Little Happy Dances

Above is a snap of me sitting with Charlie on the porch. There is the little weed whacker that my hubby bought me for my birthday a few years ago.

At that time I wasn't as strong as I am now in my shoulders and arms so it was a chore to use it for any length of time and I was always sore afterwards.

[Yep, I'm giving CrossFit a bit of a nod here. Not only has it helped but my first happy dance of the day was in CrossFit class. I had a PR of 82 lbs in the Back Squat. I know that may mean nothing to most folks but to me it was huge! My first back squats were with a pvc pipe and I actually graduated to a weighted bar. It wasn't until this past few months that I actually added real weights. 
Anyway when I finished my little PR, I did a joyful happy dance and rang the bell.]

Well, I decided it was time to get after those pesky straggles of long grass that Sven couldn't keep under control. So I fired up the Weed Eater and went after the grasses.
Whoops! The little trimmer string wouldn't advance.

Uh oh. I know last year I just asked the boss to help me. So I poked my head in the house and asked Rich, "Do you recall how to do the string 'thingy' on the weed whacker?"
He looked at me and shrugged, "Nope. Sorry."
There was a time that he'd take charge and I'd be the go-fer. I'd get the tools and he'd take care of what needed being done.

Hmm.
I recalled seeing the manual to this Toro Trimmer in the *Manual Drawer*. It is a dresser drawer in the basement that has every manual that ever passed through this property. I rummaged through until I found the Toro Trimmer Manual. I made about 10 trips to the spot where Rich keeps tools [this area will get organized eventually!] and came back with two wrench things that I could work with. The instructions were nearly as clear as mud.
So I looked at the pictures and followed them, but was stumped when I couldn't get the bump nob off.

So I used my Smarty Phone to look up similar issues. How odd. A Yahoo Question and Answer discussion came up with the solution. The manual said to turn the bump knob counter clockwise [Lefty Loosey], the discussion said that was wrong. Clockwise.

And they were right!

I followed the suggestions to clean the spring the knobby thing, and all the other parts. While I was at it I cleaned up the shield and dabbed a bit of oil on the other suggested parts.
Then I proceeded to follow the written instructions on how to re-string the trimmer and put it back together.
I started it and went at the weeds. Imagine a sort little happy dance while whacking down long grass, thistles, and burdock. Giddy again.

Success! I set it down after I was finished and went to put the manual away. On the very next page it had some instructions on how to clean an air filter. Oh, I don't ever recall having that cleaned.

Looks like I have some more work to do.

I never imagined I'd be happy over being able to just string a little trimmer.