Missyisms

9.7 Million to 1

I should have purchased lottery tickets today. I never do, but today would have been a good day.

According to wikipedia.com, there are nearly 3 million people living in Chicago and 9.7 million in the greater Chicago-area. That makes me one of 9.7 million...a needle in a haystack. And I found another needle.

I drove into Chicago this morning to meet someone. Driving down the Eisenhower highway, I glanced in my passenger-side mirror and noticed a small red car with a bike rack coming up behind me. "Wouldn't it be funny if that was my brother," I thought. Soon the little red car, a VW Jetta, was along side my car and it was my brother!!!!! I'm assuming he was on his way to work at the Tribune. There was enough traffic on the highway that I didn't want to honk, so I called but it bounced to VMX.

But what are the odds! 9.7 million to 1, I think.

Burned

I burned my thumb and first two fingers cooking dinner this evening. Entirely my fault, but I just need to say it really hurts. I couldn't even floss my teeth tonight because wrapping dental floss around my burned fingers is akin to slicing them with a butcher's knife.

I only mention this because I know you want to feel sorry for me. Even as you continue reading you are calling family and friends to arrange pity parties! Pointing-fingers and thumbs around the universe are already twitching and starting to rub together preparing for the grandest production of My Heart Bleeds for You on the world's smallest violins! Have at it! 

In other news, there was a professional bike race in my subdivision this weekend. I walked down to the end of my cul de sac to watch a lap or two and ended up watching all ten laps. When the racers weren't in our area, I chatted with neighbors and strangers. It was a lot of fun. Below is one picture, I might post a few more and some movies soon. The riders were going super fast and I was at the wrong angle for this particular picture, but I like it just the same.

Car and Long Distance Calls

Guess where my car is...you got it. Back in the shop! Sigh. Alone again, naturally. Might be a radiator leak. I won't bore with the details.

I finally found out how to identify which of my calls are considered local, which are local toll and which are long distance. This only took twenty minutes on hold waiting to talk to a phone company representative. (Doesn't it seem like the phone company of all companies shouldn't leave customers on hold?)

When I finally spoke to a person as opposed to a recorded idiot, she (the agent) was very sweet and said me for my area I could use this website: http://localcalling.sbc.com. Unfortunately, she also told me that Band C calls, the Local Toll calls (i.e., anything over 15 miles) will be considered long distance if I switch plans. I might anyway. However, this will mean avoiding certain phone calls or only using my cell phone for those calls. Putting the Band C calls into the long distance group is really annoying!!!!!!

Hope you are well. Please forgive me for not having the energy to even attempt making this funny or snarky.

Near Death

When Mother's cousin Joanne was here, Mom showed her some letters she has that their grandmother and grandfather wrote. Joanne asked for copies of the letters and I said I would take care of it. I finally got around to it last week...and it was almost a disaster.

I finished copying the letters and returned home with the two folders and a few other things in my arms. I set the folders down on my kitchen cabinet and continued through the kitchen to set down the other items. Only my elbow or something clipped a glass. Since my hands were full, all I could do was screech as water exploded out of the toppling glass and targeted the folders like a guided smart missile.

I was in a panic! Handwritten letters written by my great-grandmother, my great-grandfather and my grandfather! Screech! Try to empty arms of clutter! Try to grab the letters! Try to get Reggie away from my feet! Try to rescue the letters! Some of those letters are 79-years old! They've survived almost 80 years and one week in my possession and they were about to become soppy paper towels with running ink! Screech! Of course, they have no monetary value, but they are priceless. "My mother! My mother!" I kept thinking as I watched the water soak into the folders as I tried to rescue them.

I was in no pain, but I was near death.

Cause of death: Mother's loss and disappointment!! I mean, she is my mother and she wouldn't kill anyone, especially her daughter, but the horror of having to tell her I'd destroyed her grandmother's letters!

Somehow a miracle occurred. Both folders got wet, one completely soaked and no longer usable, but only one photocopy got a little wet! I was going to live to see another day (and write about it in this blog)! The original letters were laminated, but some of them were scratched and they were probably laminated 20 years ago, so I wasn't certain the letters were completely sealed. But they all survived, and so did I! Whew!

Panic aside, it was fascinating reading the letters. One was from my grandfather to my grandmother while she was in the hospital just after the birth of their first child. Grandma stayed in the hospital about a week (those were the days!) and Grandpa had to return to their home about 80 miles from the hospital (those weren't the days)! He writes about how excited he is that his girls (Grandma and Aunt Mary Jo) were coming home soon. It's the sweetest letter and I never knew that my grandfather, who died when I was five, sometimes called my grandmother Judy. I did know that she really disliked her name Jewel. Grandpa was so excited that he forgot to get another professor to cover his class the day he was to bring the girls home!

The image is a letter written by my great-Grandmother to her son's girlfriend (eventually my grandmother). My grandfather was one of ten children and was very tall, but I didn't know he was the only boy in the family with black hair and that his mother called him "her big black headed boy" (unfortunately, the copy cuts this off a bit). The letter is from 1929! Isn't that cool!

And isn't it cool that I didn't drawn it in a monsoon! (The smudged city and last name are on this copy, not the originals.)

Flat Again

I'm sitting in an auto care shop while they check a low tire on my car. Joy. Seems like I had a low tire just over a year ago...oh, wait, I did! At least it's not the newish replacement for that tire, but the story is similar.

Saturday evening, after my get together with Susan, I noticed the tire was low. I drove to a local gas station and filled the tire with air. This is a miracle in and of itself...I usually can't fill the car tires. I don't know why this is...I can fill bike tires, but never the car tires. My father used to take me to the gas station each time a car needed air in a tire because he wanted me to be able to do it, but I never could do. I'd try and try, but air would be coming out of the tires instead of going in. I've even had boyfriends try to "teach" me. I don't need teaching, I know how to do it, I just never can get it to work. But it worked this time...I was praying.

I've been watching the tire since Saturday night and it was fine, until last night. It looked lower, but I wasn't sure. A few hours later, it was definitely lower. This morning, it was even lower. A neighbor looked at it and said it had enough air to get to the gas station to re-fill it. He then said, "Drive slowly and don't hit any bumps." I responded, "This is Chicago...show me a road without any bumps!"

I drove slowly, avoiding bumps, and got to the gas station. It was only .7 miles away, but the tire was much lower; thankfully still not on the rim. Once again I succeeded in filling the tire. Miracles really do happen. Then I drove straight to the closest auto center. I didn't go to where I've purchased tires the past several years, because it seems like I've been replacing tires too often. The shop is checking it now to see if it is repairable. I suspect not because they are a few years old, I have a feeling I'll be buying two new tires.

UPDATE: There are pieces of metal in both of my rear tires and neither are repairable. ARGH! They also want to replace the front tires since they are showing wear, but I decided against that. More and more reasons to sell my car. Sigh. It's been such a good car!!!! Darn, darn, darn. Don't want to replace car.

But wait, pieces of metal in two tires! I can only think that came from the construction on highway 88 that I drive through each week. Odd that both rear tires are pierced by pieces of metal, but nothing in the front tires. The right rear tire, the one I knew had a problem, had an inch long gash from the metal in the attached picture. I wonder if the metal was originally bigger. The slash was too long to fix. The left tire had a small metal spike in it, but the damage was too close to the tire's edge to fix. So two new tires for the car.

Oh yes, the picture at the top? When I got the car back, I discovered they'd put a hair net on the steering wheel...sort of cute.

Holiday, Family, and Friends

This was a delightful holiday weekend spending time with family and friends. I haven't seen or talked to my childhood friend Susie, now Susan, in about 15 years. Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer recently and this was the first time we got to talk in person. Everything has been going wonderfully...treatment is going beautifully and she's currently cancer free.

Susan lives on the east coast, but is in the Chicago area for a few days visiting her parents and friends. She called me Friday and we chatted for over an hour. Then she met me at my parent's house on Saturday where we chatted for about 45 minutes. Then...as if this wasn't enough...we went to a local restaurant and talked for over four hours! Gee, do you think we had much to catch up on? Yeah.

We covered dozens of topics, bouncing around to whatever entered our heads and me interrupting even though I'd gotten after my mother for doing the same. (I think I'm becoming my mother...<shrug,> could be worse.) We talked about old times, old friends, current lives, and prayer requests. We shared pictures, me of Reggie (LOL!) and her of her children. They'd taken her daughter to the American Girl store in Chicago and I think I'm going to have a field trip there. The store has a tea shop for the humans, a beauty shop for the dolls, and a doll holder in each bathroom stall.** We jumped around topics so much we never covered how the doctors determined her breast cancer is the environmental type. We touched on what eating habits they suggested, but could have covered that more. We only touched on our work and hobbies. She's in a book club that reads non-fiction books one chapter per month...I love that! 

I had a wonderful time, except my brain started failing near the end. Even so, it wasn't enough time! As soon as we parted, I thought of more things I should have said, more questions I should have asked...more, more, more. It was just great to get caught up and we chatted away as if there hadn't been a long gap. Hopefully we'll stay in better touch and another 15 years won't pass.

Sunday was Laura's and my niece's birthday. I called Laura and we chatted for over an hour about friends, movies, and politics. Not too much about politics because it's to depressing. Laura's recently posted a review of The Jane Austen Book Club so we discussed it since I haven't posted a review myself. Laura and I need to figure out a way to have a video chat so we can discuss movies more often. Or I need to do a better job of posting reviews of movies. I used to do this, but haven't kept up lately. Just like it was great talking with Susan, it was great talking with Laura. Also needs to be done more often!

I also talked with my niece Meg on the phone to give her birthday wishes. She told me all about her birthday and the shopping she had done with her gift cards. She's always fun to talk with! My sister-in-law (s-i-l) got on the phone to tell me that my nephew fell off a bike and has a small fracture in his wrist! Poor Dave...he's left handed, so of course he broke his left wrist. He was with my brother at the emergency room when s-i-l was talking with me, so I don't know what type of cast he got. At least his big, organized summer events (Scout camp in Missouri, and local basketball and band camps) are over...the rest of summer was scheduled for play.

**I think other stores should come up with specialized holders in their bathrooms. Let face it, the purse and coat hooks are so yesteryear. Apple stores could have iPhone holders, Blockbuster could have built in screens to preview movies, restaurants could have hand sanitizers (no, every bathroom should have those), beauty salons should have undo buttons, grocery stores should have coupon dispensers, electronic stores should have consumer report postings (yeah, right), etc.

New Design

I thought I'd try a new look. What do you think? This is a template from TypePad, so don't feel like you'll be insulting my feelings if you don't like this look. I'll probably try a few different looks. I'd like to create one of my own, with my own picture in the banner, but that will take more time. TypePad's custom design feature is a bit awkward.

I like this skyline of Chicago, but as usual, the designer made the Standard Oil building shorter than the Hancock building. (I don't think perspective is the complete reason for the height disparity in the image.) Hello people!!!! The Standard Oil building, which isn't called that anymore is the tall white marble building Chicago, is...and always has been...taller than the Hancock building, even though the Hancock added it's antennas.

Another problem with any new template I might use is that I set custom colors each time I added a link to any post...and there isn't an easy way to change that in TypePad. At least the mint green color I've been using lately doesn't clash too badly with the new template.

The Ughs

I decided to rant about all the irritating things of my recent past. I recommend all readers skip this post. It's mainly here for posterity for me to re-read in the future for stupid reasons. I think everyone else should simply pretend it isn't here. I could spend more time on the post and make it a hysterical rant, but that's more energy into the blah of it all...too much time already wasted. So skip on by...don't linger here. You've been warned. I hid it behind the extended entry.

They're Off to NM

Tomorrow morning my parents are traveling to New Mexico for my aunt's funeral services. It's been a rough venture getting this trip put together, including an overflowing kitchen sink tonight (for once my brother went over to help them...not me...yay!) while they were trying to finish packing.

They've decided to take a limo tomorrow instead of me driving them to the airport. I'd actually feel more comfortable taking them myself, but they insist. I'll pick them up Saturday night.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long day for them. The limo comes at 8:00 A.M., then they have a 10:50 flight to Dallas, followed by another flight to Lubbock, TX, and then a two hour drive to eastern New Mexico. They'll reverse the trip Saturday. It's long, but I'm hoping it isn't hard.

Keep them in your thoughts and prayers for an uneventful, smooth, and safe trip. Thanks.

UPDATE: They made it safely, with only a few minor glitches. Thanks for your support. Now the hard part...the service and the return trip.

Updates: Frustration and Help Needed

Updating previous blogs:

• Frustration Update:

I got my car into the shop yesterday and they did finish it in one day...sort of. They were able to fix the fan issue...the resistor was shot. That was an easy repair and not too costly. But...when they first looked at my car, they could see oil dripping, but there was so much grease and oil they couldn't tell where it was coming from. So they cleaned up the area and checked the gasket, screws, filter, etc. Everything looked okay, but once it was all back together, they couldn't find a leak. They drove the car around, left it running, but no dripping oil. This means they either fixed it by cleaning up and tweaking things (which means the Honda dealership that did the last few oil changes made a mess!) or there is a very slow leak higher up near the timing belt. I have the car parked in the garage over a flattened cardboard box and need to check it for signs of leaks. The bad thing is, we don't know for sure about the oil and if it's a slow leak up by the timing belt the labor alone to get to the leak is going to be high. However, since the timing belt on my car has never been replaced I could do the timing belt, water pump and the oil leak in one shot for an over $700 charge. Yippy skippy. I hate to put that into much money into my 12+ year-old car, but I'd equally hate for the timing belt to go bad and cause worse issues. Sigh. Might be time to go car shopping after all.

• Help Needed Update:

Speaking of my car, back in December I told you about it's hood being smashed up by huge chunks of ice coming off the top of an 18-wheeler. The villain truck had the logo I've displayed here. You might remember my rave at a trucking company that was saving itself a bit of money by NOT de-icing their trucks and letting other drivers's insurance companies pay for the damage caused by their gross negligence. Delmer amazingly remembered that logo and left a comment on my blog today identifying the villain company as Crete Carrier Corp. I actually saw one of their trucks myself the day I was driving to Steve C's funeral, but that was such an emotional time that I didn't blog about it and then I forgot about it. So a big thank you to Delmer for reminding me so I can publicly deride Crete Carrier for their #%%$@%$%#$ and unprofessional practices. (Sorry for the #$#%@, it's the only nice thing I could think to say.) I really should write them a letter letting them know exactly what I think of them! I'm sure it's too late to try and get the insurance company their money back, but I should probably notify them also. 

I started this blog this morning, but just couldn't get it finished and final have given up and it's going out in this rough, crude format. Please feel free to send your own hate mail to Crete Carriers; I assure you they deserve it!