Friday, March 17, 2006
One of those days!
Did you ever have one of those days when nothing seemed to go right? I have had more than my share of those. I was splitting wood with a wedge one day, when the wedge went flying out of the log, bounced on the ground, ricocheted again and then struck me on my shin. My leg was totally numb and badly bruised at the minimum. When I asked my doctor to check it out, I got a lecture on how to split wood. On another occasion I popped a handful on peanuts into my mouth and then snizzed. One of the nuts went up into my sinuses. After spending a miserable night I went to my doctor—a different one since I did not need a lecture on how to eat peanuts. He did not know what to do so he sent me to an ear, nose and throat specialist. After a quick examination by the specialist, he sent in his assistant to have a look. I knew that he was thinking that I had stuck a peanut up my nose and something had gone tragically wrong. It would have been funny if I were not in such agonizing pain. When they were unable to remove the nut after dilating my nose, they finally resorted to surgery. Whew! That hurt more than the peanut. Since then whenever I eat peanuts, I eat them very carefully one at a time.
Two years ago we drove to Lake Tahoe to spend a week and I had a different kind of nut problem. I had changed the battery on my Camry right before we left, but in the process I did not get the battery clamp securely fastened. After we stopped for lunch the car would not start. The battery appeared to be dead. I raised the hood and took stock of the situation. I tried to move the battery cable and the hood light came to life. The car started right up. Since my tools were packed beneath a ton of luggage, I decided to wait until we were at the Marriott Timberlodge before trying to tighten up the battery cable. Big mistake! When we arrived at the Lodge, there was nothing but valet parking. I was not permitted to work on the car in the garage or underneath the canopy at the check-in entrance. It could wait until tomorrow. The next morning we drove to Fallen Leaf Lake and had a great time. As we prepared to leave, I suddenly remembered the loose battery cable. Out there in the wilds I did not need permission to work on my car. So I got out my tools and tightened the loose nut good and tight. Too tight! Way too tight! The battery connection snapped in two. We were back to Go. I turned the ignition switch and nothing happened. Not even a whimper. We were out of cell phone range and not a soul in sight. We were a good ten miles from nowhere. And it was getting dark. I thought of MacGiver and his duct tape, but I did not have any duct tape with me. I tried all the usual things and nothing worked. Then I got an inspiration. I took a penny, which is made of copper, and wedged it in. The car started right up. We drove thirty miles back to Tahoe before we found an auto parts store. This time I did not ask permission. I just worked away with my limited tools until I had the broken part replaced.
Two of those days happened back-to-back as we prepared to move to New Mexico. We had loaded a small U-Haul Truck with a load of books and other paraphernalia that would have put us over the limit on our moving van. For the most part these were items that we thought we would need before the moving van would show up at our new abode. As we started to walk out of the house my wife slipped and broke her wrist. We rushed her to the emergency room. They placed a fixator on her arm and kept her for overnight observation. The problem was that I was to drive the U-Haul and she was to drive our car. However, there was no way she could drive. My brother volunteered to drive the truck and I drove our car. Everything went smoothly until we reached Muleshoe, Texas. Suddenly a police car turned on its lights and pulled my brother over. Unbeknownst to us, the U-Haul did not have any operable lights in the rear. When the policeman was certain that we were not hauling drugs or other contraband, he let us go. An hour later when we pulled up in front of our new home, I felt a huge sight of relief. It did not last long. I reached into my pocket for the house key and all I found was a hole in my pocket. Unable to get into the house we started checking motels. There was no room anywhere. We finally called the realtor and she happened to have a spare key. Think God for small miracles. We drug a mattress out of the U-Haul and inflated a blow-up mattress. Everyone collapsed on their bedding and fell asleep in the hot, humid air. Our final thought for the night was it was just one of those days!
Did you ever have one of those days when nothing seemed to go right? I have had more than my share of those. I was splitting wood with a wedge one day, when the wedge went flying out of the log, bounced on the ground, ricocheted again and then struck me on my shin. My leg was totally numb and badly bruised at the minimum. When I asked my doctor to check it out, I got a lecture on how to split wood. On another occasion I popped a handful on peanuts into my mouth and then snizzed. One of the nuts went up into my sinuses. After spending a miserable night I went to my doctor—a different one since I did not need a lecture on how to eat peanuts. He did not know what to do so he sent me to an ear, nose and throat specialist. After a quick examination by the specialist, he sent in his assistant to have a look. I knew that he was thinking that I had stuck a peanut up my nose and something had gone tragically wrong. It would have been funny if I were not in such agonizing pain. When they were unable to remove the nut after dilating my nose, they finally resorted to surgery. Whew! That hurt more than the peanut. Since then whenever I eat peanuts, I eat them very carefully one at a time.
Two years ago we drove to Lake Tahoe to spend a week and I had a different kind of nut problem. I had changed the battery on my Camry right before we left, but in the process I did not get the battery clamp securely fastened. After we stopped for lunch the car would not start. The battery appeared to be dead. I raised the hood and took stock of the situation. I tried to move the battery cable and the hood light came to life. The car started right up. Since my tools were packed beneath a ton of luggage, I decided to wait until we were at the Marriott Timberlodge before trying to tighten up the battery cable. Big mistake! When we arrived at the Lodge, there was nothing but valet parking. I was not permitted to work on the car in the garage or underneath the canopy at the check-in entrance. It could wait until tomorrow. The next morning we drove to Fallen Leaf Lake and had a great time. As we prepared to leave, I suddenly remembered the loose battery cable. Out there in the wilds I did not need permission to work on my car. So I got out my tools and tightened the loose nut good and tight. Too tight! Way too tight! The battery connection snapped in two. We were back to Go. I turned the ignition switch and nothing happened. Not even a whimper. We were out of cell phone range and not a soul in sight. We were a good ten miles from nowhere. And it was getting dark. I thought of MacGiver and his duct tape, but I did not have any duct tape with me. I tried all the usual things and nothing worked. Then I got an inspiration. I took a penny, which is made of copper, and wedged it in. The car started right up. We drove thirty miles back to Tahoe before we found an auto parts store. This time I did not ask permission. I just worked away with my limited tools until I had the broken part replaced.
Two of those days happened back-to-back as we prepared to move to New Mexico. We had loaded a small U-Haul Truck with a load of books and other paraphernalia that would have put us over the limit on our moving van. For the most part these were items that we thought we would need before the moving van would show up at our new abode. As we started to walk out of the house my wife slipped and broke her wrist. We rushed her to the emergency room. They placed a fixator on her arm and kept her for overnight observation. The problem was that I was to drive the U-Haul and she was to drive our car. However, there was no way she could drive. My brother volunteered to drive the truck and I drove our car. Everything went smoothly until we reached Muleshoe, Texas. Suddenly a police car turned on its lights and pulled my brother over. Unbeknownst to us, the U-Haul did not have any operable lights in the rear. When the policeman was certain that we were not hauling drugs or other contraband, he let us go. An hour later when we pulled up in front of our new home, I felt a huge sight of relief. It did not last long. I reached into my pocket for the house key and all I found was a hole in my pocket. Unable to get into the house we started checking motels. There was no room anywhere. We finally called the realtor and she happened to have a spare key. Think God for small miracles. We drug a mattress out of the U-Haul and inflated a blow-up mattress. Everyone collapsed on their bedding and fell asleep in the hot, humid air. Our final thought for the night was it was just one of those days!
