Rusty's Armory

W.R. “Peacock” Peacock.

Posted on May 16, 2017

W.R. “Peacock” Peacock.

Yelp said that he was open today so I load my three push mowers into Bucephalus, my ancient Dodge Grand Caravan. Yeah, I drive a mommy van. I didn’t winterize them properly and they will all need carburetor work, and one has a broken blade bolt will need to have the broken end extracted. The Yelp comments were mostly positive, with only one negative comment.

I find the address off the highway and down a steep gravel embankment. A mobile home and a shed full of broken mowers sit behind a padlocked chain link fence. Lawn mowers of various types and makes litter the yard. I pull up to the gate, and wait, hoping to see some activity.

Finally, the trailer house door opens, and a hairy giant emerges, walks to the gate and unlocks it.

“I wasn’t sure you were open” I said, trying to start a conversation.

“I wasn’t” he replied. “What’cha got?”

“Three mowers, one with a bolt broken off in the crank.”

He helped me get the mowers out of the back and push them into the yard, then beckoned inside to his hugely littered home.

“What’s your phone number?” he asked.

He fished around the papers on his desk, and pulled out an advertising circular, and wrote my phone number down in the margin.

“I need at least one of the mowers soon” I explained. “I need to get around the edges of the yard”.

“I hate mowing” he replied gruffly, and walked me back to the car. “Peacock is the name” he said as we shook hands.

I drove off a bit uneasy. Only one of the mowers could be considered an expensive one, and sometimes cheap mowers are easier to replace than fix. But I sure wasn’t feeling all that secure.  But the Yelp comments were generally positive, with only one negative. Peacock replied to it, saying that if he didn’t buy such cheap *ssed lawnmowers, he wouldn’t need so many repairs.

You got to trust a mechanic that will speak his mind, and I wasn’t judging a beauty contest, just getting lawnmowers repaired. Still, I am a bit uneasy …

I let a bit more than a week go by before checking on the mowers. He answered my call with “Peacock here”.

“Hello. I left three mowers with you a bit over a week ago, and I was just checking on them.”

“They will be ready sometime this week.” he replied.

“OK … no hurry. Thank you.” I lamely surrendered.

I either found a great mechanic, or I am going to be out a lot of money …