I needed to mow the lawn this morning, but the rain stopped me. The mower just gets bogged down when the grass is wet and I'm constantly clearing it out.

Stupid question: As a kid, I was always taught not to mow the lawn whilst it was raining or whilst the grass was still wet. The reason for the latter was as above (bogs down the motor, can overheat). The reason for the former was risk of electrocution. Is this true?

I guess it depends on the mower as much as the conditions, we have an old petrol mower, wheels holding up a cutting deck so not much danger of bogging, a bit of a powerhouse and although the ground was wet, a bit more rain couldn't make it any wetter so a bit of brute force got the job done and now it's not particularly neat, but it is short and if we get a bit of sun any time this year it should dry out faster than if I'd left it. I don't know about electrocution, presumably that's just for electric mowers?

Well we have always had an electric one.

This is awesome : http://sennaswalle.blogspot.co.uk
Scratch built Wall-E robot.

Jack Churchill

Mad as a badger if the accounts are true.

I want televisual news of the Curiosity landing … but all that's on TV is the bloody Olympics!

Mark

13.20 BBC1, apparently. Unless something more exciting happens at the olympic park.

I streamed the NASA feed live (good time zone), lots of fist pumping and group hugs. Nice to see the first images come through.

I suspect I caught a cold off gramps yesterday. Went to see him, he was feeling unwell. Today I felt lethargic and put it down to lack of sleep but as the day's progressed, I've now had a low grade fever, chills and think I'm developing a sore throat. I can normally bash through work despite this but am struggling.

Now as a GP I'm sure you can correct me, but I always thought the immune response was 4-7 days. So if you are feeling symptoms today then you would have been exposed before your saw your grandfather?

You're right. Am going to put that down to the fever. I've been in contact with gramps all week but he was unwell yesterday.

I'm now hoping this will clear quickly or we're all shafted at work if there's only one GP on site.

If it's the same flu-like thing I had the other week it lasts a week or so.

Ah, I had assumed from your post that you had only seen your grandfather yesterday. Of course if you've seen him for a few days and he showed symptoms yesterday and you today, then it makes much more sense that you caught the bug from him.

Not that it makes anything better of course, just clearing up a common misconception that I hear far too often.

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