Karma is an interesting thing.

A few weeks back, I borrowed my son's Kubota tractor to do a little landscaping. The lawn has sloped toward the house ever since I put an addition on the kitchen. This was the year I decided to change the slope to direct rainwater away instead of into the cellar. The tractor is an amazing tool and was quickly changing the slope when suddenly one of the hydraulic hoses on the bucket split open. The ensuing fog tsunami of hydraulic fluid coated the tractor and this driver with an even layer and since it's a hydro drive, the entire beast was disabled and unmovable.

Within a couple of hours, I had a new hose installed and finished the job without further incident.

Fast forward to today. In order to maintain at least the appearance of even, flat lawn, I borrowed an old Troybuilt tiller from my good friend John. It's one his father bought when he was in high school and has been salvaged from the scrap heap many times. I was tilling merrily away and had about two passes to finish smoothing things out when there was a sudden belching of thick blue smoke from the engine, which faltered miserably and nearly died. I shut it off, drove the truck onto the back lawn, loaded it in and returned it with many apologies. John wasn't overly concerned and seemed to almost expect it of a 30+ year old machine, but I feel crappy about it nonetheless.

Since I was almost done, I decided to just roll the lawn out, seed it, put on the straw and call it a day. I rented the roller, hooked it to the lawn tractor and rolled the whole patch - almost! with about 15 mins work left, suddenly the tractor wouldn't steer. One of the tie rod ball joints had come apart. No amount of coaxing would keep it together, and I can't get the mower shop to answer the phone. When I do, I won't expect them to have one.

What is it about this lawn project that is so anti? Virtually every chapter has been fraught with mechanical breakdowns, for no apparent reason, other than bad Karma.

I managed to get the tractor into the garage , with the 500 Lb. roller attached, but now I think I'd better go out and make sure the roller's not not leaking water all over the garage floor!