Loaner Cars

Ever hear of The Lockhorns?

Copyright King Features Syndicate.

This comic strip couple, Loretta and Leroy, have been doing exactly as their last name suggests since 1968.

The Sunday strip above caught my eye a while back, and i cut out the bottom right panel, about auto shop giving her the loaner limo because Loretta is "such a good customer."

Then i took it with me yesterday when i took Jalopy to see Kevin and Lenny and get an oil change.

Lenny looked at the strip and guffawed, then passed it to Kevin, who almost dropped his coffee.  They know me and my constant trips to their shop only too well, and said that if they ever got a loaner car, i'd be first in line.

Naturally, an oil change couldn't be all there was to it, though.  Jalopy has been a bit cantankerous about starting lately, and yesterday, after the oil change, she got downright ornery and loud.  Back to the shop she went.

"It took us several tries to get her to act up on us," Lenny said, "but she finally did.  Starter is shot.  We checked the flywheel, and it's fine, her battery is hot and the alternator is great."

Then he added, "You knew you couldn't get away with just an oil change, didn't you?"

It would have been too good to be true, i told him.

For the first time in quite a while, Jalopy wasn't cantankerous about starting, making me ride the gas to keep her running.  It's nice, but i can still think of a lot better things i would have done with the $400.

But now i have their word that if they get a loaner, i get to use it.

 
Today is:

Bahti Meskerem -- Eritrea (Revolution Day)

Bonnat Pig Fair -- Bonnat, France

Building and Code Staff Appreciation Day

Chicken Boy's Day -- the mascot of the now defunct restaurant by that name, the 22 foot statue of a boy with a chicken's head was saved from destruction and is now a pop icon in L.A. on Route 66

Constitution Day/National Day -- Slovakia

Day of Knowledge -- Estonia (an official Flag Day); Russia

Disaster Prevention Day/Kanto Earthquake Memorial Day -- Japan

Ecclesiastical Year begins -- Orthodox Christian

Festival of Juno Regina and Jupiter Liber -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Hassaku Oshi-tsuki -- Tsuma, Oki Island, Japan (bull sumo, with bulls pushing each other out of the ring)

International Day of Awareness of the Dolphins of Taiji/Save Japan's Dolphins Day -- the drive and hunt begins today in Japan, and WiseOceans has more information

Mustaqillik Kuni -- Uzbekistan (Independence Day, 1991) 

National Cherry Popover Day

National No Rhyme (Nor Reason) Day -- the day to celebrate the amazing words in the English language that do not rhyme with any other words

Nutt Day -- for Emma M. Nutt, the first female telephone operator

Oyster Season begins

Partridge's Day -- patridge hunting season begins in UK

Presidential Message Day -- Mexico

Random Acts of Kindness Day -- New Zealand

Sing A Silly Song in Bed Day -- now, this one has no real rhyme or reason

Sneeze-Wobbling Festival -- Fairy Calendar

St. Fiacre's Day -- Ireland and France (the rest of the church celebrates this Patron of gardeners on August 30)

St. Gideon the Judge's Day (Patron of Saint-Gedeon-de-Beauce, Canada)

St. Giles' Day (Patron of the beggars, blacksmiths, breast feeding, cancer patients, disabled/handicapped people, epileptics, forests, hermits, horses, lepers, mentally ill people, noctiphobics, paupers and the poor, rams, spur makers, woods; Edinburgh, Scotland; Toifa, Italy; against breast cancer, epilepsy, fear of the night, insanity, leprosy, mental illness, noctiphobia, sterility)

St. Simeon Stylites' Day -- Eastern Orthodox Christian

Teacher's Day -- Singapore

Wattle Day -- Australia

Year of Food and Drink -- Scotland (celebrating, all this month and throughout the year, the wonderful food and drink of this delightful country) 


Anniversary Today:

Benjamin Franklin marries Deborah Read, 1730


Birthdays Today:

Timothy Duane "Tim" Hardaway, 1966
Gloria Estefan, 1957
Dr. Phil McGraw, 1950
Barry Gibb, 1946
Lily Tomlin, 1939
Alan Dershowitz, 1938
Don Stroud, 1937
Seiji Ozawa, 1935
Conway Twitty, 1933
"Boxcar" Willie, 1931
Rocky Marciano, 1923
Yvonne DeCarlo, 1922
Vittorio Gassman, 1922
Walter Philip Reuther, 1907
Edgar Rice Burroughts, 1875
Englebert Humperdinck. 1854 (composer, esp of opera Hansel and Gretel)
Johann Pachelbel, 1653


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Art Linkletter's House Party"(TV), 1952
"Androcles and the Lion"(Play), 1913


Today in History:

Rabbi Moses Ben Nachman establishes a Jewish community in Jerusalem, 1267
Adi Granth, now known as Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of Sikhs, was first installed at Harmandir Sahib, 1601
The first yacht race is held, between England's King Charles I and his brother James, 1661
Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa forms in California, 1772
Juno, one of the largest main belt asteroids, is discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding, 1804
Narcissa Whitman, one of the first white women to settle west of the 
Rocky Mountains, arrives at Walla Walla, Washington, 1836
The first Pullman sleeping car is put into service, 1859
The Solar Superstorm/Carrington Event: a huge solar sunspot and solar flare storm that disrupted telegraphy and allowed the Aurora Borealis to be seen as far south as the Caribbean occurs, 1859
Joseph Lister performs the first antiseptic surgery, 1865
Robert T. Freeman becomes the first African American to graduate from the Harvard Dental School, 1867
The first underground rapid transit system in North America, the Boston Subway, opens, 1897
One of the first science fiction films ever, A Trip To The Moon, opens in France, 1902
Alberta and Saskatchewan become the 8th and 9th Canadian provinces, 1905
Martha, the last passenger pigeon, dies at the Cincinnati Zoo, 1914
The United States, Australia and New Zealand sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty, 1951
In Reykjavík, Iceland, American Bobby Fischer beats Russian Boris Spassky and becomes the world chess champion, 1972
Canada adopts the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of its Constitution, 1982
A joint French-American expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic, 1985
Luxembourg becomes the first nation to complete the transition to all digital tv broadcasting, 2006
After four Israeli settlers are shot at the Israeli settlement Beit Hagai, the Palestinian Authority arrested 250 members of Hamas, 2010
To avoid further fighting, Libya's Transitional Council extends the deadline to surrender for tribal leaders in Sirte, 2011
U.S. National Park officials notify 3,100 recent visitors of an outbreak of Hantavirus sourced to tent cabins in Yosemite National Park, 2012
In southwestern China, at least four people are killed by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, 2013