{"id":271,"date":"2008-12-22T10:19:41","date_gmt":"2008-12-22T15:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noelfigart.com\/blog\/?p=271"},"modified":"2008-12-22T10:19:41","modified_gmt":"2008-12-22T15:19:41","slug":"the-what-happens-next-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/22\/the-what-happens-next-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"The What Happens Next Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was given<\/em> a snowblower and a wood stove late last summer.\u00a0\u00a0 The woodstove has been a grand and glorious thing, but it hadn’t snowed enough to need a snowblower up until rather recently.<\/p>\n

We tried to use it Saturday and found that it was too heavy to use on a hill.<\/p>\n

That didn’t make sense to me.\u00a0 I know New England girls aren’t supposed to be the delicate flowers that we Virginians with our softer winters are.\u00a0 But, the idea that I <\/em>wasn’t strong enough to push a snow blower up a hill and use it didn’t set with what I figure the design parameters of the machine oughta be.\u00a0 I’m as strong as some men…\u00a0 And really wasn’t at home to dealing with shoveling a 17″ snowfall all on my lonesome if I could figure out a solution.<\/p>\n

So, I called upon a technique hammered into me from before I could read.\u00a0 It’s called the “What Happens Next Machine<\/a>“.\u00a0 You might remember it from your Sesame Street viewing if you’re between 35 and 45.\u00a0\u00a0 This is actually a fantastic lesson in theory v. practice, but it’s also a good lesson in tracing the problem.<\/p>\n

So,\u00a0 my snowblower…<\/p>\n

Each handle has a lever you squeeze.\u00a0 The left one controls whether or not the snow is blowing.\u00a0 The right one controls… Oh. Wow.\u00a0 It controls the drive mechanism on the wheels.\u00a0 It is, in fact, a self-propelling machine.\u00a0 (I kinda figured it had to be since it had a reverse<\/em> control and all…)<\/p>\n

So, using the principles of “What Happens Next”, I traced the cable from the right hand control to the machine.\u00a0 It’s supposed to be a pull lever, but it’s loose.\u00a0 Further examination shows that it is not hooked around a wheel that will pull it taut and decrease the friction on the cable when it’s pulled.\u00a0\u00a0 Voila!<\/em><\/p>\n

So I sit down in the snow to fix it.\u00a0 (My butt is still<\/em> cold!)\u00a0 What I don’t own is a toolbox with all<\/em> the tools I really should have for things like this.\u00a0 You know, ratchet wrench….\u00a0\u00a0 God, it took me forever to unscrew one confounded little bolt and because I was wearing sweats and not snow pants, my butt got wet.\u00a0 But still, I fixed it and cleared off the driveway — mostly.\u00a0\u00a0 Snow blowers aren’t made to go down all the way to the pavement, darn it.\u00a0 Good thing I have a 13 year old to take care of the rest.<\/p>\n

I want a Girl Genius T-shirt, darn it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was given a snowblower and a wood stove late last summer.\u00a0\u00a0 The woodstove has been a grand and glorious thing, but it hadn’t snowed enough to need a snowblower up until rather recently. We tried to use it Saturday and found that it was too heavy to use on a hill. That didn’t make … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The What Happens Next Machine”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-goofiness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}