It Was A Long Day

Yesterday started with a 7:30 AM phone call from our son Travis,saying that his wife, Geli, was broken down in Bessemer, up near Birmingham. Geli works nights as the clinical director at a hospital there, and she had just gotten off her shift, stopped for gas, and got on the highway when her car went haywire. All of the dashboard lights were on and it was losing power and lurching. She was able to make it off the shoulder of the highway and call Travis.

It’s about 60 miles from their house to where she was, and by the time I picked him up and we got there, the poor lady was exhausted and frazzled. I’m no kind of mechanic, but back in the good old days I could usually get a car running if there wasn’t anything terribly wrong with it. Not so with today’s computerized cars, it’s way above my pay grade. After opening the hood and seeing the engine was running smoothly as long as it was idling and seeing that the serpentine belt was in place, I had gone through my repertoire of ideas.

As it turned out, her towing insurance is only good for 20 miles or to the nearest garage, and it being a Sunday and not knowing any of the garages in the area, Geli wasn’t comfortable with that option. So the first order of business was taking her home so she could get to bed because she had to work Sunday evening.

With that out of the way, Travis and I went to U-Haul in Tuscaloosa and rented a tow dolly to go back and pick up her car. Geli’s brother works at a garage in Gordo, so we took it there and dropped it off, then I took Travis home. Terry met me at their house to drop off her Pacifica for Geli to use to get to work until her car is fixed, then she and I took the tow dolly back to U-Haul.

We needed to get some groceries so we stopped at Publix and stocked up with enough to keep us for another couple of weeks. Then we went to Lowe’s and bought ten bags of Black Kow steer manure, a couple of bags of potting soil, and some other things Terry needed for her garden.

It was about 6:30 by the time we got home, and this fat old man was worn out. Once we got the groceries carried inside, I parked my butt in my recliner and stayed there until Terry had dinner ready. Then we watched the new episode of Call The Midwife on PBS, and it was time to write the blog. All in all, a long day for an old fart like me. But Terry and I are glad that we are here and able to help the kids out when they need us, just like they are here for us when we need help. It’s good to be around family.

Congratulations Thomas J Van de Bussche, winner of our drawing for an audiobook of Big Lake, my first novel and the first book in my Big Lake small town mystery series. This is the book that started me on my career as an author.

We had 37 entries this time around. Stay tuned, a new contest starts soon. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Sometimes you have to stop thinking so much and just go where your heart takes you.