Houston?

I thought I'd get a jump on the lawn cutting needed for the weekend. While the CAO parking lot was empty, I could cut around the perimeter. Then we would avoid asking people to move their cars later. I knew Jean would be arriving early on Friday and I had some time on my hands.

I cut around the parking lot without incident. But while cutting along the driveway, something broke. At first, I wasn't sure what was up. As I made tight turns around Earth and Venus, the lawn tractor kind of lurched. Then it started understeering! WTF? I looked down and saw the front wheels going in different directions! Oh oh.

After shutting down, I examined the damage. The axle assembly on the left wheel had snapped where the tie rod connected.

The Stargrazer was at the bottom of the driveway and I could barely move it.

From the house, after consulting the manual, I called down to Houston. Tony answered. He called the Kooy Brothers with the part number. They had one in stock! Whew. The supply mission was assigned to Dietmar who would be passing nearby.

I was on standby.