Gas Caps and Pets and Checks, a Random Tuesday Post

And now, a bit of random news from around here, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.

You know you spend too much time and money getting your cars fixed at the garage when you pull your car in and they ask if anything is really wrong or if it's just that the kids left the gas cap off again.  Yes, they hadn't secured the gas cap again.  It's okay, Kevin and Lenny know we will be back with a real problem soon enough.  Sooner than we want, anyway.

Score one for procrastination.  Grandpa made reservations for the kids to stay at the hotel on campus again this year for a weekend.  As usual, when they went to check out, the front desk wouldn't charge Grandpa's card on file.  (Why they give this much trouble to a big donor every year boggles my mind.)  Little Girl just gave them her debit card, and Grandpa wanted to pay her back.  She said that no, it was her treat this year.  He sent a check anyway.

Because of Hurricane Nate and the threat to the coast, she was called up to her duty station to be ready of the Guard was needed.  Because she has never found the time to take my name off of her checking account, i was able to deposit the check into her account and text her that, by the way, because you are out of town, i went ahead and deposited your check for you.  Grandpa is happy, and she will get over it.  She will probably also make the time now to change that account, so it is a one time shot.

Dumpling now weighs a whole two pounds and is at the vet today getting spayed.  She and Comeaux will be going to the shelter to be put up for adoption tomorrow.  It's one of those happy/sad/glad/wistful things, but i cannot keep them all and now i will have a free space to take a bottle feed litter next time they need me.

Comeaux

Dumpling, with her two white toes showing.

Pepe and Buff are going to the vet today, too.  Buff needs his second "puppy shot" and i want to get both of them on the heartworm preventive on the same day of the month to make it easier.  Buff has grown, and we need to weigh him so we get the dose right, and he might also be ready for his first rabies shot, we will see.  Grand-dogs seem to grow up as fast as children/grandchildren do.

Mr. BA, who sometimes has me come to his house on Saturdays to weed the garden or work on sorting tools and such in his workshop, had been suffering much indigestion the past few months.  Last weekend it turned out not to be indigestion, and he will have bypass surgery tomorrow following the very mild heart attack he suffered.  A full recovery is expected.

That's about all the news, so i leave you with this random thought from Bigger Girl:  Do not cross an old person.  Old people have time and intelligence and they can dedicate all of it to getting even.

Today is:

Alex Kivi Day a/k/a Kivi Day -- Finland (The Day of Finnish Literature)

Arbor Day -- Poland

Bonza Bottler Day

Cephalopod Awareness Days:  Squid Day/Cuttlefish Day -- celebrating the most intelligent invertebrates in the world; today, celebrate the tentacular species

Curacao Day -- Curacao

Double Tenth Day/National Day -- China; Taiwan (In remembrance of the revolution against the Imperial Manchu Dynasty.)

Face Your Fears Day -- Stephen Hughes encourages you to use this as a day to try to do something you've always been afraid to do

Festival for Juno Moneta -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Juno as goddess of money)

Independence Day / Deed of Cession Day -- Fiji(1970)

Journee Nationale de la Femme Marocaine -- Morocco (National Women's Day)

Kruger Day -- South Africa

KWP Foundation Day -- North Korea (1945)

Maroons Day -- Suriname (celebration of indigenous peoples)

Moi Day -- Kenya

National Angel Food Cake Day

National Cake Decorating Day -- some websites say today, some say the 17th

National Handbag Day -- started by www.PurseBlog.com

Naval Academy Day -- US

St. Francis Borgia's Day (Patron of Portugal; Rota, Marianas; against earthquakes)

St. Paulinus of York's Day (Patron of Rochester, England)

Tag der Volksabstimmung -- Austria (Referendum Day)

War of Independence Anniversary -- Cuba

World Day Against the Death Penalty -- International

World Homeless Day -- no one should be homeless 

World Mental Health Day -- International

World Porridge Day -- celebrating Scotland's traditional national dish 

Anniversaries Today:

Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., marries Katherine Anne "Kiki" Gershman, 1993

Richard Burton marries Elizabeth Taylor, 1975 (second time)

The United States Naval Academy opened with 50 midshipmen and 7 professors, 1845

Birthdays Today:

Adrian Grenier, 1976

Bob Burnquist, 1976

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., 1974

Mario Lopez, 1973

Brett Favre, 1969

Daniel Pearl, 1963

Tanya Tucker, 1958

David Lee Roth, 1955

Nora Roberts, 1950

Jessica Harper, 1949

Charles Dance, 1946

Ben Vereen, 1946

Harold Pinter, 1930

Richard Jaeckel, 1926

Thelonious Monk, 1917

Edward D. Wood, Jr., 1924

Helen Hayes, 1900

Giuseppe Verdi, 1813

Henry Cavendish, 1731 (discovered hydrogen)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Upstairs, Downstairs"(TV), 1971

"The Bob Newhart Show"(TV), 1962

"Milk and Honey"(Musical), 1961

"Porgy and Bess"(Folk opera), 1935

"Die Chinesische Mauer/The Great Wall of China"(Play), 1946

The Tuxedo, 1886 (introduced at The Tuxedo Club in New York)

Today in History:

The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 in the Carribean, 1780

The first non-Native American settlement is founded in Oklahoma, 1802

William Lassell discovers Neptune's moon Triton, 1846

The first "Dinner Jacket" is worn to the Autumn Ball at Tuxedo Park, NY, 1886

President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal, 1913

Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after the French pull out of the city, 1954

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant, 1957

The Windscale fire in Cumbria, U.K. is the world's first major nuclear accident, 1957

The opening ceremony at The 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary communication satellite, 1964

The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, comes into force, 1967

In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group, 1970

Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, 1971

After having closed borders for about two hundred years, Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich, Switzerland to open their borders, 2009

Pope Benedict XVI adds Arabic to the languages in which the weekly Vatican address is broadcast, 2012

Now about the Jalopy.

Last week, i believe it was on Thursday, i realized Sweetie needed to run an errand.  

(He's retired, and often bored, and he wants to be out doing things, and when he gets a little on the crabby side, i know he needs to run an errand, both to give him something to do and get him out from  underfoot.)

Thus i asked him to go put some gas in the Jalopy, and while he was out, go get some bread and milk and coffee.  He was thrilled to have something to do.

He came back and was in a much better mood, and i didn't have to be concerned about getting gas predawn on my way to Bible study the next morning.

The next morning, Friday, i got in the Jalopy to go to said Bible study, and my check engine light was on.  Yes, i just had the tie rods done on Wednesday, and also paid for an oil change and work on Bigger Girl's Cicero.  Now what, was all i could wonder.

Saturday morning, i hied myself to Kevin and Lenny's and asked Lenny, who had duty that day, to please find out what was wrong now while i sat and tried not to think the worst.

As the moments ticked on, i knew it couldn't be good.  It only takes them about 5 minutes to hook up the little gadget to the car's computer and figure out what a check engine light means.  Because i am in there all of the time, they do it for me on the fly sometimes, as i pull in, ask for a reading, arrange for the parts to be ordered, and drive off with an appointment to come back later.  They don't even charge me for it and most places do.

After about an hour and a half, one of the mechanics came in, handed me the keys, and said, "You're good to go!"

What?

Lenny smiled from behind his counter.  "It was registering a leak in the gas line somewhere, and I had a new gas cap sent over from my distribution warehouse, hoping that was it.  It was!"

How much? i asked.

"For a simple gas cap, nothing," he answered.  After thanking him, i left, glad it was so easy, and nothing awful after all.

Thinking back, too, i realized what had happened.  Sweetie doesn't mind pumping gas, but he does mind having to hold the lever on the gas pumps.  He went to the closest gas station to our house, which usually has a competitive price but is notorious for not keeping their pumps in the best order.  Most of them have very hard to read screens that they will not replace, and the little metal flaps that holds the levers up are missing on almost all of them.

When he uses that station to fill his tank, he takes his gas cap and crams it in the handle to hold the lever up, and about once a year he needs a new gas cap because this bends his out of shape.

He had bent mine out of shape, and thus the check engine light came on.

It won't be happening again, though.  Not because i fussed, although i did laugh with him over what happened and asked him not to abuse my gas cap that way again.  Not because i won't be asking him to get gas again, since it's such a convenient way to give him a quick errand that lightens his mood.

No, it won't happen again because, when Lenny got the cap sent over, it was the kind that has a plastic "strap" that hooks to the car.  Because of the strap, it can't reach to be used in that way.

Lenny's not just kind, he's smart.

Today is:

Another Look Unlimited Day -- sponsored by Envira Myntyl, a day to look around and see what you don't need and can donate to charity, to lessen the flow to landfills

Armed Forces Day -- Sao Tome and Principe

Concordia Fall Festival -- Concordia, MO (celebrating agriculture and the German heritage of the area; through Saturday)

Defense Day -- Pakistan

Ear and Trumpter Contests for Mice -- Fairy Calendar

Festa Della Rificolona -- Florence, Italy (one of Florences oldest and most colorful celebrations; through tomorrow)

Fight Procrastination Day/National Do It Day

Flag Day -- Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles

National Boss/Employee Exchange Day -- US (or anyone else who wants to foster understanding between bosses and employees, trade places for a day and see how the other half lives!)

National Coffee Ice Cream Day -- Sweetie swears the best ever was at Howard Johnson Restaurants back in the day

Paryushana Parva -- Jain (eight day festival signifying human emergence into a new world of spiritual and moral refinement, and a celebration of the natural qualities of the soul; local observances of the dates can vary)

Play Days -- sponsored by the HUMOR Project, add humor to your life; through Saturday 

Read A Book Day -- can't find the history on it, but enjoy!

Rhishi Panchami -- Nepal (continuation of the women's festival, a holiday for Female Employees Only)

Sacrifice to Hera Thelchinia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Somhlolo Day -- Swaziland (Independence Day)

South Carolina Apple Festival -- Westminster, SC, US (through Saturday)

St. Magnus of Fussen's Day (Patron of crops; against caterpillars, hail, lightning, reptiles, vermin)

Stillbirth Remembrance Day -- Canada (some Provinces); US

Unification Day -- Bulgaria


Birthdays Today:

Justin Whalin, 1974
Sarah Strange, 1974
Rosie Perez, 1964
Elizabeth Vargas, 1962
Jeff Foxworthy, 1958
Jane Curtin, 1947
Swoosie Kurtz, 1944
Jo Anne Worley, 1937
Billy Rose, 1899
Joseph P. Kennedy, 1888
Jane Addams, 1860
Catharine Esther Beecher, 1800
John Dalton, 1766
Marquis de Lafayette, 1757
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, 1711


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"(TV), 1955
Jack Dempsey/Billy Miske Boxing Match(First match broadcast on radio), 1920
"La clemenza di Tito/The Clemency of Titus"(Opera, Mozart K. 621), 1791


Today in History:

The Victoria, the only surviving ship of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, returns to Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the world, 1522
The Spanish "Silver Fleet" disappears off the Florida Keys, 1622
Founding of Salem, Massachussetts, 1628
The first US lighthouse is built in Boston, 1716
Hurricane hits Martinique and Guadalupe, hundreds of ships sink and thousands die on land and at sea, 1776
Thomas Blanchard patents the lathe, 1819
Oberlin Collegiate Institute of Ohio becomes co-ed, with 4 women and 30 men in attendance, 1837
Louisa Ann Swain of Laramie, Wyoming becomes the first woman in the United States to cast a vote legally after 1807, 1870
Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands, 1948
Canada's first television station, CBFT-TV, opens in Montreal, 1952
Nine Israeli athletes are killed during a rescue attempt after being kidnapped at the Munich Olympic Games; two had died during the kidnapping the day before, 1972
The Soviet Union recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: 
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and restores the name St. Petersburg to Russia's second largest city, 1991
Cal Ripken Jr of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a record that stood for 56 years, 1995
Diana, Princess of Wales is laid to rest in front of a television audience of more than 2.5 billion, 1997
China launches an investigation into its commercial pilots upon learning that more than 200 of them had falsified their resumes, 2010
Central Australia reports the first sighting since 1960 of a Central rock rat, 2013