Oops in Just in Case

For weeks my parents have been telling me that they wanted to come help me work in my yard. I put them off as long as I could. They both have health issues and with their age, it just bothers me for them to come work in my yard in this heat. I tried to convince them to just come in and visit, but they wouldn’t, lol. We worked for a couple of hours before it got too hot. Mama and I were cutting branches, vines, etc and hauling them off. Daddy used his chain saw on some limbs and small trees, then got the mower. He’s more…agressive…I guess is the right word, with the mower. He puts it in places I wouldn’t. My mower is about 9 years old, but I don’t tend to put it in stressful situations (heavy rocks, shrubs, etc),so I think I have several more years to go with it. They came in and visited for a couple of hours after we stopped. After they left, I went out to finish the mowing and the mower didn’t act right. I couldn’t go forward. Long story short. I left it at the bottom of the hill and called my dad. In my head, I’m thinking that I’m going to have replace the entire deck and then having to decide if it’s worth it, or if it would be more prudent to just get a new one. (I’m hyperventilating, because that’s a lot of money). Daddy said it wasn’t that big a deal, he figured. It wasn’t supposed to rain, but I began to hear thunder, so I went back and tried to put it up, at least. It literally would not go forward at all, but I was able to back it up to the carport. It didn’t go in straight. At that point I was thinking that the entire deck was hanging crooked, and that on the flat concrete it should be ok. I was able to pull forward about a foot and an awful scraping sound came. I backed it up (no sound) and left it where it was. Apparently the backing up released the bar (arm, thingamabob) that had bent into the deck. It actually looks like just a cotter pin broke off and that caused the issue. As long as the bar (arm, whatchamacallit) can be put back in the original position, it really may not be a big issue. I’m so hoping that’s the case! I have a lot of yard to mow, it all has hills, dips, and holes, and it takes me about an hour and a half to get it all.
My body is a little bet “broken”, too. My shoulder is hurting something fierce and after doing yard work for that long, my sciatic nerve is always aggravated. Gosh, getting older is so much fun, lol.