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For a couple of years now, both of our cars have been giving us signs they are nearing the end of their useful lives for us as neither can be trusted on the highways, and heaven knows we do a lot of highway driving every weekend going to Grandma and Grandpa's house.
GusGus die Fledermaus, the Ford Focus which has had so much transmission trouble it's not even funny any more also needs a gas tank sensor and is having other problems, and we think the transmission is going to go again at some point, and it has had no A/C for the last two summers which is brutal in our heat, especially when you have to roll up the windows in the rain and turn the heat on full blast to defog the windows.
Slow-Moe, the Pontiac G6, has a plethora of problems, the smallest of which is the turn signal lever is held on by duct tape and prayer and light use and if you want the right-hand headlight to come on, get out of the car and give the hood above it a good bang when you first turn the lights on and it should work until you get where you're going, most of the other electrical problems are not fixable unless you can track down the serious short in the whole electrical system which is expensive.
A couple of weeks ago, our then soon-to-be-retiring church pastor grabbed me after the service, told me he knew about our car situation (which boils down to they are held together with the equivalent of chicken wire and bubble gum) and our lack of ability at this time to get anything different, And Told Me He Wanted To Give Us His Old Car When He Retired And Moved Away, talk about a huge blessing!
Sunday, April 26th was his last sermon and Thursday, April 30 was his last official day as pastor, and he leaves town today to fly up and meet his wife, who drove her car up last week to the home they kept when they came here 22 years ago, so yesterday one of the attorneys who is a church member and works right across the street from the church met us and we signed all the paperwork!
We are now the proud owners of a 2010 Honda Accord with about 157,000 miles on it which has been kept in pristine condition by a church pastor and as #2 Son, who works on cars, says, if you keep it carefully you can get more than twice that out of a Honda engine and transmission and replacing anything else that goes wrong is easy as it's a common car with parts available, so we have a good car for the foreseeable future, no more renting a car or getting a ride every weekend to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house!
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Signal.
(For those looking for a Ms. G story, sorry, i had to take the day off in order to make the transaction above possible, but she should be back next week.)
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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!
One of our neighbors has these lights on the fence, i caught it when our little Annie and i were out for a walk.
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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
I know the place looks odd
but don't judge by what you see,
decor's a little weird
but this is the food for me.
The clam and garlic spaghetti
is served in a mini bathtub,
chocolate ice cream in mini loos,
and it really is great grub!
(This is Modern Toilet Restaurant in Taipei, it's very popular and the food is supposedly delicious, a combo of Italian and Asian.)
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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop. It's time to share something for which i am thankful.
Today i am thankful to our church's pastor emeritus, who gifted us his old car upon his retirement, i can pick it up Friday after i'm done babysitting and before i go to the shelter.
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Today is:
Beaufort Wind Force Scale Day -- birth anniversary of the British Navy officer whose wind scale, in refined form
Box Camera Day -- George Eastman patented the Box Camera on this day in 1888
Day of the Soldier -- El Salvador
Experience the Awesome Stomach-Churning Wonder of a Thrill Ride Day -- internet generated, and they can have it!
Feast of St. Nicola -- Bari, Italy (celebrates's the moving of the relics of St. Nicholas -- yes, later Santa Claus -- to this town, where they still are; here he is patron of orphans and pirates, and the date of his body's arrival is celebrated as a huge three-day festival with fireworks included)
Fire Escape Ladder Day -- Joseph Winters patented a wagon-mounted version on this day in 1878
Hamburg Harbor Day -- Hamburg, Germany (founding of the city)
Homeland Defender's Day -- Kazakhstan
Homespun History Day -- internet holiday often exploited by Modern Drunkard Magazine as a day upon which to drink specifically so the stories will sound better
National Barrier Awareness Day -- US (declared by Presidential Proclamation in 1986)
National Day of Prayer -- US / Interfaith
National Day of Reason -- US Humanist alternative to the National Day of Prayer
National Roast Leg of Lamb Day
Nones of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar
Radio Day -- Bulgaria; Russia
St. Domitian of Huy's Day (Patron of Huy Liege, Belgium; against fever)
Anniversaries Today:
Founding of Univerzita Karlova in Prague, the first university in Central Europe, 1348
Birthdays Today:
Owen Hart, 1965
Peter Reckell, 1955
Amy Heckerling, 1954
Tim Russert, 1950
Johnny Unitas, 1933
Teresa Brewer, 1931
Darren McGavin, 1922
Eva Peron, 1919
Gary Cooper, 1901
Archibald Macleish, 1892
Gabby Hayes, 1885
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1840
Johannes Brahms, 1833
Robert Browning, 1812
Francis Beaufort, 1774
David Hume, 1711
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Strike It Rich"(TV), 1951
Choral Symphony in D Minor(Beethoven's Ninth), 1824
Today in History:
The dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople collapses, 558
Joan of Arc leads the final charge in the Battle of Orleans, 1429
Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles, 1664
The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, 1718
Jews are expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia, 1727
Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit, 1763
The independence of Greece is recognized by the Treaty of London, 1832
George Eastman patents the "Kodak Box Camera," 1888
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning detector — a primitive radio receiver, 1895
German submarine SM U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, 1915
England lowers age of women voters from 30 to 21, 1928
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees, 1946
The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress, 1948
The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer, 1952
Canadian Patrick Morrow became the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits, 1986
The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, 1992
Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history, 1998
The tomb of Herod the Great is discovered, 2007
A new study reports that all Europeans are related to a small group of ancestors dating back only 1,000 years; researchers believe it's likely that everyone in the world is related over the past few thousand years, 2013
Underwater explorers discover a silver ingot of Captain William Kidd's treasure near Madagascar, 2015
Global tourism accounts for 8% of the world's carbon emissions according to a University of Sydney study, 2018
Berklee College of Music bestows honorary doctorates to Beatles drummer Ringo Starr; bassist Chuck Rainey; composer James Newton Howard; and R&B singer Lalah Hathaway, 2022
Vladimir Putin’s swearing in for his fifth term as Russia’s President is boycotted by many world leaders, 2024
The conclave to elect a new Pope begins with 133 cardinal electors, 2025
