My Car, She is Fixed....

Except that my car was named Baby Al by Brian, eons ago. Anyway, he was fixed yesterday. Oh dear, that sounds bad!

To explain.....on Saturday we went out for dinner, as usual. All was fine on the drive there, no problems at all. We got in the car to come home, and something was wrong! A horrible noise. Mike thought it sounded like a wind-type noise. I thought it sounded more like a scraping noise, almost like the sound brakes make if they are getting close to the gravelly noise when they are way too worn down. Except that it made the noise all the time. It was loud enough and scary enough, that I quickly pulled into another parking space and we looked for flat tires, etc. We couldn't see anything, so carried on. When we got home, Anne took a quick look under the car and saw that something was hanging down, and had been dragging on the ground. Mike took a good look, and it was some undercarriage cover thing along the front bottom of the car. He tried to hook it back up, but the connections seemed to be broken.

I called a local Honda place on Monday morning. I am not sure the gal at the service department truly understood what the problem was, but she was able to give me an appt for 2 p.m. that afternoon, so I was happy! Anne went with me and we took surface roads, as I didn't know if Mike's pushing it back up would hold on the freeway. It did hold for the drive to the Honda place, so all was good. The guy who got my car signed in got a good look at it, when I took him out so he could see what the problem was. He was rather impressed--at the amount of damage, I am guessing. The most impressive thing was that my car was fixed and we were on the road just over an hour after arriving there! And it didn't cost an arm and a leg to fix, either. I figured at the very least they would have to order a part to fix it, but no, they had everything they needed. Hurrah!

They also gave Baby Al a nice bath, which he was once again in need of. All this dry weather, and the silly birds in the oak tree, really do a number on my little car.

We have had a goodly number of clouds today, well, mostly in the form of an overall overcast. We had rain drops spit on us while we were out running an errand today, but no real rain. I don't think there was even supposed to be a chance of rain today, so I guess we got lucky? Maybe there really is hope for some rain this week?

The magnolia continues to bloom, and look pretty. I haven't checked all the plants around the house in a while. I really should go out and do that. I am sure the baby grapefruit are much larger by now. The last time I checked, they varied in size up to extra large olive size.

Meanwhile, in the house, I am thinking I might have to toss my hoya. I hate to do it before necessary, but I think it is just a matter of time. It has been dying. I do water, now and then. Not too often, not too infrequently. It doesn't seem to make a difference. I cut back lots of dead and dying leaves a couple of weeks ago, and new dead and dying leaves have taken their places. It hasn't bloomed in years, not since it had that huge rash of blooming and bloomed for what seemed like months and months. I think it wore itself out? Anyway, part of me says that with Anne and me suffering so much from allergies, and mold being one of them, it might be just as well. I don't know that there is any mold in the plant's pot or soil. But it seems likely. Maybe we are safer all around to eliminate all live plant matter? A shame, but then again...... Anything that can improve our surroundings, allergy wise, has to be a good thing! Maybe I should just try planting it outside and let it take its chances??? I know there are a lot of places they can live outside, and perhaps it is warm enough here that it can live????? Yep, I think that is what I will do! I just hope it doesn't have some kind of nasty rot or something, that might spread to other plants. Comments or suggestions are welcome!

Take care all, you are in our thoughts!