"Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature." - Samuel Butler

Pam's flight from here to Minneapolis was delayed 75 minutes while they changed a tire. They were told before boarding that it would be that long.
I'd love to see how that's done. Do they jack up one side of the plane? I'm assuming they use impact wrenches, and not some monster weight lifter with a lug wrench.
They can change all four tires on a F1 race car in under 3 seconds.

Today while I was doing some chores I watched the movie "Inside Man" on TNT. Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer...
Excellent movie!

Pam's been gone 36 hours. It's time for her to come home.

I drove Louise into my meeting this morning. (See last night's post.) Before going I took the choke completely apart and reassembled it (again) per the manual. Had no trouble with it at all on the way in or back home. I think it's running a little rich so I'm going to move it clockwise one notch, and then maybe a second if that doesn't do the trick. I'm also going to slow the idle down a little. And that crazy brake issue isn't resolved; they still lock up when applied going in reverse. But I'm feeling more confident in her reliability as I work out these bugs. We've talked about selling Pam's xB as soon as the Rambler is ready to be my daily driver, at which point she'd drive the Kia. Her xB has 100,000 miles on it, so I think it's either sell it now and get maximum $$ or drive it 'til it's dead. That is, I think we're at or very near the tipping point for getting a decent sale price.

My dad sent me this. The word awesome was meant for these kinds of things. It's a diesel, which is why no electrical system is needed. Even if you don't know a thing about engines this will amaze you.

A couple of years ago I bought the cheapest watch I could find for wearing to the gym. Some of the workouts are timed, so I needed a stopwatch feature. I wouldn't wear it for any other occasion and if you saw it you'd understand why. Bulky, ugly, and with a hideous velcro band, but it does the trick.
Except I think it's headed for the trash, maybe before bedtime.
I did something that set the alarm for 6:15 p.m. I have no idea what I did, but some combination of depressed buttons activated that alarm and the icon on the face that shows it's turned on. When 6:15 p.m. comes it beeps until I hit a button to silence the thing. So today I spent several minutes pressing buttons, in all manner of sequences and in every combination I could think of, to try and get it SHUT OFF!
All I succeeded in doing: activating the beep that marks every hour on the hour. All 24 of them.
I have no idea how I did that, either.
Yes, the solution would be to remove the battery, put it back in and start all over. Except this watch is so cheap that the band is glued on, making battery removal impossible.
I must have bought it at Walmart.

Yesterday, while driving across Beardsley Ave, I was alongside an Astin Martin Vantage.
He must have been lost.

We like The Incredible Dr. Pol on National Geographic Wild. It follows a vet in a rural American community - can't remember where. He takes care of cattle and horses, but also people's pets. It's on Saturday nights.

It's Saturday night and my head is dialed into tomorrow's sermon and lesson. I've been over both several times but I know from experience that "there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip."

"have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something." - Jackie Mason

When Pam's gone I can stay up as late as I want. Which might mean 8 p.m. tonight. I'm really sleepy! We left for the airport at about 4:15 a.m. and I was back to the house about 5:45. Going back to bed didn't seem like an option so I reworked Sunday's sermon (it still isn't right) and then pruned the plants and shrubs around the patio. One thing led to another and at 7:30 p.m. I'm wondering how much longer I can keep my eyes open.

I took Louise up the hill on an errand at lunchtime and got stuck again. Same thing: it runs fine, I go into the store, and when I come out it dies as soon as I give it any throttle. Pull the air cleaner and the choke is completely closed, and shouldn't be. It took me 30 minutes to make the 5 minute drive and most of that was spent pulled over to the shoulder.
Why does the choke stick closed only after the car has been shut off but not long enough to cool down completely?

I could get it to come open if I forced it by hand, and in the process I could feel the linkage "snap" past some kind of resistance. Hmmmm.

I think I have it figured out. When I finally got home I parked Louise in the garage and then came out after about the same amount of time. Messed with the choke mechanism and had an "aha" moment. I think that when I rebuilt the carb I put the pin on the choke cover on the wrong side of the choke spring tab.
Yeah, I know. That means nothing to you but it would explain everything. Basically the choke was acting the opposite of what it should. Instead of the spring pushing it open when it was hot the spring was pushing it closed.
Do I dare drive it into town tomorrow morning for my meeting? If it isn't fixed I'll spend all day trying to get home.
Check back with me tomorrow night.

I don't understand the rioting mobs in the Middle East. This can't really be about a low budget home made movie, can it?
Is this religious fundamentalism carried to an absurd extreme or is it rooted in something within Arab culture? As it spreads across the region those seem to be the two common threads. Today the violence spread to British and Swiss embassies, which suggests a hatred of things western.
Sect. of State Hillary Clinton said today that the people of the Arab Spring didn't trade the "tyranny of a dictator for the tyranny of a mob." But it seems they did.
In the world of political correctness it's very bad form to suggest a structural problem with one of the world's most populous religions or a specific racial/cultural group. But history, including these most recent events, gives one pause.

I had a coffee conversation with one of the recent new-comers to Pathway. OK, I had a smoothie and they had some fancy kind of tea thing. I like these opportunities to get to know people better than we have time for on a Sunday morning...when my head is totally into my preaching/teaching.
But now it's time for chocolate cake out of the pan and BED.

"It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up." - W. Sommerset Maugham

The fed has (another) plan to save the economy. After Quantitative Easing 1.0 didn't work, and Quantitative Easing 2.0 failed, the Fed today rolled out Quantitative Easing 3.0, bigger and better than ever.
The Fed is going to spend up to $40 Billion per month to buy mortgages from U.S. banks. By giving those banks cash in exchange for the mortgages they currently hold the banks will suddenly be so flush with money that they'll loan to businesses so they can build factories and hire workers.
(Why didn't they think of this great idea at the beginning?)
Where does the Fed get $40 Billion every month for the foreseeable future? Easy! They print it.
I don't understand money stuff but I think the rule of thumb says that the more of something there is the less valuable it is. So what happens to the dollar if 40 billion of them are dumped into the economy every month? And how long does this continue before the Fed comes up with QE 4.0?
Yeah, I don't get it.
I also don't understand why businesses that are too skittish to make large capital outlays will suddenly feel so emboldened about the future that they'll go in to borrow those fresh new dollars.

I've waved the white flag, given up the fight, surrendered unconditionally.
When we bought this house the front "yard" was plain gravel with two overgrown succulents. Ugly. That first year I took all of that out, put in landscape quality gravel (it is, after all, the desert), created some mounds, and put in trees and plants. The two trees and three of the eight plants have done well. OK, they're still alive. The others have hovered near death and/or been replaced at least once.

I'm done. The rabbits have won.
The eat anything they can reach. The standard Sun City solution is to put a chicken wire fence around each Lantana, 'cause that's beautiful. Why dress the place up with landscape plants only to surround them with chicken wire? Might as well put a couch on the front porch.
The plants the rabbits don't eat (and therefore don't need chicken wire) they burrow under for their nests, killing the root system. The drip system keeps the desert ground moist and ideal for raising the next generation of little monsters.
So I pulled out the chicken wire and removed the plants that have already been killed. The others, the plants with a few tiny buds of green left on otherwise brown stems, I'm surrendering. Posted a DNR order. When they're finally gone I'll rake gravel over the top and say a blessing for the dearly departed.

Headed into town for a meeting right after dinner. Pam and I will get home about the same time. Tomorrow morning she leaves for Michigan.
Heavy sigh.

"I think the world is run by 'C' students." - Al McGuire

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.

"Hobos are people who move around looking for work, tramps are people who move around but don't look for work, and bums are people who don't move and don't work. I've been all three. - Seasick Steve

I just discovered Seasick Steve. He was a guest on the episode of BBC's "Top Gear" that I watched last night as the driver in their "reasonably priced car." An American, he's a huge star in England, so why have I never heard of him here?
Here's a sample of his music. Hard to put in a category, but it's something of a cross between old style R&R, boogie woogie, and roots. He makes all his own instruments. On Top Gear he played a short bit on a guitar made from two hubcaps from a Morris Minor. (Yes, the tune was in a minor key.) Really likable guy who doesn't take himself seriously and is just havin' fun.
OK, here's another one, a little different, in case that first one was a little too hard for you.
The Wikipedia article on him says some big name musicians have played backup on his albums, so he's got respect from his peers.
Me too. I'm thinkin' the next album on my iPod will be some Seasick Steve.

"The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" never fit so well as when applied to the medical profession. I was told to have blood work done in time for my appointment with the cardiologist next Tuesday. For insurance purposes the order had to come from my primary care physician, so I called his office, explained the situation, picked up the paperwork, then had the blood drawn yesterday morning. After breakfast.
When I stopped at the lab's front desk they asked, "Are you fasting?" No.
AFTER he draws the blood the phlebotomist says, "You're fasting, right?" Uhm, no.
Then he proceeds to tell me I was supposed to be fasting for this test.
Nowhere on the paperwork did it say fasting. I checked - repeatedly.

Today I had an echocardiogram at the cardiologist's office, also in prep for next week's appointment, and I asked if that blood work should have been done fasting. "Oh yeah, it's no good unless you're fasting. You'll need to have it redone."

So I call my primary care and learn our insurance won't pay for another one.
At her suggestion I called the lab. It's already been sent in and processed.
Alrighty, then. My cardiologist is just going to have to make do with a blood draw that comes after two eggs over medium, link sausages (2), hash browns, raison toast, and a whole lot of black coffee.
(I was hungry.)

I have questions. Why didn't the paperwork say "fasting" on there someplace? Why does the lab look at the order, ask me if I'm fasting, and then give no response when I tell them I'm not? Why does the tech ask AFTER he draws the blood? And then say nothing knowing I should have been?

Now that I have a new battery in Louise I realize how weak the old one was. That thing cranks!

The sticking point in the Chicago teacher's strike is teacher evaluations. The administration wants to gradually increase student performance to count for 25% of the total teacher assessment, growing to 40% over the next five years. (I'm curious what factors count for the remaining percentage.) The teacher's union rejects that plan saying they can't be held responsible for factors like poverty and crime that affect students' performance on standardized tests.

On NPR last week I heard a panel discussion on the growing charter school movement in the U.S. that included a representative of the National Education Association, the national union for teachers. She ripped on charter schools, saying there aren't sufficient safeguards to insure each child gets a quality education or oversight from state and federal administrations.

Some charter schools are very good, some are undoubtedly bad. But their growing number, and the long waiting lists at the charter schools with strong reputations for student achievement wouldn't happen if the public educational system was working like it should. Parents know which public schools and which districts do a good job and which don't. The demand for quality education has created a supply (charter, private and home schooling) that isn't going away as long as teachers' unions act like the one in Chicago.
Why can't they see that??

"The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it." - Dudley Moore

The day was going smoothly.
I enjoyed the monthly b'fast with Josh W., a former student who now pastors a church in Glendale. It's nice to talk shop, but also any other topic that comes up. The Sunday fog hadn't completely lifted (we don't usually meet on Mondays) but it was still good.

I spent the rest of the morning doing nothing of significance. I read some of my current Grisham novel, putzed a little out in the garage on both cars, worked on some music for church, and watched yesterday's F1 race in Monza that I'd recorded. Hamilton won easily.

Shortly after lunch I backed Louise out of the garage and went to the gym. I've lost a lot of ground on the fitness front because of the summer's heart issues and the road back is going to be slow and challenging. But I'm determined to regain the level I had before the trouble started and today I began in earnest. Worked hard for 45 minutes. Came out of the gym drenched in sweat and exhausted, to discover...
Louise wouldn't start. Dead battery.

I wasn't completely surprised. A couple of times over the last few months I've had to put the charger on it but I figured that was because it was just sitting while I worked on the engine. Now I know those times were omens of what happened this afternoon.
It only took 15 minutes on hold with AAA before a real person answered the phone and another hour for the guy in the van to show up. But the temp was just 100 today so it wasn't all that bad. It could have been hot.

I'll get a new battery tomorrow morning.

Vice President Biden is out on the campaign trail, today in the battle ground state of Ohio.
The two guys look impressed.

I won my fantasy football matchup, 99 to 51. My opponent for the weekend was Steve, and I almost felt bad about putting a beat-down on him. Almost.

The people are the best part. I especially enjoy getting to know the newer people. After they've come for two or three weeks we meet for coffee and conversation. (Sooner than that and it seems too much like stalking.) Doing that again this week.
Yep, I really like my job.

"Oh, I don't blame Congress. If I had $600 billion at my disposal, I'd be irresponsible, too." - Lichty and Wagner

This first part was written Saturday evening
I took Louise on some errands this morning. It was close to 90 F but the real problem was the humidity, which was about 60% at that point.
Today I'm thankful for cars with wind wings turned all the way open.
(I can hear some of you saying, "What's a wind wing?" They disappeared about the same time as horn rings.)

The brakes still aren't right. They lock up in reverse but release as soon as I go forward. Can't figure out why. And after the car had cooled off I changed the choke setting. We'll see if it's any better next time I drive her. Other than that she seems solid.
Then my brain stopped working; no point continuing.

So here it is, Sunday evening. My brain is always AWOL Sunday evenings but I'll take a stab at this anyway. (That's a disclaimer covering everything that follows.)

Something's going on at Pathway. I hesitate to talk about it lest doing so take me too close to the sin of pride and/or presumption. But the last month or two have been remarkable. More of the same this morning.

We've started watching "Rick Steve's Europe" on PBS. Sure makes me want to travel.
I'm still working on my Italian using flash cards. Someday....

I took Louise out this afternoon for a brief drive. I think I now have the choke adjusted to its sweet spot and the brakes seem to be settling in. I think just one wheel is locking up now, and only when I hit the brakes hard in reverse. The more I drive her the more I like her.

I am SO conflicted about this year's presidential race.
But I'm also beginning to think the media has an untoward influence on the process. The noise has been about super-PACs, and they are scary, to be sure. But the media's influence - what they choose to report and how they state it - seems at least equal in effect.
It's not one-sided. You can find media outlets at both ends of the political spectrum. It seems to me that at one end they're louder, and at the other the preferred style is a more subtle, sophisticated method.
Maybe it makes no difference, and both types of outlets are preaching to their respective choirs. Their respective viewers/listeners think those who consume the other end are deluded and foolish.
And maybe they're both right.