Tim upped his game to get out of work. He heard there was a storm coming so went cross country skiing, had a freak accident and broke 3 vertebrae, fractured his skull and paralyzed one vocal cord. End result, he can’t snow blow or shout. Lucky me. In all seriousness, I am happy and lucky he is alive and up and about.

But enough of that. Another storm came through. As the snow lightened, I fired up the snow blower. I cleared the driveway, the mountain the snow plow created at the end of the driveway, and the path to the cabin. When I was as far as I could be from home, the drive train stopped working. At least I was finished but I fretted. I went to bed watching videos of snow blower repairs. I had to rebuild the drive train a few years ago after someone who won’t be mentioned replaced a shear pin with a bolt. But I forgot everything I had learned for that repair.

So after lunch, when the temperature rose to the low 20’s, I headed back to the cabin with tools and shear pins in a bag. It’s not easy doing small engine repair in the cold and I have the gloves to prove it.

Anyhow, when I finally got the cover off all looked well and I couldn’t find a shear pin. Then I started doubting my repair. Nothing in the Snapper manual described a shear pin as a cause for no power, they only mentioned belts, cables and discs. But then, while spinning the axle, I saw it, an empty hole on the shaft just begging for a shear pin. The repair was easier than putting the plate back over the gears with gloves and the wrong tools but I started her up and drove off into the sunshine.

When I got home, all Tim could say was that I looked a mess and had grease on my face. Reminds me of my granddaughter’s favorite book, The Paper Bag Princess. Needless to say, I did not call him a bum.