During Prime Day/Week/Whatever I ordered an off-brand weed-whacker (made with the best Chineseium) that uses the Milwaukee M18 batteries. I had wanted to get the actual Milwaukee brand one, but that cost 5x as much and I only wanted one for a few small areas the landscapers would frequently miss, and to better maintain the garden area in between appointments.
It arrived yesterday.
I immediately assembled and tested it, and once it cooled down enough outside, I started on a couple of those small projects – clearing the high grass around my raised beds and knocking down a patch of thistles.
It has already stopped functioning properly.
It seemed to work fine around the raised beds, and when it was working it handled the thistles quite well; but after a few minutes of thistle-whacking, it started having issues. Now when I hit the trigger, it spins up for about a second before dying. I thought it could be the battery, so I swapped it out for a fully charged one, but the issue persisted. I set it aside for the day and prepped dinner.
Today, I sat down to look at it and see if I could figure out what was wrong, but it started right up so I tried to finish thistle-whacking. It worked for about five minutes before conking out on me again. Just to make certain, I swapped the battery for a fresh fully charged one again but it kept dying so I’m back to trying to figure out what is causing that issue.
I thought it could be overheating or something, but it didn’t feel hot. I thought it could be getting jammed up with grass or cuttings but I took the head off and it still has the problem. I may have to try and return it, though I don’t know if it would be accepted as it now definitely appears used.
Yesterday, I made beef stroganoff with mushrooms and my favorite seasoning that I use on practically everything. I had been talking this dish up a bit because it happened to be the dish that made my daughter realize that she actually liked mushrooms, and from that point on, I had to be on the lookout for the elusive but bold “mushroom bandit” whenever I was cooking them. He liked it, and we even called my daughter to have a bit of a laugh over our inside joke.
That lasted for all of about ten minutes, because as we were eating, he announced that he didn’t want to finish because the dish had mushrooms. We tried pointing out that he quite enjoyed them just a few minutes prior, and that he was chowing them down in the pasta sauce a couple weeks ago, even complimenting how they tasted.
His response to that? “But I thought it was sausage.”
So it seems that he has some psychological block over mushrooms. We know he likes them just fine, and only refuses when he knows they are present. I haven’t said anything yet, but he doesn’t know that they are in practically every meal I make, and he always seems to want more.
We’ll have to see what happens tonight when he realizes our dinner plan is leftover stroganoff…
Song of the day: Sugar by System of a Down
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