Now We Know

This afternoon I was out mowing the lawn on my riding lawnmower.  I like that machine.  Anyway, as usual, there were a number of "hazards" on the lawn.  These items were mostly toys that belong to the grand kids and dog.  As I mow along on the pass before they would be in the way, I stop next to them and move them.  Usually throw them off to the other side of the mower where I've already cut.  Today, however, there was a large, blue ball.  Like two feet in diameter.  My usual approach wasn't working.  Every time I'd get close to it some part of the mower would bump it before I could grab it and it would roll away.  After a few times of this I figured it was working well enough that it would be okay.  The only downside was that each time I'd bump it, it would roll out into the area where I hadn't yet mowed.  That's why it kept happening.  Then came the time as I approached the ball that it was directly in front of the mower.  Fine, I figured, I'll just bump it out of the way again.  That ought to work again, right?

Wrong.  Before I knew it, the front end of the lawnmower raised up and the ball started to go underneath.  Then, suddenly, the ball popped and the front of the mower dropped back down to the ground. Pieces of the ball were all over the back yard.  Lots of them.  Some pretty small, some pretty big.

Lots of them.  Took me a few minutes to pick them all up.  I didn't want to run over any of them again because that would just chop them up further and make a bigger mess. Lesson learned; next time just get off the mower and move it.  But for this particular ball that isn't a problem anymore.  Nope.