So the wife decided not to go shopping Sat. morning, sleeping in instead, and I make the mistake of taking her car, leaving my pickup home for abuse, as you will soon see.
As I pull in home full of groceries she’s there with my pickup yanking out the overgrown margarite bushes in the front yard, and using my good tie downs to boot! Yeow! I figured no sense in getting into a verbal wrestling match over misuse of my fine equipment; at a minimum saying if she breaks it she buys it, and move on to unload and put away the groceries, not wanting any part of this mess.
She shortly comes inside and asks for help, and I say “no, not by misusing my stuff – no way”. Her usual tactics of pressing when I say “no” with the “paaaaalllllllleeeeeezzzzzze” worked; me figuring I can get her back after we shower up. He he.
Enter the hero for the damsel in distress.
Looking for sacrificial straps I find my old (and I mean old; used these on my former TT350) Ancras, up ‘til lassoing this one-big bugger of a bush. “Snap!” as it gave it’s last breath by slapping the pickup’s tailgate, dropping lifeless onto the driveway. So much for maxing-out the 800lb tensile strength these are said to withstand.
I then took my trusty shovel to the roots, and “snap!” again: there goes my faithful premium Craftsman point-tip shovel, which has served me well for 20 years. That hurt – think I’m going to cry. Bo hoo. Though I knew it would give someday. Oh well. So off to Sears and they comment on how old the markings were; the cashier said he was going to have it framed!
On the way back I bought a tow strap at Preppy Boys just in case.
When waking this morning the first thing I hear, in a pleasant tone: “when ya gonna pull out that last bush? I wanna watch…”
The drama ended without any so much as a climax (other than after yesterday’s showering; he he he) with my usual shoveling skills, attacking the roots of that last bush; no need for the tow strap.
Moral of the story: when wifey gets these wild ideas, you must really stay on your toes, or your tools will get used: some to misuse, moreover other tools to what they were intended to, eh?