... and a new respect for lawn mower blades!
God was watching over me yesterday as I was mowing lawns for Bob. I was on a riding mower that was missing it's discharge chute. The forward/reverse speed is controlled by the right foot, just a few inches away from the discharge area. As I was trimming around the perimeter of a yard, I was caught by a thorn bush, and in an instinctive reaction, I ducked away from it toward the right, and my right foot went out in an attempt to balance myself. My foot tried to find firm footing on the mower deck, where the chute should have been. Instant pain!
I was anticipating the worst in the twenty or thirty seconds it took me to shut off the tractor, remove my old tennis shoe (which my toe was sticking out of anyway), and peel my sock down. No blood, no cuts. Even today, there's not any bruising. I've never heard of an incident where any part of a human has come into contact with a spinning mower blade where there was a happy ending.
It was not a happy ending for the thorn bush though. When Nathan came around to check on me, he fired up the weed wacker, took that bush down, and said that I was vindicated!
Lessons learned: 1) thorns in the flesh would be better than no toes; 2) wear my steel-toed work shoes when mowing; and 3) the discharge chutes are there for a reason, and the mower should not be operated without said equipment in place.
