Pam works her normal 12-hour shift tomorrow and leaves early Friday morning for ten days in Michigan to help her mom, who is moving out of a rehab facility back into her condo. Because she lives alone (my mother-in-law) she's going to need help getting settled, and Pam will do a bunch of cooking to leave behind.
So we went out for dinner tonight, and took Louise, Pam's first ride in the ol' gal. Everything went fine until it was time to come home. She died (the Rambler) shortly after we pulled out on Deer Valley Rd. Wouldn't start back up. I pulled the air cleaner to find the choke stuck in the closed position. What??? I messed with it, going back and forth between the carb and trying to start it, and after a half dozen attempts at getting the choke into the open position it finally started. I pulled back into the shopping center parking lot and drove around until things cleared up.
I don't know what the problem was. I'll change the fuel filter - again; it got dirty quickly because of sediment in the tank. And I'll reset the choke - again.
But it's pretty embarrassing when you try to impress your girlfriend with a dinner date in your hot ride and end up stuck on the side of the road.
As she sat by his hospital bed holding his hand his eyes filled with tears.
He said, "When I got fired, you were there with me. When my business failed, you were there. When I got shot you stayed beside me. When we lost our house you stayed by me. When my health started failing you were still by my side....
"You know what, Martha?"
"What, dear?" she said, her heart filling with warmth.
"I'm beginning to think you're bad luck."
Islam needs to hire a very good PR agency. I'll accept that (issues of truth aside) the vast majority of Muslims are good, law abiding citizens of whatever country they live in. But their religion has been hijacked by extremists within their ranks.
Try this test: name one positive thing Islam is doing somewhere. Clinics, schools, orphanages...
I'm not saying it's not happening (though I wonder). It's just that every time Islam or Muslims are in the news it's for an act of terrorism, or oppression, or cruelty. At some point the majority has to admit it's understandable for the rest of the world to take a negative view of their religion.
Some have argued that the Koran teaches that kind of brutality for all us infidels, that the extremists are the ones following the teachings of Muhammed, and the moderates are slackers. I don't know enough about the Koran to say one way or the other. But either way the moderates have a real PR problem. My recommendation - if any of them are reading this - is that they get in touch with a disgraced politician (should be easy to find) or the president of an oil conglomerate (start with the B's in the directory) and get a referral for a firm that specializes in image makeovers. Then pony up whatever it takes to get this problem turned around. It's gonna take a bundle of cash but follow this trend line out another few years and Islam won't be welcome anywhere outside the Middle East.
2 comments:
I thought you were going to say that you made Pam get out and push.
Ha! Sue, I thought the same thing.
Reminds me of the time Tom watched Shellie change the tire on their van in a grocery store parking lot.
Stacey
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