Thought for Today - There is no doubt that I have lots of words inside me; but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam. -John Updike, writer (1932-2009)
Good Morning America, how are you? Your bright shiny smiling faces are a welcome sight today. Why, well we have the 4th holiday tomorrow, my current wife and daughter Jenny arrived home from a long weekend in Denver, Co., Kinnick gladly returned to his home last night (I think he was getting tired of Grandpa Bailey), my land line is broken until Thursday, my pile of dirt is still in the driveway and my AC STOPPED WORKING YESTERDAY.
Yep, that is correct Martha, it simply stopped, no warning what so ever. I realized there was a problem a little after 4:00 pm when I noticed I was less cool than normal and Kinnick, while lying across the floor register was panting. I quickly performed some rudimentary testing and quickly decided to call for repairs. I placed my call at 4:32 pm. Never once did I think they close at 4:30 pm. I just exploded when the answering service asked to take a message. 2 lousy minutes. She asked if I wanted Emergency Service. Hmm, let me see, do I place an emergency service call or wait until this morning, place a regular service call and have them tell me that the first opening is August 21 or something. With sweat streaming into my eyes from a rather sparsely populated top of my head I weighed these options for something like 5 milliseconds. Wanda, the answering service lady stuck with me trying to explain there was an initial charge of $120.00 for a guy to show up at my door. Okay, Okay, I look at a panting Kinnick and go with the first option – get a service man over here NOW! Have any of you spent $120 bucks over the phone for being 2 minutes past closing? Thankfully, Joe showed up in 45 minutes and took charge of things. Kinnick was on edge being so hot and all. He took exception to having a stranger in my house by woofing at him and following his every move. He especially disliked him going down the hall toward the bedrooms to inspect the thermostat. As luck would have it, I did get the AC working around 6:20 pm and it cost me a measly $650.00. Now, wringing wet with sweat, I “gladly?” wrote out the check.
Oh, I forgot to add that since Friday I committed to having my unfenced side fenced with chain link, I negotiated a quote for a permanent fix to some drainage problems between me and my neighbor, and initiated the replacement of the last couple of windows. Just why did I not anticipate the AC going out? I’m just a schmuck I guess.
I began contemplating the end of the world on December 21st, 2012. You have all heard about that haven’t you? The story goes that several ancient sources including the Maya culture predict December 21, 2012 will be the end of the world. Naturally, there are more skeptics than believers by a long shot. I don’t really believe in this stuff either but I ask myself, “If it happens, should I have prepared for it somehow?” Being a fatalist I think preparation would be the safest course. While all of this swirls through my lonely brain, I watch the evening news and note that it seems there is an outbreak across the western US of many wild fires while the eastern half or 2/3 of the US at sweltering in an unprecedented heat wave with little relief for at least the next ten days. Do these environmental extremes portend future turbulence? I have no idea but it makes me wonder where Mother Nature is going with this stuff. Will these extremes ultimately ablate our world?
Charles, not his real name, has been emailing my current wife behind my back. I discovered this rather innocently the other day. At church on Sunday, he handed me a check made out to her for $60.00 as a small offset to the cost of going to a Synod School. The hitch was that it was supposed to be $50.00. Charles felt compelled to put a guilt trip on my current wife trying to recoup the $10.00 overpayment. A phone call with the wife was the undoing. She lamented that Charles was after his $10.00 which she didn’t even know she owed at that point. I insured her I would resolve the issue which I did yesterday. Case closed.
Speaking of the weekend and my travails, let’s give a big shout out to Jenny, the elder. She participated in a 150 mile 2 day bike ride for Multiple Sclerosis north of Denver. She easily exceeded her fund raising goal. Her team was a Starbucks team with 15 members who raised around $15,000 toward the cause. I don’t know the total amount raised at the event but it was several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wonderful event and wonderful training run for the upcoming RAGBRAI. Jenny stated “This ride is totally different than RAGBRAI. These people came out to ride and are focused on riding. Whereas RAGBRAI is more leisurely and the pace is slower. People are out to have fun while riding across Iowa.”
Word of the Week – Ablate
Upcoming National Whatever Days – Let’s get together to celebrate each of these Special Days this week (July 3 – July 9)
July 3 – National Disobedience Day
Give your mirror a compliment Day
Stay out of the Sun Day
July 4 – Independence Day
National Country Music Day
Sidewalk Egg Frying Day
July 5 – Workaholics Day
July 6 – National Fried Chicken Day
July 7 – National Chocolate Day
National Strawberry Sundae Day
July 8 – Video Games Day
July 9 – National Sugar Cookie Day
I don’t know about you but I am really excited about celebrating each of these upcoming “National Whatever Days”. I mean “Disobedience Day” – that is me; Sidewalk Egg Frying, fun for all ages; Fried Chicken Day – here I come KFC; Chocolate Day – stocking up on Hersey Bars already; and everyone’s favorite – Sugar Cookie Day. Yum, Yum, Yum!
I got a load (4 yards for you dirt aficionado's), it was dumped in my driveway last week. It was one day before the heat began. I dug right in on the first day. On the second day, I spent 2 hours in the afternoon and nearly suffered heat exhaustion. The rains came so I covered up my pile of dirt. I have moved about a 1/3 of the pile. I have not returned to the pile since. The heat came, rain came, storms came, Kinnick came, and my enthusiasm left. I am going to give it a go again today. Please say a little prayer for me. I somehow feel I will need some amount of extra oomph to get this done.
I have a huge dilemma facing me now. I have totally exhausted my supply of coarse ground organic French Roast coffee. Today, I was forced to use my back up Folgers Country Roast. It is a very poor substitute. It is not coarsely ground so I get little bits of coffee bean every once in a while. The taste is marginal and I get little euphoric stimulation from it. I have to find a more ready supply. I have to drive to Iowa City, about 44 miles round trip, to get the good Joe. Guess I will be googling today. So does anyone have an answer to the question “When is Hot too Hot?” Me too, I don’t really know either. I suspect that I would feel “too hot” would be when the soles on my sneakers melted and stuck to the sidewalk. I think that would be too hot. Realistically, I don’t really want to find out.
Oh BTW, (shortcut for By The Way), did you figure out the meaning of ablate? Here is the scoop; it means “To remove by melting, vaporizing, erosion, etc.” Go figure. With that I will leave you now to pursue your daily activities. TA!
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