The list is quiet today, so I'll risk posting a description of what happened yesterday before I went to our graduation ceremony. First thing in the morning, I finally got around to taking our new Big M by Maruyama out of its box. That would be the M23S. The instructions re. what to do with the various bits read as follows: With the air cleaner cover removed, insert the throttle cable through the cable-adjuster sleeve on the carburetor bracket. Make sure the end of the cable housing is seated positively in the sleeve. Position the slotted fitting on the carbutetor so the recessed hole for the cable lug is away from the cable-adjustor sleeve. Rotate the carburetor-throttle cam counterclockwise and slip the throttle cable through the slot in the slotted fitting, making sure the cable lug drops into the recessed hole. Operate the throttle trigger a few times to make sure it works correctly. Not having the faintest clue how to slip things through slots in slotted fittings, far less how to identify a lug and drop it into a recessed hole, I had pretty much decided to box the whole thing up again and return it to Costco when I found, by comparing the pictures to the thing itself, that the machine came with the throttle cable already in place. I went to the next illustration-- connecting the engine to the drive shaft assembly. Ditto. The only thing this instruction manual writer really wanted me to do was to screw a handle onto the stick thing, and install the trimmer head as follows: Make sure the trimmer head is for left-hand rotation (counterclockwise) as viewed from the operator's position, and that the trimmer head adapter is a male M8 x 1.25 left-handed thread. The boss adaptor must be installed on the splined shaft between the gearcase and the trimmer head as shown bottom right... Fortunately there were hex nuts involved. I'm good with hex nuts. I finished putting the weed strimmer together. Sure enough, down came the rain. Rule one in the guidelines--don't use the strimmer in the rain. So I went out into the angry elements and pulled weeds by hand, anxious to wreak what havoc I could before the clay dries. Perhaps that should be my new family motto: wreak havoc before the clay dries. David Ritchie Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html