I finally realized yesterday that I have the most expensive snow blower in the world... The kind that was given to me "free".

I've been struggling with this thing for about 10 years now because I had zero initial investment in it. I don't know how much money and time I've put into it, but it's more than care to tally up. Tuneups, both amateur (me) and professional ($$$), broken parts replaced, shear pins left and right, etc. So middle of last week, I get it out, make sure it starts and runs, I figure I'm all set. I briefly considered just biting the bullet and getting a new snow blower, but the cheapskate in me is like "naw, I got this".

So yesterday, I'm almost excited to get my "free" snowblower in action! It's at about a foot or maybe 18" as I make my first pass down the driveway and out along the sidewalk... And then it dies. Refuses to come back to life. Of course, it will start up after 10 pulls and run for 30 seconds, giving me false hope everytime, but I can't get it to stay running. I'm sure it's something little, and I'm sure it can be fixed for $5 in parts and $50 in know-how, but that was the last damn straw for me.

So in the middle of snowmegedon 2021, I'm driving to Lowes to pick up their second to last snow blower, which needs to be partially disassembled to fit into the back of the Jeep, because I figured it's cheaper than the heart attack I would incur shoveling.

Anyone want a free snow blower?