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!!
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.
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