Is it really morning?

The sun is reflecting brightly on the river this a.m. and while it sounds and looks windy, according to the dancing palms, the water is remarkably still. No white caps, like we had yesterday. But, after I trundled out to the kitchen to get a soda, I saw the clock on the stove. What? 7:15??? Why am I up already?? Evidently I must be done sleeping! No wonder I only trundled out to the kitchen instead of skipping!

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So, how did you like the photos I posted? The ones posted to Facebook elicited responses and comments but none from this blog thus far. More were posted to FB simply because it is easier to do so. It was a busy start to the morning on Monday, which did not include an airport run. Judy called me after she got back home again to give me a report, said Pastor Deutschlander was a VERY nice man. I guess they covered a myriad of topics in their hour and a half drive to Keystone Heights so I am glad it worked out the way it did. She had Pastor autograph my book for me, "The Theology of the Cross". He wanted her to attend the session and hear him speak but she was not dressed for attending, only for driving. Judy got into a disagreement with her Garmin about which way to go, which really made me laugh. I can imagine the voice in the Garmin just sighing and saying, "All right, you win..."!

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I made my way down Kingsley Avenue toward the Aamco Transmission shop, fearing my trany would quit part way there. No need to fear, all went well. I got the car delivered and had a nice chat with the man running the shop, as I waited for Jen R. to pick me up. Another couple came in and the man sort of clunked his coffee cup on the counter, exclaiming he was NOT a happy camper. Oh, oh! Now I felt better about the whole thing.....He was complaining that their car, which had been in this shop for service Saturday, leaked transmission fluid all over their driveway, and they demanded it be fixed. The lady I had spoken with Saturday when making the appointment, Diane, was not there yet. When I was getting into Jen's car, Diane came walking up so I called to her and said I was a bit nervous now after hearing what I had. She assured me all would be well, she would take good care of me, etc. Okay then.

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Tony, the man to whom I had turned in my car, called me later on to give me a status update, saying their machinery and such found no problems. Huh, what do you know about that? He asked me more questions such as the frequency of the problem and so on. The guys were taking it on a test drive to see if it would act up and then they put it back on the machine again. Later, he called again, knowing I was apprehensive about getting a huge bill for a new transmission. No problems, they found nothing, but he did ask if the fluid had been changed when the tires were put on. Nope, only the oil was changed a month ago, which is good to know because Tony said my fluid is considered 'lifetime'. Like my tires??? Whose lifetime?

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About two or so, I called them back again to check the status, wanting my car back. Tony answered and he said, sadly, "Well, we took the transmission out..." and I exclaimed, "WHAT????" Then he laughed and said no, they had not taken it out, he just wanted to make me laugh, and he said, "See? It worked!", and I told him, "Yeah, but now I have to go change my pants!" He was sending my car back with a technician who I would then drive back to the shop. Louis came to get me and of course, the car behaved perfectly. Louis also assured me, saying the car would not leave me stranded, I would get a warning light on my dashboard and it would go into Safe Mode...Okay, sure, good. He also said my car was too young to have needed new tires already (I agree) or to have the transmission mess up. Using the cruise control has no adverse affect on the system, either. I was so glad that he was my driver because I could ask the horse's mouth all the questions I had, and trust his answers. There was no charge at all from the Aamco people since the diagnostics is free. By the way, the problem with the guy's car early in the day----the leak was not part of the work performed on Saturday on their collector car Mustang. The man apologized profusely, but privately, while his complaint was public. Always the way...

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Judy had mentioned that morning that if I wanted to have dinner I should call her so I did. After I offered to be her driver, she called back to say she had errands to run so would meet me at Koko's. Oh well, I tried! She did allow me to buy her meal in thanks for all the driving of me she has done including the airport on Tuesday morning. I had also brought her a stick of Chermak summer sausage which she went ga-ga over. Since I cannot bring her a perch sandwich, she was glad to have the hometown sausage!

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Since I was homebound most of the day, I got much accomplished including work on the newsletter for church and other communications. I brought up my mail which did not bring a check but did provide a giant stack of paper to be dealt with. Ugh! I used the information from the Hospice speaker at Ladies' Aid last Thursday in the newsletter, good advice for how to interact with a very ill friend or family member. Suggestions such as 'hold my hand', 'bring my favorite meal in a disposable container', 'cry with me', 'laugh with me', etc. Some of the things seem so very obvious to me but I guess some are just not that comfortable in situations.

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Speaking of friends, Judy J. and I have had some in depth conversations regarding this topic of late, with Judy telling me how glad her kids are that she has so many people she can call 'friends'. Her family is all in Michigan so then the friends step in and fill the empty spots. Linda J. and I had such a laugh on Sunday night about this same topic. I was reading Facebook and saw a posting of Linda's where I was just about to comment, when the phone rang. It was Linda!!!! My fingers were poised to type and she called me! We talked about the value of our friends and our friendships, etc., which make us truly wealthy. Better than jewels, better than gold, better than silver the friends in our fold!