Why Does This Only Happen To Me?

  So, like I said, we're expecting the blizzard of the century to hit later today. Luckily, I have a handy-dandy new snowblower. Mark bought it for me and had it shipped out right after our last snowstorm. I thought I'd give it a try, even though it was still snowing. It was great. Cleared the driveway like a charm. When I finished, I turn the key to shut the machine off and - nothing. It turned the key back and forth - nothing. The snowblower would not turn off. I took the key out, flipped it around the other way and tried it again - still nothing. Perplexed, I went inside to call the snowblower company. This is the help I received:

Young customer service guy: Did you try turning the key?
Me: Yes (because I'm not retarded).
Guy:  Okay, please hold ...
    Did you try taking out the key?
Me:  Yes.
Guy:  Okay, please hold ...
    Okay, you're going to have to disconnect the spark plug. If you turn to page 12 in your manual, it will tell you how to do that.
Me:  It says here that you have to turn off the engine before you can do that.
Guy:  Okay, please hold ...
    The machine will be okay if you disconnect the spark plug while the engine is running.
Me:  I'm not worried about the machine, I'm worried about losing a finger.
Guy:  Well, you can just leave it running and let it run out of gas.
Me:  I guess that this has never happened to anyone else before?
Guy:  No Ma'am, not that I'm aware of.
Me:  I think I'll go ahead and try it. If I lose a finger, I'll call you back.
Guy: ...

  So, I'm outside in the snow, trying to unscrew all of the bitty screws to take this machine apart. Can't get them all out. I do manage to pry up the corner of the snowblower, stick in a screwdriver and pull the wire off of the sparkplug. Aaah. Silence. (The neighbors were very happy, I'm sure. It had been running unattended for at least 15 minutes while I tried to sort everything out.) I left all of the parts sitting in the garage. I'll put it back together and try it again tomorrow. I came inside cold, wet and smelling of exhaust. I made some of these . I feel much better.