Odd occurrence with my otherwise super-nice neighbor

I would’ve taken that deal in a heartbeat

 

Was it you that had a group that moved in the neighborhood and had a lot of people visiting the house? With thoughts they might be drug dealers?

If so, what happened with them?

 

Up here it is a time honored tradition not to ask to borrow a gas powered anything. However, if someone needs one up here, someone would just show up and mow your lawn, cut the tree down, drive you to the store, whatever you need until your gas powered something is repaired.

 

Some people are just anal about things. They can be that way if they want , it's their right to use their stuff how they want. I'm the other end of the spectrum. Nobody takes worse care of my equipment than me! I use stuff hard. If it breaks I fix it.
You should see my 20HP Craftsman mower. It's about 15 or more years old. I have occasionally run into trees mowing my rough land. Or a root. So the main cover is beat to heck and the front "grill" has completely broken off. I've broken the welds on the front axle. I've had to put spindles in it a couple times. I occasionally change the oil, maybe every other year. First mowing here in the PNW the grass is probably a foot long and damp. Every year I threaten to buy a new mower and every year it continues to mow.

 

There is a reason for that saying get off my lawn

 

Might just be him not wanting any other man mowing his lawn as a matter of territorial principle. Nothing wrong with that. I wouldn’t let anybody else do mine unless I was in the hospital and they didn’t tell anybody haha.

Also, lotta guys don’t lend stuff out or let others use their equipment because they’ve had other people break it or not return it. Maybe he figured you’d bust his because yours busted. Just messing with you.

Which wouldn’t be fair to you because even though Husqvarnas are nicer, wear and tear happens on every one of them.

Even the commercial grade ones will fail when you put them through the paces, though they are built tougher.

None of them are inexpensive. I’m not impressed.

I’ve watched a Husqvarna zero turn drop a deck deuce because the metal is so thin it’s bound to start falling apart just when you need it the most. Not even worth trying to weld it because there is nothing there hardly.

There’s a weak link in everything. Courtesy and social cues are not everyone’s strong points, especially these days.

Maybe he needs to get outside away from who is inside. What if that’s his only Earthly sanctuary?

Maybe he mows in a crop circle formation with a weight belt and finger cymbals on and when he saw you cutting your perimeter he figured you were going to burn in proper lines.

Either way, at least you didn’t get break a Marooka.

That was a reasonable proposition you made, it’s just that guys can get weird about their equipment and yards because sometimes it’s the only thing that hasn’t been taken away from them yet.

 

Do you live next to Monk?

 

Lending and borrowing are really great ways to mess up a relationship.

 

Perhaps he feels about his mower and lawn the way most of us do about our guitars. I know how I'd react if someone said, "let me borrow your guitar tonight, and I'll do a complete setup on it for you before returning it tomorrow." Gosh, that's generous . . . but, umm, no, thanks.

 

Me too, even if I had serious philosophical differences with the other person's mowing style. Even if I hated it, it would all grow back in a week.

 

Sounds like a he's a bit odd. But if that's the worst he ever does you doing ok. Bad neighbors can be absolute hell.for me, even if a neighbor does something unneighbourly I'll ignore it 90% of the time. And even then I try to be as diplomatic as possible.

I've seen how small issues can degenerate into total messes that make life unlivable for both sides. Hell is other people!

 

I lent a mower once. Didn't know the grass was 3 feet tall and full of debris. Blade had to be replaced.

 

Duh, you already broke your mower, now you want to use his?

 

"You just broke yours. You ain't gonna break mine."

 

Haha. Great minds...

 

Ultimately there are no grounds for a grudge if someone chooses not to do you a favor.

 

One of the cool things about TDPRI is that I get to read about things I haven’t thought about since I left “home”. Craftsman lawn mowers were sold by Sears. My father had one. I’ve seen lawn mowers in Home Depot but I can’t think of what brand they were. Maybe Toro? What’s the green one? Where I live, lawns are mowed by landscaping contractors, businesses owned by second generation immigrants who hire first generation immigrants who made it across the border, either through a crossing or around it. I take care of my garden. People who can’t tell a Japanese maple from a smoke tree or a rose bush from a climbing rose shouldn’t touch them. My concession to large powered outdoor tools is an Ariens snow thrower. I don’t lend it out but I clear the walk of the 90 year old lady next door and neighbors will clear the walk in front of a house where nobody is home. Life in the high tax suburbs.

 

Yeah me too. Maybe I'm just too thick or socially awkward to pick up on subtleties. But I'd rather people give a straight yes or no.

 

My neighbour across the road is a mowing contractor.... he would often start mowing my lawn without asking when I went for a while without a ride on mower or if it got a bit wet and grew too long for my mower.......he would never take a dollar when I offered, I eventually stuffed a hundred in his top pocket one day.......

good bloke..