I need in my wee (slowly expanding, but still wee) veggie plot – would you like some of either? Let me know, and I can bring some of either next weekend.
April 12th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Val, if you EVER get sent to Florida for any sort of shuttle launch type thing…. Insist that you need a chaperone and I’ll come with you to watch. I’d be really _GOOD_ chaperone. You’d hardly get into any trouble at all with me sitting back and making BBBBBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMM noises.
Dalek, regarding seed potatoes…. yes. I’d love a 1.5 pound bag of All Blues and Yukons. Thank you.
April 14th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Will do. Not likely, but will do if the possibility comes up.
I’m currently in Ohio on another engine test, so Mmmmm….hardware….