Had To Get My Car Worked On

I've been leaking antifreeze for over a month. Nothing terrible but still it's been going on.

I had to take a long trip out of town, so I stocked up on antifreeze and had it along. I probably used most of a gallon, putting it in as it leaked out. Which wasn't that bad, except it was getting on the engine and smelling slightly bad.

I got it to the car fix it place today. And the guy says it's a bad water pump. So it's getting repaired. Should be done tomorrow.

When all this first started, the light for low coolant came on a few times. And I thought it must be a bad sensor or something, because why would my coolant be low? As it turned out, in this one case, the car knew what it was talking about. So it's being fixed! Almost there!

Time Never Forgets When You Die

Maybe if you were a guy in ancient Egypt time forgot when you died. But these days, time remembers.

I have a copy of a newspaper from 1923, from some dinky town in Missouri. On the front page they have the death notice of some folks. There's one guy ... his death notice straddles the fold, and you can barely make out the line of type there.

But I thought I had it anyway. And I was able to prove I was right ... because time never forgets when you die.

I typed the guy's name in Google and his town and state. Up popped a site that has people's death certificates, images of them. And they happened to have that guy's town and place, the whole thing.

Then right below it was his wife's death certificate, with her father's name, filling in the blank (at least proving what the broken type said), what her last name had been.

Be careful of the circumstances of your death. Don't do anything shameful between now and then. So you can die a clean death. Because ... time never forgets when you die! And how.

Wind Chill

It was supposed to be warmer today -- and the temperature did get up there, in the 20s. But the big problem was the wind chill. Even though it was warmer technically, it still felt drastically cold.

I was out at the edge of town, where the snow blows freer, and the countryside has that whole wasteland look going. It seemed like a terrible day to be out. I wasn't wearing gloves and had to carry out some groceries. My poor hands started getting instantly cold before I got to the car.

I looked over at the fields and saw the snow in constant turmoil and thought how fast a person would freeze if he started across there, and especially when you got out of sight of civilization. That would simply be it. It wouldn't be like in Doctor Zhivago, where he's walking across snowy fields and somehow survives. You don't survive that kind of thing.

Fortunately I didn't need to put this theory to the test. Because I got in my car, got it going, and headed home. I have survived yet another day. Another day that I can say, with some assurance, that I didn't freeze to death!

My Dog's Matchless Socks

Because it's so cold out, minus 4 degrees right now, I decided to put some baby socks we have on my dog. We've done it before, past years. In fact these are the same ones. I even used them on her this morning.

She minces about like she can't get used to them. But once outside I think she sees the benefits of having them on. If she doesn't, and it's terribly cold, she gets to the place where her feet are so cold she can barely stand. So I'm busy half the time carrying her. I don't mind, of course, but I also want her to get her business done. And she doesn't exercise common sense when it comes to going to the bathroom, because she does so much sniffing that her feet get too cold and she's incapable of going.

Enter the baby socks! With the little Velcro fasteners. They're tough getting on her, because she doesn't help a bit. She's snarling her teeth. Her feet and legs are limp. She doesn't help a bit.

Once on, though, I know they make a difference. Like tonight. She was able to walk and sniff to her heart's content. Then she still had plenty of warmth left to actually get her business done.

But they're matchless because two are orange and two are green or light blue. But tonight there was one of each color on the front feet and one of each color on the back. Meaning we're darned lucky no other dog saw the fashion mistake!

The professional dog booties you can get, she doesn't like. We have a pair and she won't budge while wearing them. Plus they're harder than heck to get on. Maybe we got a size too small.

Rudy Giuliani Doesn't Remember 9/11

"We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we've had one under Obama."

This is Rudy, who goes to bed muttering "9/11" and wakes up with "9/11" on his lips.

Could something be wrong with his mind? I mean something worse than was already wrong with it?

What's Your Bra Color?

I saw the women on Facebook today were telling what color their bras were. Just by saying a color, like "Beige" or "Red."

I only saw a few. I don't actually remember seeing a "White." Isn't that the commonest color?

I saw a "Blue," which would be the one closest to home here.

Singin' In The Rain

I'm busy watching the film "Singin' In The Rain," for the first time, if you can believe that. I've led a very sheltered life, I guess.

I'd seen the title song and scene a few times but none of the rest of the movie. So it was a real discovery to start watching it, the discovery being how excellent it is. I've had a smile on my face most of the way through because it's so delightful.

There's one part I don't like that much, which is the idea that the filmmaker would make a film with all the weird sound stuff going on. You wouldn't be able to tell me he wouldn't notice that before it was in the theater. Come on. But it's just part of the plot, I'm guessing, to point out Ms. Lamont's shortcomings in the voice/diction department, and that talkie technology had a few kinks to work out.

I don't know how it ends. But I love it so far!

I'm Loving Random Music

I got a collection of MP3s today at Amazon, which I hadn't heard of till I saw it today. It's called "1% For The Planet - The Music (Vol. 1)." I've "heard" every track at least once. I say "heard" because a lot of it was real low volume while I was working.

It had 41 tracks, and a lot of them are by people I've never heard of. But playing it on my iTunes player while I do other things, it's very enjoyable as a background. The songs are interesting and artistic and there's some catchy tunes.

I only heard one that I hated the sound of but I can't remember which one it is. It's toward the end.

What the whole "1% For The Planet" thing is, I checked out the website for about 6 seconds. It appears to be an environmental cause, to benefit the Earth.

The thing about me listening to this is, it's random. Which I like. Because I really don't know what to pick when it comes to music. There's so many thousands of choices I'm just stuck. So I stick with the old familiars, the famous. But if I'm given a random assortment, which I wouldn't have bought track by track, I can play it and actually enjoy it. So it's a conundrum: I'm missing out on a lot of music that I would enjoy, no doubt, but I just don't know where it is!

There's a ton of talent out there, that's for sure. Plus me in the shower.

Please Be Seated

The ushers will lead you in. But wait until there is a pause in the action. OK, now the ushers will seat you. Please be seated. Thank you for your patience.

Football Game With Choppy Picture

What is it with the ABC football games? I'm seeing a lot of choppiness in the picture, almost like I'm seeing every other frame of a film rather than a live football game.

It's not every game. I watched parts of a couple other games and they were normal. But the Rose Bowl -- like another game I saw a couple weeks ago -- has this choppy production. It's very distracting and troubling to my eye.

It's a good game. But if I were prone to migraines, I'd have one by now!