Oh, Ms. Luna, I'm so glad I am not the only one to talk to their car. I have named mine Miss Margaret, but call her Miss Maggie when she's in a spunky mood (in short galloping down the road rather than ambling and yes, I pat mine on the dash board when we make it through a tough spot or keep encouraging her with "You can make it, come on girl." I've always said that machines truly have minds of their own with a little mischief thrown in for good measure. Glad you made it home safe and sound. Please give "Bess" an ATTA GIRL for me. Kirk, hope you guys are beginning to thaw out up in the northwest. Loved the plate flowers on the other posting. When my 87 year old Dad walked by and saw your pictures he was impressed with what you had done. Think Spring!! It will be here soon (despite the groundhog prediction). Toodles, Ms. Faith

sometimes the ball bearings in the recoil that engage when you pull the rope will stick if the get dry, or sometimes to greasy, and wont engage. I say pull the engine cover off and inspect the ratchet part on the engine crank end, bet it turns both ways, or is broken.If the rope feels fine, then probably nothing wrong with rope/pulley and cover, unless some way the squarish hole that engages the crank end got rounded out.

nice whaas, novaplant, and rispetto! novaplant, looks like those horses are riding the storm out! we're finally getting some snow here today, it's been a while Pinus strobiformis in pot on left, Picea pungens in ground on right (Helianthus maximiliana, tall plant in middle)

Gee, Kat, why didn't you just shovel it all onto your grass? LOL! Should I stop making "helpful" suggestions! Shoveling it ANYWHERE is hard enough! Sorry to hear yours all landed in the Wrong Place! MANY years ago (back in the early 70's!) I lived in a little house in far south Aurora, and we got a storm like this last one, but even more snow and even more wind, and the way it happened to blow between the neighbor houses it ALL seemed to wind up RIGHT in front of our garage! It went all the way up to the roof, and if the snow had been hard enough we could have walked up the Snow Mountain and walked straight onto the roof! When we first went out after the storm and saw it, it was hard to really believe there was THAT much snow there! So I do know where you're coming from! It was kinda like: Could we possibly dig a tunnel thru it to drive the car out of the garage--rather than having to shovel it ALL!!! As near as I can tell I wound up with about 15" total. When I finally got out to measure it today I was getting 14", but the sun had been shining on it for quite a while at that point, and there was no question that it was well into the process of "settling down!" But one thing I know for sure; there is a LOT of moisture in it, and it really is gonna do a great job of watering everything. When I looked out the front door last nite about 12:30, trying to figure out just how hard it was still snowing, I noticed some flashing lites at the end of the block, and then I heard, Beep, Beep, Beep! It took a minute to figure out what was going on in the middle of the nite, but there was a city plow out there plowing the residential streets. When I looked more closely--over the shoveled pile along my walk, I discovered they had already plowed the road in front of my house! I thought that was kinda nice of Thornton--even if I don't need to go anywhere! And with the sun today now the plowed part is bare and dry again. Lots of piles, still, along the edges where people have shoveled their walks and drives--and shoveled out their cars that were parked on the street! By the end of the week we're supposed to be well back up into the 40's and maybe even back up to the low 50's so I'm guessing that even most of the piles will be gone by next weekend if they're in the sun! That's the kind of snowstorms EVERYBODY should have! Shhhhh! Don't tell anybody else about out Miraculous Disappearing Snowstorms or everybody will be moving here! We need to keep this to ourselves! Do any of you remember the March Blizzard of 2003? Funny story! I was working in San Fran at the time, and commuting back and forth, and the Blizzard happened when I was on the west coast. Being in the Airline Business, needless to say I was hearing plenty of stories about how bad it was and about all the flites that were being cancelled. The total (official) snowfall was just short of three feet (in about 24 hours I think it was), and when I had days off and was able to come home again it was on the third day after the storm, and I REALLY wanted to come home so I just made up my mind that I'd shovel my car out of the parking lot--no matter how long it took, and find some way to get home! I got back to DIA and onto the parking lot bus, determined that I was just gonna change into my Survival Clothes that I had in the car and start shoveling, and then we got to the parking lot! Except for the humongous--and I DO mean humongous, piles of snow where it had been plowed, all the cars and roads in the parking lot were DRY! I almost fell over! When I got out onto the two-lane road I took home (for those of you who don't know, DIA is out on the plains, halfway to Kansas!) the road was completely dry--and there were huge 6-8' piles of snow ALL along the road--I couldn't see over the top ANYWHERE! It was like being in a maze where all you could do was to keep going the way you were going! I felt like I was in an hallucination of something! Got back more into the Metro area and, except for the piles along the streets, you could hardly tell there had been a blizzard. I've lived out here since '64, and I KNOW how fast it melts, but even I could hardly believe what I was seeing that time! This IS the place to live! Skybird