Saturday Moanin’

I set the alarm and got up at the usual time. I shaved showered and dressed and left the house at 7:10 AM. There weren’t a lot of car on the roads then (Thank God) so I took it slow and easy. I got to the repair shop (A. E. Auto Care) about 10 minutes later. I parked the car in back and went in to the office.  The service manager was a very pleasant, knowledgeable guy. I gave him the keys and he went to fetch my car.

He came back in and said, “I’ve very impressed!” I said, “Huh?” He said, “That you were able to drive that car here!” I laughed and explained I used the parking brake.

He said they didn’t have any Dot 4 Brake fluid (the kind my car and a lot of imports use) so he sent a guy out to get some. When he got back, they would fill up the reservoir and see what the problem was. He offered me a ride home, but I had brought a book and said I’d just wait.

I started rethinking that decision when one guy came in to drop his car off and the service manager offered him a ride home. He said, no, he was going to just walk across the street and get some breakfast. That sounded pretty good!

But, I just got a cup of their coffee and sat there, reading. People kept coming in and he treated them all very professionally and honestly, even telling one guy it would probably be after 9:00 AM when they got around to his oil change and did he want to come back later? If you haven’t noticed, the guy impressed me.

The TV in the customer waiting area was turned to CNN, though I wasn’t watching it. But, at one point, I heard the words “Calgary, in Alberta Canada” and looked up from my book. They said they were evacuating Calgary due to massive flooding. Jesus! I have been in Calgary and it’s not a small city. That would be like evacuating Detroit or something! Sorry, CC! I never heard about this before and have no idea what caused it.

The service manager finally came in and said my car was fixed. It was 9:10 AM! Turned out the right front flex hose had burst, resulting in what he called an instant loss of brakes (I know, I was there!) I gave him $167.00 and he gave me my keys.

I stopped at Home Depot and picked up some clear silicone caulk and three of those downspout water things, so the dirt wouldn’t wash out from the two behind the shed and for the one corner of my house. I had run over the end of that downspout with the tractor, so I need to cut it back, but want it to still go away from the house.

I noticed that I was sort of creeping up on each traffic light on the way home. I guess I was subconsciously afraid the brakes would go out again. I must admit, that scared the shit out of me! I keep thinking, what if somebody had been walking across the street? Then again, Germans do not like to not have control of events.

Back home, I changed clothes into my shorts and t-shirt (I prefer to wear big-boy pants to auto repair shops, lol).

Then I went out into the increasing heat and started sorting through “stuff” in the garage. It was time to fill up the shed. I hooked the dump trailer Jake and Carla gave me to the tractor and hauled out load after load of “garden” stuff.

Some things were easy, but others required some thought. For example, I left the hoe from 24 Mile Road in the garage. I only use it to trench the water off the driveway. And the electric hedge trimmer stayed up there as well. I wasn’t in any hurry, so it was kind of enjoyable. I dusted everything off before moving it out back. No sense in transporting spider webs and sawdust!


Best of all, I found the other horseshoe  stake! I took the hand sledge and pounded it back in the ground. I gotta get my game back on!!

But, as I slowly filled up the shed, I realized something. I should have made a bigger shed!!!

I cut two 2x4’s and screwed them to the wall for the short hand tools. That’s when I realized I have several tools that cannot be put up on nails (like a post hole digger, a dandelion digger, a weed whip, etc.) So, I added eye-bolts (for their handles) to my shopping list and temporarily just propped them up.

I put separate nails up for the tree trimmer and the compost screen I made. I worked steadily until about 3:30 PM when the heat was becoming oppressive and I was tired.

So, I went inside and washed up. Then I started assembling my pasta salad. I put the pre-cooked bow tie pasta in my big bowl. I diced up a big green pepper and a whole red onion and threw that in. I cut a big block of fresh feta cheese into chunks and tossed that in as well. I grabbed the shrimp I had found in the freezer and cooked yesterday and cut each one into thirds (they were big – 20-26 size).  I cut the cherry tomatoes in half.  I deseeded the cucumber and then cubed that. I snipped off both ends of the sugar snap peas and threw them in as well.

The last time I used sliced black olives and had decided green one might add a bit more bite.  So, I used the wire egg slicer to easily slice up a bunch of them. I add the other half of that bottled dressing (since I had it): Ken’s Steak House Italian with Aged Romano. I tossed everything, covered the bowl with foil and stuck it in the fridge to get happy.

Then I took a well-deserved nap.

When I woke up, it was after 7:00 PM, so I got a bowl of pasta salad and ate it for dinner. Hmmm… not bad. Not bad at all! The sugar snap peas added a nice crunch, but were a bit difficult to get on the fork.

I noticed it had sprinkled here while I was sleeping, so I checked the weather. No more storms were predicted for tonight, so it was the perfect time to caulk. The caulk needs at least 12 hours without rain to cure properly, which is why I didn’t do it earlier.

So, I doubt it is “necessary” but I caulked between the slab and the wolmanaized bottom plate of the shed. I got three sides done before I ran out of caulk. Damn, I wished I’d bought four tubes!

It was getting dark, so I went back inside and watched the hockey game. It ended around 11:00 PM (the Blackhawks won) so I shut off the TV and went back to my book until I fell asleep.