Sometimes things just don't go your way

Have you ever decided not to do some type of recreational activity simply because you didn't want to spend the money, then because you stayed at home ended up having to spend 5 times the amount that you would have spent? That happened to me on Sunday. I really enjoy shooting sporting clays, this is a shotgun sport that many call "golf with guns" (more on that in a latter post). Sunday I had one of my buddies try to get me to go with him to a Bird In Hand in Plains, GA. I told him I was going to skip because I didn't have the ammo and didn't want to spend the money on the round, buy ammunition and gas, so I thought I would do good and save that $75 and stay at home.

Wrong decision.

I drove my "Golf Cart" (this is one of the converted types with mud tires, lift kit and hydraulic dump bed I use for maintenance chores around my place) over to my neighbors house to check on them. While I was there one of the kids asked if he could take my cart out to check his deer feeders. I didn't see any harm and said sure.

Wrong Decison again

About 1 and half hours later the kid walked back to the house saying he couldn't get the cart started. I thought maybe he ran it out of gas, so we walked back to my house so that we could get my tractor to tow the buggy back to the house if I couldn't get it started.

Wrong Decision again

We went out to where the buggy was sitting, I was relieved to see it wasn't buried in the mud. I tried to start the cart, and it wouldn't even turn over, I thought it must be a loose wire or something, I have had that happen in the past while traveling through wooded areas. I tried to lift the hydraulic dump bed to get to the engine area and the switch did not respond, I also noticed it was stuck in the down position. I said fine and lifted the seat up to get to the battery and electrical connections and I was horrified to see a lot of wires burned beyond recognition. It appeared that either he had his leg sitting on the down switch to the dump bed and he didn't know that the loud whine the hydraulics were making meant something was wrong so he kept driving, after all he had to check those deer feeders. (To my knowledge he has never killed a deer there, he tends to go out and get too wasted to actually go hunting the next morning.) I held my temper and hooked the 3 point hitch lift bar of the tractor to a tow chain connected the cart so that we could tow it back home and I could see how much damage was done.

Wrong Decision yet again

When I turned the tractor and started pulling the cart I heard a loud pop, no it wasn't the chain and there was not a bloody corpse of the boy behind me, but the lift arm of the tractor was now lying in the mud behind me. Because in my haste and frustration I forgot to put the pin in the sway bar and the lift arm broke in half. I then hooked the chain to the frame of the tractor and pulled it back to my house.

Now after trying to save $75 I am faced with $230 worth of broken tractor parts and if I am lucky probably $300 - $500 worth of damage to my cart.

So saving $75 just cost me $800. Moral of the story is if you get a chance to go do your favorite hobby go play. It may just save you a grand and make you feel a hell a lot better than allowing a kid to tear up your tools that you have to replace!