The old craftsman mower finally reached the point of not working, the mower continues to run great, but the safety mechanism is broken.  I rigged it to run without the safety, but since there is no on/off switch, you have to pull the wire to the spark plug (tingly !).  Though it was nice to mow and not have to turn the mower off to empty the bag, but definetly a bit unsafe.  The wife was not pleased...and I guess with 3 kids, it's probably a good thing to have that little bar working so you can just let go and turn the mower off.

My neighbor Jimmy has almost the exact same craftsman mower, but his handle broke where it attaches to the mowing deck and purchased a new mower this spring.  A 12 pack of beer later, and i've succesfully bartered for his mower.

Now I have two POS mowers!  Not for long, I put the boys to work, turning some wrenches and now I have one working mower and the old mower parts (wheels [ever price one of those big wheel $10.00 each and self propelled parts are not cheap either), and some nice big items for the recycler center (too bad steel doesn't pay anything unless you 100's of pounds, but at least it'll be better than burying it in the landfill).

Pictures below: