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About two years ago, when we moved in to this house, we bought a Toro snowblower. You may remember that it was a particularly snowy winter. Desiring to support local businesses, we bought it from a small-engine repair guy, Ron, over on the Lewiston Road. When we mentioned to our neighbor, Dick, that we had bought a snowblower from Ron he looked at us doubtfully and said, "I think he's honest," or something of that sort. Which carefully leaves out whether he thinks the guy can actually fix anything.
Eor fought with that snowblower all last winter, and Dick bailed us out with his plow several times, and at the end of last winter Eor bought the Ariens snowblower which he used this year, which worked great. As we don't have a truck with which to take it to the dump, we were debating how to get rid of the Toro. In Maine you can put anything at the end of the driveway with a 'Free' sign on it and someone will take it, no matter what it is or how useless it seems to you. We've literally put out broken pallets, pieces of tree riddled with ants, old doors covered with mold, you know. Anything. If it says 'free' someone has a use for it. Conversely, if it does NOT say 'free,' nobody will take it. Eor put the Toro out by the road a few days ago and I called Ron and left a message saying it was here and he could have it back. I figured that was worth a try. Yeah, he'll just sell it to some other sucker, but at least it will be off our hands.
Today when Eor got home from work the Toro had been moved back down the driveway and there was a note on it: "Please call me about the snowblower - Bob" with a number. Bob, who works at the school at the top of the hill (which we deduced from the fact that the piece of card he wrote his note on had the school's insignia on it) did not decide to just take it, because it did not have a sign on it that said 'Free.'
We called Bob back and Eor had a nice, long conversation with him, explaining each and every aspect of the problems this snowblower has (eats belts, can't toss more than a little light snow, seems to not want to pull start at all at present), and Bob said he would take it and tinker with it for his neighbor, because she needs one.
I feel like this snowblower should be RF tagged before we release it back into the wild. Who knows where it might go next? I wonder which houses in town it's been at before it came to us.
Eor fought with that snowblower all last winter, and Dick bailed us out with his plow several times, and at the end of last winter Eor bought the Ariens snowblower which he used this year, which worked great. As we don't have a truck with which to take it to the dump, we were debating how to get rid of the Toro. In Maine you can put anything at the end of the driveway with a 'Free' sign on it and someone will take it, no matter what it is or how useless it seems to you. We've literally put out broken pallets, pieces of tree riddled with ants, old doors covered with mold, you know. Anything. If it says 'free' someone has a use for it. Conversely, if it does NOT say 'free,' nobody will take it. Eor put the Toro out by the road a few days ago and I called Ron and left a message saying it was here and he could have it back. I figured that was worth a try. Yeah, he'll just sell it to some other sucker, but at least it will be off our hands.
Today when Eor got home from work the Toro had been moved back down the driveway and there was a note on it: "Please call me about the snowblower - Bob" with a number. Bob, who works at the school at the top of the hill (which we deduced from the fact that the piece of card he wrote his note on had the school's insignia on it) did not decide to just take it, because it did not have a sign on it that said 'Free.'
We called Bob back and Eor had a nice, long conversation with him, explaining each and every aspect of the problems this snowblower has (eats belts, can't toss more than a little light snow, seems to not want to pull start at all at present), and Bob said he would take it and tinker with it for his neighbor, because she needs one.
I feel like this snowblower should be RF tagged before we release it back into the wild. Who knows where it might go next? I wonder which houses in town it's been at before it came to us.