It's a bird! It's a plane! NO...It's Darryl on a tractor!

I wish I had some pictures to go along with this, or better yet, I wish I had this on tape, because it was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

Ricky and I enjoy grilling out and we do so a few nights a week. Burgers, steaks, chicken, peppers, asparagus - you name it. Well this past week one of Ricky's coworkers brought in some fresh sweet corn from her garden and sent a bagful home with him. He looked up a "recipe" for grilling corn on the internet and it turned out AWESOME! We invited his parents , Darryl and Linda, over one evening and although they had already eaten dinner, Ricky talked them in to coming over to try the corn.

We live on 2.5 acres so we have a riding mower. Not a zero-turn like my husband would like, but a trusty, old, ride-along style. The previous owners of our house included it in the sale as they were moving to Florida and didn't need it any longer. It's old, but it works (well, it did anyway...) Darryl is retired from Ford Motor Company and has long loved to work on and fix up old cars. When the tractor gave out the first time, he offered to lend a hand and try to fix it. That was a few weeks ago. The darn tractor will start to work, he'll cut half the yard, then it will give out again and again. Needless to say, this tractor has become quite the frustration for Darryl - he just can't seem to figure out what the deal is and is over here day after day working on it.

That evening, when Ricky was finishing up the corn on the grill, Darryl went to the front yard to where the tractor gave out earlier that afternoon. We hear him try to start it - once, twice - no cigar. But then, wait, what do we hear? Did he get it started? As Linda and I turn our heads to the side of the house we see Darryl atop the tractor. It's not on, he's just coasting. He decided to try and coast it to the back of the house where we keep it stored under our deck. I don't think he realized that he would pick up speed like he did. Right down the middle of our sharply sloping backyard there are some concrete landscaping steps and a large overgrown garden area bordered with wooden beams. Oh, and way at the bottom of that slope is the woods. So you can imagine the impending disaster we are about to witness.

We hear Darryl bellow something but can't make it out over the whizzing of the tractor. He zips around the corner of the house while Linda, Ricky and I watch in complete shock. We can't quite wrap our heads around what is happening and don't know whether to scream, laugh or jump over the deck to proactively run to his rescue. Luckily, Darryl manages to steer through the one foot strip of grass between the stairs and overgrown garden and regains his presence of mind to put his foot on the brake just before the tree line. When he finally stops, the three of us burst out laughing - I'm talking gut busting, bent over, eyes watering laughing. Darryl dismounts and makes his way back up to the deck, clearly shaken, but trying to hold his head up high. Even as I write this I'm cracking up all over again. Thankfully both he and the tractor survived. Oh, and by the way, they loved the corn!