My Kentucky Adventure: Uh-Oh!

It is true that if you want to hear G-d laugh, all you have to do is try to make some plans.  They will never go quite as expected.

My original travel dates were from the first to the 8th.  Talking to the other ladies, i realized i needed to make plans to go see Dayeanu, who wasn't able to join the fun because of her mother's ill health.  In fact, her mother had died a few days before we got together, and she was really in need of some cheering up.  Thus i became the cheering up committee.

This involved me changing my plans from going home on Wednesday and going to work on Thursday to going to Dayeanu's on Wednesday, heading home on Thursday, and going to work Friday.

Then i got up Wednesday morning, got everything packed and ready to go, and Cicero wouldn't start.

Well.  That's a monkey wrench.

Fivecat came over and gave me a jump start, and i drove behind her to the local mechanic, who is a friend of her husband and whom they trust.  Mr. Richard got to the shop about 10 minutes after we did, and promised to look at it after he did a couple of other jobs that had been promised first thing that morning.  We went back to the resort, where we could stay until 11am, which was check out time.

So much for saying good-night the night before, i went back in and spent a bit more time talking to my friends, and when we all left just before 11, Fivecat called Mr. Richard.

It was a battery, and he had Auto Zone send one so that it would have a warranty back home!  That's how good he is, he thought of that.  He only charged me $120 for all of it, and that included making sure the starter and alternator weren't involved.  In fact, he said, the battery had been installed back in 2008!  So indeed, it was more than time to get a new one.

The fact that Cicero had this problem right there where my friend lives was a blessing, although it sure didn't feel that way in the first few minutes.  The battery would have died on the way home, possibly in some place where i would have had to pay for a tow and been at the mercy of the nearest garage.

While waiting for Cicero to get out of the car hospital, i made a hotel reservation in a town halfway between Nashville and Memphis.  That way i could drive halfway to Dayeanu's place on Wednesday, the rest of the way Thursday morning, and drive home on Friday.

A quick call to The Big Boss, and an explanation that i was temporarily stranded in Kentucky with a broken down Cicero, resulted in his telling me that i can simply come in to clean Miss P's house next Tuesday, and his place on Thursday if it needs it.  He was very gracious about it, and more worried about me than about my getting the work done, for which i am grateful.

Sweetie was very understanding, although he was  beyond tired of dealing with everything at the house without me.  Then again, i think it's good that he has to do that once in a while!

Once i got back on the road, i took it easier than i had on the way up, as i was starting to get weary.  Stopping at the Tennessee Welcome Center, i asked a few questions and the very nice man there showed me a highway that bypassed Nashville traffic, and i made it to the town where my hotel was without having to go through a major city.  That was very helpful.

In this small town, it took a bit of a search for the hotel, but it was worth it.  It is a small chain, very inexpensive, but the rooms were pristinely clean and had amenities you sometimes don't get in very expensive hotels.

After checking in, and a bit of a misunderstanding about the fact that i need a non-smoking room because of my lung condition, which was solved very pleasantly, i headed out to find dinner and do something to occupy a bit of time before bed.  An Oriental restaurant filled the bill, as those usually do since you can get lots of stir fried veggies, and then i wandered around a couple of stores and got gas so i wouldn't need to in the morning.

And so to bed, once i got back in a settled.


Today is:

Abolition Day -- Saint Barthelemy

Cephalopod Awareness Days:  Nautilus Night -- celebrating the most intelligent invertebrates in the world; today, celebrate all of the lesser-known extant cephalopods

Chicago International Film Festival -- Chicago, IL, US (oldest competitive international film festival in North America; through the 23rd)

Community Day -- Valencia, Spain

Curious Events Holiday -- Fairy Calendar

Establishment of the Samitinget in Norway -- Sami People's Parliament

Feast of Abraham the Patriarch -- Christian

Festival for Fausta Felicitas -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of good luck and joy)

Festival for Venus -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Give Peace a Chance Day / Instant Karma Day -- in honor of the birth of John Lennon

Independence Day -- Uganda(1962)

Korean Alphabet Day -- Korea (Hangul Nal)

Leif Erickson Day -- Iceland; Norway; Minnesota and Wisconsin, US

Messenger Appreciation Day -- 10/9 in radio talk is a request to repeat information

Moldy Cheese Day (Sorry, but I do not like the stinky, moldy cheeses, at least not the heavier ones.)

Mop Fair -- Tewkesbury, England (through tomorrow; festival dating back to the 12th century, originally a fair in which prospective employers came to find laborers, now two days of fun, fairgrounds rides, traditional games and sideshows, and more)

National Chess Day -- US (declared by President Ford in 1976)

National Day of Honor -- Peru (sometimes translated as Day of Dignity; commemorates the nationalization of the countries oil fields)

National Depression Screening Day® 2014 -- US (find out how to help spread the word)

National Student Day -- US (a day for college students to celebrate and promote social responsibility by volunteering)

National Submarine/Grinder/Hoagie/Hero/PoBoy/Pierogi Day -- each of these has its own special day, but today you get to pick which one you want

St. Denis' Day (Patron of possessed people; France; Paris, France; against frenzy, headaches, rabies, and strife)

St. Dionysius the Areopagite's Day (considered the first Bishop of Athens, mentioned in Acts 17; Patron of Zakynthos Island, Greece; against headaches and the devil)

St. Louis Bertrand's Day (Patron of Caribbean vicariates; Columbia; Dominican novices)

Sukkot -- Judaism (began at sunset yesterday, through sunset on the 25th)

Takayama Matsuri Autumn Festival -- Takayama, Japan (ancient, elaborate floats parade through the old city; through tomorrow)

World Post Day / Universal Postal Union Day -- UN

World Sight Day -- International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (This year's theme is "Universal Eye Health" and the Call To Action is "No more Avoidable Blindness")

Ziua Nationala de Comemorare a Holocaustului -- Romania (National Day of Commemorating the Holocaust)


Anniversaries Today:

Mission San Francisco de Asis, the oldest building in the city of San Francisco and now called Mission Delores, is founded, 1776
King Louis XII of France marries Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII of England, 1514


Birthdays Today:

Zachary Ty Bryan, 1981
Brandon Routh, 1979
Eddie Guerrero, 1967
David Cameron, 1966
Michael Pare, 1959
Mike Singletary, 1958
Tony Shalhoub, 1953
Scott Bakula, 1954
Sharon Osbourne, 1952
Robert Wuhl, 1951
Jackson Browne, 1948
John Entwistle, 1944
Brian Lamb, 1941
Joe Pepitone, 1940
John Lennon, 1940
Russell Myers, 1938
Donald Sinden, 1923
Jacques Tati, 1908
Bruce, Catton, 1899
Alfred Dreyfus, 1859
Camille Saint-Saens, 1835
Mary Ann Shadd Cary, 1823 (with her husband, the first black newspaper publishers in the US)
Robert de Sorbon, 1201 (founded Sorbonne University, Paris)


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"High Button Shoes"(Musical), 1949
"The Iceman Cometh"(Play), 1946
"June Moon"(Play), 1929
"Topaz"(Play)1928


Today in History:

Leif Ericson discovers "Vinland" (somewhere in New England or Nova Scotia, possibly?), 1000
Leif Ericson lands in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada, a definitive European landing in the "New World", 1003
The Korean Hangual alphabet is devised, 1446
Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land, 1635
Collegiate School of CT (Yale University) is chartered in New Haven, 1701
Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California, 1776
City of Hobart, Tasmania, founded, 1804
Official opening of the University of Ghent, 1817
Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine motor, 1855
Joshua Stoddard of Worcester, Mass., patents the first Calliope, 1855
The first US underground pipeline for carrying oil is laid in Pennsylvania, 1865
Aaron Montgomery starts the mail order business that will later become Montgomery Ward, 1872
The Universal Postal Union is created as part of the Treaty of Berne, 1874
The first 2-way telephone conversation over outdoor wires occurs, 1876
Washington Monument opens to the public, 1888
Woodrow Wilson becomes the first US president to attend a World Series Game, 1915
National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) forms, 1926
Hoover Dam begins transmitting electricity to L.A., 1936
A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara is executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia, 1967
The Khmer Republic is proclaimed in Cambodia, 1970
Abolition of capital punishment in France, 1981
A 13 kilogram (est.) fragment of the Peekskill meteorite lands in the driveway of the Knapp residence in Peekskill, New York, destroying the family's 1980 Chevrolet Malibu, 1992
North Korea allegedly tests its first nuclear device, 2006
First lunar impact of the Centaur and LCROSS spacecrafts as part of NASA's Lunar Precursor Robotic Program, 2009