|
"How did you think of this?" is a question that we are usually asked.
If you really must know, this is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth...at least as best as I can recall.
One fateful day in August of '97, I had been invited to a neighbors house to
have a few adult beverages with a few friends. As I arrived, the conversation quickly focused around a vehicle
that I had recently acquired. The vehicle was an old Chevy pick up with a big block. I sold parts from the vehicle
for days until the last remaining piece was the seized big block sitting on the garage floor.
We openly discussed in a non-intelligent quorum what someone in
my position might do with a big block Chevy that had no home. The one comment quickly came "Hey, why don't you make a lawnmower
out of it?' Thinking of my sprawling three square feet of lawn in suburbia, I instinctively replied "No, I
don't think so." ( I did say non-intelligently didn't I?) I recanted,"Besides, It was done
already, remember the movie Moving and Neighbors?"
"Oh you are one of those guys," said my buddy Joey, "Don't wanna do something
dat was already done!" (again, non-intelligent).
I replied " I just feel there is a better use for this thing, it is right on the
tip of my tongue..." I sat quietly for the next fifteen minutes or so thinking of a time when I has the need for some excessive
motive force. As these stories go, this is the part when I jumped out of my chair and said " I got it! A snow blower!" The
group fell silent and the ring leader and owner of the home said " Uhh, ...what?" I said "A snow blower, think about it, you
could have eight cylinders, just one of those bad boys gotta fire in the cold, I could build hollow handlebars for the coolant
to circulate through to keep me warm, it already has a block heater in it, a charging system and electric start...and the
physical weight would be an asset when scrambling for traction and not crushing my manicured weed infested green real-estate."
No one in the group agreed or even remotely shared my view point.The negative jeering
and laughing that followed got so deep into my skin, I threatened my buddy with "I am gonna build one and burry
that truck of yours!"
That fall I had begun to rebuild the motor build the original prototype,
all the while, being very careful not to alert anyone to my latest project. (and yes, I have a very understanding wife!)
One fateful day, my close but threatened neighbor was returning some
tools when he walked into the garage.The blower was not covered up as it usually was. Let me just say that the look on
his face was worth every long hour spent building this thing. The best word that I could conjure up to describe his reaction
would be hysterical.
After being called a 'sick little monkey, Mr. Griswald, Tim The Tool dude' and
a host of other unheard of comments, I really felt somewhat vindicated. At this point however, the project took on a more
serious note. All too often, I was eliminating problems that had plagued me for years with traditional blowers.
Let's just say it is a "me" thing shall we?
Sometimes you start down a road where there is no destination. This is one
of those long roads. Six years from the humble beginning, this unit has undergone continual upgrades and revisions and
insurmountable frustration. I am blessed to have an extremely supportive family and friends. It is through their
persuasion that I have continued my tenacity and have been able to arrive at the current level of tangibility. This
was not about getting on T.V. or my fifteen minutes of fame, but to prove to myself and my neighbor that I could do it, and
that it would be reliable and fun.
|
