San Antonio Trip -- Getting Ready

Four o'clock came early Wednesday, as usual, but not quite early enough.

No matter how fast I tried to be, I just could not quite get everything done. Sweetie was going to drop me off to rent the car for the trip, and I was going to run errands after that. Yes, the repair guy was supposed to come and get the microwave and range top, but since the last two times he either canceled or showed up over an hour late, I figured I would have plenty of time, if he didn't cancel again.

But here it was time to leave, and Sweetie is patiently getting everything out of the van I need to drive (glasses and booster seat -- I am very short), but my hair isn't brushed, the kittens are still crying after being fed because they want more, the laundry hasn't been put on the line, and the dishwasher is still full of clean dishes. Bigger Girl felt sorry for the kittens and got up to take care of them, but the rest would have to wait for my return.

Naturally, as we pulled out of the driveway to go get the rental, it occurred to me to look for the proof of insurance card I would need. Turns out, again, they didn't send us a new one. This happens regularly. I took Sweetie's from Old Smokey, the big van, grabbed the two bills with my name and address that had mercifully come the day before so I could rent with the debit card, and we were finally able to leave. Without those bills, I would have been stuck trying to get #1 Son to wake up and print me some bill receipts online, and I wasn't in the mood to beard that lion in his den.

With as much trouble as I had getting the repair people to come out when I desperately needed them, I was not worried about the fact that the stove and microwave were on schedule for that morning. Really I was expecting a call that they had run out of time and wanted to reschedule. So of course the guy called when I was at the car rental place, and I managed, even on the empty tank of gas they gave me with the car, to pull into the driveway just before he got to the front door.

It was the same man who had come on Saturday, and he asked me how the fridge was holding out. I told him it wasn't, that I was having to thaw it every 12 hours just to keep a few things cool. We had lost a gallon of milk the day before. I also told him the part had come in the day before, and asked him to please reschedule the stove top and microwave for later, and just get me a working refrigerator freezer, which was more important. Otherwise, I'm not sure we would have room for the Angel Food already ordered.

Bless him (and the postal service that got the part to me on time), he did all 3. He took the microwave front off, and I cleaned it while he figured out the problem. It is 14 years old, and they will call me if they can find the parts. Meanwhile, he worked on the stove burners, and I thawed the freezer to save him time.

The part went in like a dream, and now we have 4 working stove burners, the fridge is back on, and the microwave -- well, good enough is good enough.


Today is:

American Indian Day

Buy Nothing Day

18th Century Military Encampment Day

Feast Day of Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes -- Dominican Republic

Feast of Our Lady of Mercy -- Catholic Christian

Festival of the Latest Novelties

Fidelity Day

Heritage Day -- South Africa

Independence Day -- Guinea-Bissau

Mahidol Day -- Thailand

National Bluebird of Happiness Day

National Cherries Jubilee Day

New Caledonia Day -- New Caledonia

Nuestra Senora De Las Mercedes (Our Lady of Hope) -- Peru

Punctuation Day

Republic Day -- Trinidad and Tobago

Schwenkfelder Thanksgiving -- Pennsylvania Dutch

St. Gerard's Day (patron of Hungary)

Third Republic Day -- Ghana


Birthdays Today:

Nia Vardalos, 1962
Phil Hartman, 1948
Linda McCartney, 1941
Jim Henson, 1936
Anthony Newley, 1931
Sheila MacRae, 1924
Jim McKay, 1921
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896


Today in History:

Prophet Muhammad completes his hijra from Mecca to Medina, 622
The last Emperor of the Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire, Manuel I Komnenos, dies; the empire slips into terminal decline, 1180
The Dutch Republic surrenders New Amsterdam to England, 1664
The first autopsy and coroner's jury verdict is recorded in the state of Maryland, 1657
John Jay is appointed by George Washington as the first Chief Justice of the then six-person Supreme Court, which was instituted by the Federal Judiciary Act passed that same day, 1789
US Attorney General Office is created, 1789
The Northern Daily Times becomes the first provincial daily newspaper in London, 1853
Alexander Dey patents a dial time recorder, 1889
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounces polygamy, 1890
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower in Wyoming as the nation's first National Monument, 1906
Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong, 1946
The Honda Motor Company is founded, 1948
Forest fires black out the sun over portions of Canada and New England, and a Blue moon (in the astronomical sense) is seen as far away as Europe, 1950
Camp Nou, the largest stadium in Europe, is opened in Barcelona, 1957
President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation, 1957
The United States court of appeals orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, 1962
Swaziland joins the United Nations, 1968
Compu-Serve launches the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service, 1070
Periodic Great White Spot observed on Saturn, 1990
Hurricane Rita devastates Beaumont, Texas, southwest Louisiana, and finishing off some of the parts of New Orleans and southeast Louisiana that Katrina missed, 2005