I appreciate all of your thoughts. Here's one more to add to the list.
Here is the way I finally got that silly belt on. By releasing the drive cable and tension spring from the transmission I was able to turn the pulley around where I could see what what I was trying to do. Tip: Take the drive cable loose first. This allows the spring to release very easily. Now, this is the part that you might not want to do. Since I now have the pulley facing me, I simply took a pair of vice grips and bent the guard slightly to allow me to get the belt started. Then I used a rubber mallet and tapped the guard back to ABOUT where it was. Rotate the pulley back around to it's normal position, reattach the tension spring, then the drive cable. Done!
Now, the comments I read in this forum actually stimulated thought for me to get this done. Thank you!!