Dirtdorph,
No problemo!
Usually I am ALL FOR the right tool for the job. When I go out to anything in the garden, I usually carry 3-4 long-handled tools just because each one is better at some aspect of the task.
>> May I suggest at least sharpening the blades, if not replacing them?
In this one case, desire for a working tool beats out my all-transcendent cheapness. Yes to both, so I can use a sharpened old blade for rough wood chipping and a new blade on things like lawn and leaf shredding.
>> I am fortunate to have such a great equipment rental place, close by, that delivers and picks up,
Drool, drool, drool! I have to mop up drool when I walk through the HD tool rental area, but then picture myself trying to lift it in and out of a trunk ... not again in THIS lifetime!
>> -I'll shut up
No, no, keep it coming. If you can laugh harder at my quirks than I already laugh at my own quirks, then I don't yet fully appreciate how silly I am! Also, anything you might say, my SO has already said ... repeatedly, and heatedly, withOUT tempering the wind to the shorn lamb.
As another SO used to describe me fondly: "Helpless, hopeless, worthless, useless and TOTALLY without redeeming social value". I'm reasonably sure she was at least PARTLY kidding, at least MOST of the time.
P.S. I lived in New Jersey for over five years. I don't think anything that can be printed in a family-friendly forum could seriously offend me.
Using a lawn mower to replace a chipper is only a little dumber than using a pick, mattock and trenching shovel to replace a plow, soil auger or roto-tiller. I do like to get hands-on with soil I'm rescuing.
It took me a few seconds to figure out what the problem was in breaking up concrete with a crow bar and a sledge hammer. "What, didn't he or she have a pick? ... Oh, he/she wanted to do it the EASY way!!"
Several seconds later I heard a faint echo in my head, perking up from some seldom-heeded brain region: "... wanted to do it the SMART way!"
