![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acampbellI'll feel better if I write this down.
Every year, I send my gas lawn mower to the clinic over at the university for winterization. It costs $35.00 and is well worth it. And last year, whoever worked on it actually fixed it so it starts properly! I've participated in this clinic for 3-4 years. The ag engineering students pick them up on a Friday early in November and return them, winterized, the next day.
Well, this year, despite sending myself TWO email reminders, I forgot to put the mower out today for the students to pick up. I called Leah and asked her to do it, and she said she would, after she got dressed. This was about 8:30-9 a.m. When I came home at lunch to drop off some stuff, the mower was gone, and I thought: boy, they were speedy this year! I checked the garage to make sure she hadn't forgotten to put out the mower.
About 4:30 p.m. I got a message from her (she was home from work by then). The Purdue students had just then stopped by to pick up the mower. So, someone else must have taken it.
I called the police to report it, and they said: call us back when you get home. I'm waiting for them now.
Now the real kicker: Leah's on her way to Valparaiso with Zach. I call her because she left the TV on, a candle burning, etc. She asks if I got the phone message. I say yes. She mentions that she put the lawn mower out ON THE CURB for the students to pick up. And I'm, like, yeah, right, someone driving by probably thought it was trash and grabbed it! There are guys that cruise around in their trucks looking for stuff people are throwing out. Sometimes they're courteous enough to ask, but today there was no one home that they could have asked. The general area philosophy seems to be: if it's on the curb, you don't want it.
So now I don't know if I can reasonably even report it "stolen", considering that. And I feel unreasonably furious because I really don't know WHY she put it ON THE CURB! I've always just left it on the front lawn by the house all the other years.
I know in the grand scheme of things this is only a ripple; it's just a lawn mower, and I can get another one, but that particular lawn mower and I have cut a lot of grass together, and I was pretty attached to it. And you know: I can save up $200 for another by next summer, but it just grinds me to have to buy a new mower when this didn't have to happen. What I really want to say to her is: if your head wasn't always in the damn clouds over your new BF, maybe you'd keep your wits about you!
She's a smart kid, so I just can't fathom why she put the mower ON THE CURB.
Every year, I send my gas lawn mower to the clinic over at the university for winterization. It costs $35.00 and is well worth it. And last year, whoever worked on it actually fixed it so it starts properly! I've participated in this clinic for 3-4 years. The ag engineering students pick them up on a Friday early in November and return them, winterized, the next day.
Well, this year, despite sending myself TWO email reminders, I forgot to put the mower out today for the students to pick up. I called Leah and asked her to do it, and she said she would, after she got dressed. This was about 8:30-9 a.m. When I came home at lunch to drop off some stuff, the mower was gone, and I thought: boy, they were speedy this year! I checked the garage to make sure she hadn't forgotten to put out the mower.
About 4:30 p.m. I got a message from her (she was home from work by then). The Purdue students had just then stopped by to pick up the mower. So, someone else must have taken it.
I called the police to report it, and they said: call us back when you get home. I'm waiting for them now.
Now the real kicker: Leah's on her way to Valparaiso with Zach. I call her because she left the TV on, a candle burning, etc. She asks if I got the phone message. I say yes. She mentions that she put the lawn mower out ON THE CURB for the students to pick up. And I'm, like, yeah, right, someone driving by probably thought it was trash and grabbed it! There are guys that cruise around in their trucks looking for stuff people are throwing out. Sometimes they're courteous enough to ask, but today there was no one home that they could have asked. The general area philosophy seems to be: if it's on the curb, you don't want it.
So now I don't know if I can reasonably even report it "stolen", considering that. And I feel unreasonably furious because I really don't know WHY she put it ON THE CURB! I've always just left it on the front lawn by the house all the other years.
I know in the grand scheme of things this is only a ripple; it's just a lawn mower, and I can get another one, but that particular lawn mower and I have cut a lot of grass together, and I was pretty attached to it. And you know: I can save up $200 for another by next summer, but it just grinds me to have to buy a new mower when this didn't have to happen. What I really want to say to her is: if your head wasn't always in the damn clouds over your new BF, maybe you'd keep your wits about you!
She's a smart kid, so I just can't fathom why she put the mower ON THE CURB.
