XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: psperson1@ix.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Sat, 6 Jun 2020 15:40:00 -0400, Glenn Holliday    
   wrote:   
      
   >On 6/5/2020 10:10 AM, Bill O'Meally wrote:   
   >> On 2020-06-05 13:45:46 +0000, Stan Brown said:   
   >>   
   >>> On Thu, 4 Jun 2020 19:53:49 -0400, Bill O'Meally wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>> And you can bet he used a (non-motorized) push mower!  Can you imagine   
   >>>> his dismay in his suburban existence at the noise of lawn equipment and   
   >>>> their 'infernal combustion engines'? :-)   
   >>>   
   >>> i had to buy a new lawn mower recently, and not a battery-powered one   
   >>> from Home Depot. It's just as powerful as a gasoline-powered one, but   
   >>> among its many advantages is that it's a LOT less noisy.   
   >>   
   >> 'Not' a battery powered one?  You mean a *manual* push mower?  I got one   
   >> once and did not find it to work very well, and it took lots of effort   
   >> even when I was 20 years younger!  Tolkien was just a couple years   
   >> younger than me now when he wrote those letters.  Could have just been a   
   >> poor quality model.   
   >   
   >I had a manual push mower once.  I worked well for a short while,   
   >then pieces began to fall off.  I was unable to find a good quality   
   >replacement.   
      
   Anything mechanical is prone to doing that.   
      
   Particularly when I don't do maintenance.   
      
   >This was before Internet - I could probably find   
   >many choices today.  But at that time I switched to electric -   
   >corded, as battery mowers were in their infancy then.  It has   
   >run well for more than 20 years, and I learned to manage the   
   >cord well enough to like using the thing.  When it eventually   
   >breaks down I will likely switch to a battery mower.   
      
   My first corded mower required me to adjust the height of each wheel   
   separately. Which was confusing because the front and rear wheels   
   adjusted in opposite directions (clockwise and anticlockwise, moing a   
   selector along a toothed bit of metal, which meant you had to count   
   the number of "teeth" from oppoosite ends in opposite directions, all   
   while laying the thing on its side).   
      
   My new one has a single lever that adjusts all four at once!   
      
   Just something to look for if/when you decide to replace it.   
      
   >Actually, I have an old scythe, which I mowed grass with a few times   
   >to find out what it was like.  I would need to practice with it   
   >more than I did to become skilled with it.  I wonder if   
   >Tolkien handled one of those when he was in the country?   
   --   
   "I begin to envy Petronius."   
   "I have envied him long since."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)