So, the long and short of it is, admist our next door neighbor's dogs barking non-stop, and a lot of pushing, pulling, repushing, repulling, and other general sneering at grasses that refuse to be cut, I managed to get about halfway through the yard.
At this point, the mower stops dead. "Argh," I think, "I must have blown out the motor!" So, I take everything down to the basement, put away the mower, tie up the cord, and sweat profusely. Then I see Moyer behind me coming down the stairs. "Argh!" I say to him, "I think I burnt out the motor!" He replies, "No, you just blew out a fuse. To my room."
Well, turns out the plug I used in the basement is in the same circuit as his bedroom, which houses his TV, console boxes, music equipment (keyboards, pedal, and other assorted synth things I know nothing about), and his computer. And it's all dead right then. So, after pulling out the walkie talkies, me upstairs waiting to see when things turn on, and him down throwing switches, all is remedied. But at that point I was too pooped to mow the lawn anymore.
Oh boy, don't ever let your lawn get to be 4 ft tall before mowing, gah. It's still half not-done, but now I know what I'm in for, and next time I make sure Moyer's stuff is turned off before mowing. :)
Ok, as for the news.
Bremer Broaches Plans For Iraq's Oil Revenue. Interesting article, possibly the most important thing in the Iraqi front in the news today (at this point, Saddam's status is only important inconsequentially). The good news, they're planning on doing a lot to put the Oil profits into the sights of each Iraqi. The bad news, despite their statements of "free-market" and "anti-socialism", it's being put into some government controlled pool that does ... something good ... for the Iraqis (a kick back like Alaska or a Social Security Fund are the two cited examples). Another interesting contradiction is where,
"This resource belongs to the Iraqi people," [Bremer] said in the interview. "It's really up to them."
But at the same time is stating that it's the US-appointed political officials deciding this. OK, so he left out the "US-appointed" part. :)
However, despite my reservations, that's a lot better than I expected out of there given a lot of the recent reports, and hopefully this does work out to some good.