A to Z: Jalopy

Jalopy is our 2006 tan Saturn Relay minivan.

Jalopy, always ready to go.

We got her used, and she's seen a lot of hard wear and tear.  Kids are hard on cars. 

Little Girl was hard on her once.

Jalopy was fine, she just kept going.  The house, not so much.

The boys used to try to prove how manly they were by running and rolling over her hood.

Bigger Girl once backed her into someone's car.  Jalopy had nary a dent, but my insurance took care of the other vehicle.

Jalopy has had her transmission rebuilt and gotten a new engine.  The new engine was really a used one from a truck, they had to add a steel bar welded under the hood to hold the thing.  It works.

Jalopy is my favorite because i can carry all of my cleaning supplies plus a week's groceries and several boxes of cat litter in her, she lets the kids use and abuse her and mostly just keeps going.  Also she's so old and beat up looking that she's not worth stealing and i'm not afraid to let people learn to drive in her.  They can't make her look much worse, after all.

She is left unlocked in the drive because there's no one silly enough to want to take my cleaning supplies, and i keep mothing else in her.

 

We just got her new registration in the mail, and now i have to go get her inspected for the year.  Wish her luck, i love my Jalopy and want her around for a long time to come.

Today is:

Be Kind to Lawyers Day -- after all, you will need one someday, for something

Big Wind Day -- anniversary of the strongest natural wind ever recorded on the earth's surfact, at Mount Washington, NH, US; the wind gusts reached 231 mph

Children's Day in Florida -- FL, US

D.E.A.R. Day (a/k/a Drop Everything And Read) -- sponsored by the ALA, on Beverly Cleary's birth anniversary

Eat All Your Snacks Before the Movie Even Starts Day  -- with all the ads before the movie, doesn't that happen anyway?

Festival of Cerealia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (seven day public and private festival for Ceres)

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

Halifax Day -- North Carolina, US (anniversary of the resolution adopted authorizing voting for independence in 1776)

International Day for Street Children 

London Book Fair -- Olympia, London, England (one of the world's most important book fairs; through the 14th)

National Equal Pay Day -- US (the date of how far into 2016 a US woman had to work to earn what a US man did in 2015) 

National Library Workers Day -- US (always the Tuesday of National Library Week)

National Licorice Day 

Sinhala & Tamil New Year's Eve -- Sri Lanka

St. Sabas' Day (Patron of Lectors, torture victims)

St. Zeno's Day (Patron of anglers, children learning to speak, children learning to walk, fishermen, newborn babies; city and diocese of Verona, Italy)

Thingyan -- Myanmar (Burmese Water Festival; part of the New Year celebrations)

Walk on Your Wild Side Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, a day in which to do something no one would expect from you

Yuri's Night -- International (Commemoration of first human in space, Yuri Gagarin)
     Cosmonaut's Day -- Russia
     International Day of Human Space Flight -- UN


Birthdays Today:

Saoirse Ronan, 1994
Riley Smith, 1982
Claire Danes, 1979
Sarah Jane Morris, 1977
Nicholas Brendon, 1971
Shannen Doherty, 1971
Nick Hexum, 1970
Art Alexakis, 1962
vince Gill, 1957
Andy Garcia, 1956
David Cassidy, 1950
Tom Clancy, 1947
Dan Lauria, 1947
David Letterman, 1947
Ed O'Neill, 1946
Herbie Hancock, 1940
Dennis Banks, 1937
Tiny Tim, 1930
Ann Miller, 1923
Beverly Cleary, 1916
Henry Clay, 1777
Lyman Hall, 1724
Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, BC599


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"21 Jump Street"(TV), 1987
"Your Hit Parade"(Radio), 1935
Madame Bovary(Publication date), 1857
"Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath"(Weber opera), 1826
The Tatler(Journal, first edition), 1709 Note:  this original version of a publication with the name lasted only two years


Today in History:

Constantinople falls to the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire, 1204
The formal inquest of Galileo by the Inquisition begins, 1633
The first edition of Tatler Magazine is published in London, 1709
The American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, 1861
George C Blickensderfer patents a portable typewriter, 1892
Pierre Prier makes the first nonstop flight from London to Paris, in 3h 56m, 1911
Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England, 1937
The strongest surface wind gust ever measured, 231 mph, at Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 1943
The Salk vaccine is declared safe and effective, 1955
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space, 1961
Samuel Doe takes over Liberia in a coup d'etat, ending 130 years of peaceful and democratic presidential successions, 1980
The first launch of a space shuttle, the Colombia, 1981
The Euro Disney Resort officially opens (now Disneyland Paris), 1992
Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam, 1994
Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwe Dollar as their currency, 2009
Following the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, Japan raises the crisis level to 7, equal to the disaster in Chernoby, 2011