I dragged the (heavy, petrol powered) lawn mower up the drive, about 50 feet long, a steep hill varying from 1 in 5 to a level plateau at the bottom. I then turned my back on it while I surveyed my task, the lawn at the top.
Then I heard a noise best described as 'trundle', ascending in pitch and volume. I looked around to see the mower careering down the hill, glancing off a wall that knocked it off to one side, before crashing into a garden planter down the side of the house, breaking off a wheel and bending the axle.
Reasons why I should have bought the lottery ticket...
1) There's usually a car parked down there, today there wasn't.
2) If it hadn't glanced off the wall, it would have gone straight through the house window.
3) I actually had a spare wheel, as another had cracked through old age a while ago, and I bought a pair. The bent axle straightened out again with the help of a vice and a big hammer, so I was back in business inside an hour.
Talk about dodging a bullet.
