"If you look good and dress well, you don't need a purpose in life." - Robert Pante

Seemed like an appropriate pic for tonight's post.

Lots of interesting tidbits today, but what makes your list?

The transit of Venus across the sun isn't on mine. Don't know why, but for me it falls into the category of "I'll see it on the news tonight." I thought about coming up with a box for viewing it, but why? A dot in front of the sun. The number of people who did work to see it for themselves, probably because it won't happen again for another 100+ years, reminds me of the saying, "You can sell anything marked 'Limited to three per customer.'"

The last day of the Queen's Jubilee did make my list. We watched some of today's events live on BBC-USA this morning before Pam left for work. Queen Elizabeth is classy, and shows remarkable health and stamina for someone 86 years old. Observations:

• Who knew Westminster Abbey had a fellowship hall?
• Save for the fashions that lunch scene could have been from 400 years ago. 
• Magnificent horses!
• The three cheers of the (Irish?) regiment, including the synchronized raising of their big furry hats, was VERY cool. 
• We need a monarch. Someone outside of politics who serves the nation as a titular head. Someone who displays a dignity universally absent from today's politicians and performs acts of grace by encouraging, consoling, and embodying what it means to be America. 

Another one that caught my attention was this poignant picture of another very classy lady on the eighth anniversary of her husband's death. 

In the "Tidbits of Shame" category, I wrote here a a week or so ago about exemplary service from O'Reilly's Auto Parts. 

I take it all back. 

I took the Rambler's drums in to have them measured in order to find out if they are worn beyond tolerances and need replacing. At the store north of us they had one guy working the counter while the rest of the employees attended to priorities. Given the line of customers waiting already it was going to be a long time before that lone guy got to me, so I walked out, drums in hand.

From there to the O'Reilly's equidistant south of us. The lethargic employee, also the only one waiting on customers, couldn't find the micrometer used to do the measurement. After a leisurely search one of the guys came out from the back and looked in the same places. Meanwhile the first guy left to wait on another customer. When employee #2 gave up he went back to the stock area to whatever he had been doing and guy #1 acted as if I wasn't there. 

I'm gone. Grrr!

I spent the biggest block of my day working on a writing project with a morning and afternoon session. I started it three or four months ago and it got pushed to the back burner. Because I've got last Sunday's unused sermon & lesson in the bag I've decided to get back to work on this. 

I enjoy writing. It's like talking on paper except you get to go back and fix the stupid stuff. 

Is there a way husbands could just write to our wives?

Additional items from the day...

I took the bike into my favorite shop today and one of their mechanics looked it over, and then took it out to the parking lot to ride around a bit. The good news: he says the bike is in excellent condition and works great. That's nice because I do most of my own work, including adjustments of brakes and derailleurs. The bad news: unless I was shifting and the thing slipped a gear in the process there's no basis for blaming the whole incident on a mechanical failure. 

Sure wish I could remember.

From the bike shop I went to the south side of the city to an auto paint shop I found that would take the quart of Centari body color paint that came with the Rambler and put it in what guys in the car world call "rattle cans." Turns out they only charge $5 per can (most places charge three times that) and I got four cans with half that quart left over. Those four cans will be enough to paint the Rambler's wheels, which are now a mix-and-match set, each wheel badly scuffed and scraped. The factory correct color for the wheels is a green slightly darker than the celery green of the body, but this is not a show car. I just want it looking good, what's called a 20/20 car (looks great from 20 feet at 20 mph). So I'll thoroughly clean, prime and then paint, four coats on each wheel.  

The people there were very helpful, explaining things to this paint newbie so I could make this work. 

And still no transmission fluid on the floor, 24 hours later!