Mow or Less

We both had long days yesterday on a cold (for May) and rainy (for anytime) Friday, but as noted yesterday, Eleanor finished the repair on our mower and she was rarin' to go checking it out in action this morning. Lawn care, such as it is around here, is usually my jurisdiction, but this was her win and she wanted the first crack at it.  It went fine as she got the front mowed without a hitch.

I didn't get into the weeds until later. I had a workout scheduled this morning which I tried three ways from Saturday to miss (didn't refresh the app and thought I was still waitlisted; almost went to the wrong studio of the two they have here; and then almost missed the start time because the road to the right studio was under construction and moving like molasses), but I made it! But after Eleanor's triumphant first cut, I decided to make one last use of our friend's temporary mower to get most of the back yard done. This choice was twofold: the battery on the repaired mower needed a charge, and I wanted to blow through the gas I'd left in the temp's tank because Glenn rarely uses it and I didn't want to leave going-stale petrol in it.

In the end, I got most of our back forty done with it, except the worst sections of Camp Swampy back there.  Did I mention rainy?  Ultimately, I tackled even some of the borderline areas, because, as I'd noted from the first time I used the thing, it gets pretty good gas mileage and it just wasn't running out of fuel as I expected it to.  My alternative approach to that was to just let it run in the corner, because, as I also discovered on its maiden voyage in our yard, its "deadman control" handle didn't work and I could only shut it off by disconnecting the spark plug.

Until today, that is.

Somehow, today the damn thing regained its sense of safety features just as I was getting ready to send it home. It shut on its own when I disengaged the handle. Every time.  Glenn wound up getting it back with maybe a milliliter or two of petrol in the tank, and he decided to mow something with it anyway, so it wound up being all good.

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Also all good is that hockey season has now come to a merciful end in these parts. The Sabres ended the shortened season with the worst record in the league, a current league-longest drought of ten years out of the playoffs, a fired coach, a disgruntled superstar, and a likely shot at the best incoming player (no worst than third best) in what of course is predicted to be a down year for draft picks.

There were hopeful signs. The assistant placed in charge on an interim basis, after the final putting-to-pasture of the second-short-year coach, did much better in his short tenure heading the bench and he is considered a contender to get the gig next fall.  A new team is entering the league over the summer and, while the Sabres will lose a player to them, it is expected they will be a bottom feeder the first year. And the team's problems in goal, perpetual since Ryan Miller was traded seemingly 80 years ago, may be fixed with the arrival of a long-expected prospect but also the guy who finished the year in net after just about everybody else got injured; other than one bad game on Thursday, he did pretty well even today, holding one of the league's top offenses to just one goal.  The Butterknives, of course, didn't score any:(

But today's finale was perhaps even finale-r, for there is rampant speculation that the team's looooongtime play-by-play man, Rick Jeanneret, may have called his last game:

In a brief telephone interview Tuesday, Jeanneret said it may be some time before there is an answer from him and Mark Preisler, Pegula Sports and Entertainment executive vice president.

“We have agreed to wait until after the season is over to talk,” said Jeanneret. “There are no timelines.”

Preisler confirmed Jeanneret’s statement.

“Like we have the past few seasons, we will sit down when the time is right to discuss next year,” said Preisler.

People certainly acted like today was the end:

The team has celebrated Jeanneret’s career in televised games throughout the season, with Saturday’s season final giving his 50 years as the Sabres broadcaster even more attention.

“There will be some testimonials from players and announcers from the history of the organization,” said veteran game producer Joe Pinter.

The testimonials will come from Ray, Danny Gare, Brad May, Rene Robert, Michael Peca, Mike Robitaille, Ryan Miller and Doc Emrick in the pregame show, during intermission and in the postgame and there also may be some off-the-cuff comments during the game.

Brad May, of course, was the cause of his celebrated MAYDAY! playoff goal call, which lives in local hockey fame along with Dave Hannan's return of a series to the New Jersey Meadowlands "where Jimmy Hoffa is," his declaration that the last deep-playoff contending team in 2006-07 was "scary good," and his thousands of goal calls where a Sabre shot a puck above the goalie's shoulder- "top shelf where mama hides the cookies!"

RJ has been part time the past several seasons. His not quite heir apparent is good, but he's no Rick. Nobody ever will be. We can only hope they'll find the funds and the wherewithal to bring him back so his career doesn't end in a dumpster fire of a season that was 2020-21 with no opposing team getting to greet and honor him in their own building.

So, yes, Rick. Please. We'd like some mow.