Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Official Sunrise: 9:07 Photograph Taken: 9:48
Temperature: -2° Wind: NW @ 5 mph
Photographer: Ron Day
The morning broke bright and clear, which was somewhat of a surprise as it was snowing heavily when I hit the sack at 10:30 last night. Evidently the snow storm didn’t last long, though. There was only a trace of snow on the deck this morning, less than 1/4 inch.
And…..(drumroll)….. for the first time this winter we’ve hit the minus temperatures. The thermometer read minus two on my deck this morning.
Pick-up Truck Blues
I think it was early last spring when my Ford pick-up suddenly began to run rough. It started to stutter and stagger like it’d had too much Ripple, a drink that was popular when I was younger. All summer long I’ve tried to diagnose and repair the problem but they just don’t design engine compartments like they used too. When I was in high school I could usually fix about anything on my cars and jeeps. Everything was simple and pretty straight forward back then. Today, everything is confusing and different looking. Sadly, for me anyway, I haven’t kept up with the changes, either. It didn’t take very long for me to become frustrated, give up on trying to fix the problem, deciding to just drive it like was even though it was sometime pretty hard to even hit the legal speed limit with it.
Oh sure, I could have taken it to a real mechanic, I guess. But shoot, I hated to do that because every time those real mechanic’s so much as open the hood on that truck they have to have five of those one hundred dollar bills in their hands. Why, just last winter the motor for my windshield wipers quit working and guess what it cost me to have that repaired? That’s right! Five hundred dollars plus some change. Holy Cow!
Anyway, last night, Jim & Cheryl invited us to dinner at their home (really good lasagna by the way). After we’d eaten I pulled my truck into Jim’s garage and he attached his scanner, or whatever its called, to my trucks’ computer. Almost instantly the “Check Engine ” light went off.
Now, that struck me as mighty strange because that light has stayed on since the day I bought the truck nearly seven years ago. Needless to say I was pretty impressed….and pretty fast, too. But after an hour of running tests with his electronic tool we really didn’t find anything terribly wrong with the engine. Every test registered quite normal results. But it was idling better, nice and smooth, and we couldn’t visually see, hear, or smell anything strange when we checked under the hood.
Shaking our heads we closed the hood, detached the scanner, and went back into the house where Jim did a computer print of the results of our tests. Even on the print out everything looked as normal as could be.
Hmmm. Nothing left to do but drive it, I guess. And that’s what I did. Becky and I headed home and the truck ran beautifully, better than it had in months. And Hallelujah! The “Check Engine” light never came back on either. I guess I’ll just continue to drive it and see what happens. If we fixed the problem without turning a wrench or twisting a screwdriver I am, and will continue to be, totally amazed.
But still, I sure do long for the old days, those days when I could lift the hood of an automobile and know in an instant where the engine was.
Wasilla Life
This new shopping area is located at the intersection of the Parks Highway and Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Built last winter it replaced another mall, The Cottonwood Creek mall which was built in 1984. This shopping center is home to a Target Store, Taco Bell, a bank and many other businesses.
Now, I guess I should tell you the truth. The reason I don’t know the names of the other businesses is because I’ve never been there, never set foot into even one of these stores even though they are less than a mile from my home. Becky has, and my son has, and daughter and son-in-law have, and all of my grandchildren have, but not I.
I really don’t like crowds. Becky says I’m becoming anti-social as I grow older. She’s sure of it, in fact. But I’m not, really. I’m just turning into an old recluse!
(Just kidding, Mom).
I suppose, though, as Christmas draws nearer, I might find myself wandering through these stores sooner or later.
