Last week, I had gotten the front end-alignment that was needed as well as an oil change. You know that when you get the oil changed, for a day or so, you smell the fresh oil. Must be the small amount spilled on the engine block. Anyway, I did not give it a second thought as I drove away.
Anyway, it was a little strange that I still smelled the oil smell a few days later. Thursday evening, i had to run to Meadville. Only bad thing about that was that we had a storm. Roads stayed pretty clear, but snow was coming down hard at times. Once I got off the road, and slowed to city street speeds, the oil smell increased. Did not give it much thought. Afterwards, the same thing happened on the return trip. Just as I got back into Erie around 9:30, and was driving back down at 25 MPH, the smell got so bad, I had to open my car windows.
Friday afternoon, I go out to the car, and I find a puddle of fluid under my car. I gasped and wondered if it was a gas line. It was very near dark, but I had to check it out. popped the hood, and went out to release the catch to fully open the hood, and as I slid my fingers under the hood, immediately my fingers were soaked. When I removed them, I found them covered in oil. Not Good. This was just after 5 PM. I tried to call General Tire where I had the service done, but was after closing. I had found that I had no oil cap on the motor, and whole engine cavity was covered with oil, and it was oil and not gas under my car.
So, very first thing on Saturday morning, I drove down to General Tire, and went to front desk. It was only 8:30 AM and already there were a number of people in there. I went and told them what I had found and said WE have a problem. The listened to me, and said that they will take care of it. They took my keys and I settled in to wait. Even though I did not have an appointment, They took my car right in. I knew that they are only open half days on Saturdays, so is why I went in early so that they could fit me in someplace. They took it right in out of turn, and by 9 AM the lead mechanic came to me and said it was all fixed. He had said that they had found my cap atop the engine in back, and they checked my oil levels and topped me off and cleaned out the motor area, and I was ready to go. As I was getting up to go, another mechanic came up to me, and said he was the one who worked on my car earlier in the week, and that he was sorry that this happened and he shook my hand. Wow, I did not expect that! I would have been ok with them replacing the oil cap with a new one, and refilling oil to where it was supposed to be. That was a step up and beyond to have the mechanic come to me to Apologize. KUDOS for the step up and beyond.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Another Day In the SHREKmobile
The saga continues. I had hoped that almost all car problems had been cured. Alas, I was mistaken. After the last big hit with the timing chain, I had figured I had some room to breathe. I acknowledge, the car is old. I have 189,000 miles on it, and I expect some hits. After all the work done on the front, i knew I had one damaged tore, but, like was like a musical. Even with all the idiosyncrasies of the car, It was feeling near normal. I still have some troubles with the acceleration. I have learned to adjust. I had a bit of a vibration in the front end steering. With the one tire, I had a little vibration in the wheel. At different speeds, the vibration changed from minor, to bad, and then to almost nothing. Even with the vibration, the car never pulled to one side of the road or the other. I could hold it steady with just one finger on the wheel. My worst was at the frequency near the 55MPH zone. That is where the car would keep me awake when driving late at night. Thankfully, when I would drive very late at night, it would be at highway speeds, and over the 55 shimmy. You just get used to it.
Anyway, Life was like a musical, a G-rated Disney, Chitty-chitty-bang-bang. The car just kept banging along. As all the changes happen over time, you grow to live with the demeanor of the vehicle. When my sister Cathie came for a visit in October, life was like Chuck Berry. " Ridin' along in my automobile.....Cruisin' and playin' the radio.....With no particular place to go. " That is what it was like. Ever so subtly, it changes into " Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop" that is where the vibration comes in. But, being the always driver, you get into the groove.
It has been a month now since my sister was here, and I had the opportunity on Tuesday 11/08/2011, to approach the car from the front, and I noticed that there appeared to be a ring of mud on the inside edges of both front tires. That is weird, if I went thru a mud puddle, I should have had mud on both the inside and outsides of the tires. Upon closer inspection, It was not mud, but it was the steel belts showing thru. Not good! I called my tire place about getting two new tires for the front. This was at about 3:30 PM, and he said bring it in and he can fix me up with a new set. Once car was up on rack, they brought in bad news. Back tires had the same thing.
I kind of knew there was a problem with the one front, but, with after replacing both side ball joints at the same time, as well as the sway bar in front, with all of that, I just assumed that they would have re-aligned the front end. I guess not. If the front is out, it can affect the rear wheels as well, so, instead of two, I now have 4 new tires. Align job could not be done that late in the day, They close at 5, and it was already after 4:30. So, to continue on, I now also have an alignment set up for early Monday morning.
It was now after 5 PM and I needed gasoline. On the drive there, I happened to be going across E 12th St, and once you get by East Ave, those of you who know Erie, know that you can open the vehicle up to about 45 MPH. I felt like I was "Secret Agent Man" and my car was in stealth mode. No shimmy, no shake, and no vibration in the wheel. It has been so long, I felt like I was sneaking up on some prey silently! WOW, how I have missed that! Even though it feels good now, I have learned my lesson, and it still will get its alignment this time.
Anyway, Life was like a musical, a G-rated Disney, Chitty-chitty-bang-bang. The car just kept banging along. As all the changes happen over time, you grow to live with the demeanor of the vehicle. When my sister Cathie came for a visit in October, life was like Chuck Berry. " Ridin' along in my automobile.....Cruisin' and playin' the radio.....With no particular place to go. " That is what it was like. Ever so subtly, it changes into " Shimmy Shimmy Coco Pop" that is where the vibration comes in. But, being the always driver, you get into the groove.
It has been a month now since my sister was here, and I had the opportunity on Tuesday 11/08/2011, to approach the car from the front, and I noticed that there appeared to be a ring of mud on the inside edges of both front tires. That is weird, if I went thru a mud puddle, I should have had mud on both the inside and outsides of the tires. Upon closer inspection, It was not mud, but it was the steel belts showing thru. Not good! I called my tire place about getting two new tires for the front. This was at about 3:30 PM, and he said bring it in and he can fix me up with a new set. Once car was up on rack, they brought in bad news. Back tires had the same thing.
I kind of knew there was a problem with the one front, but, with after replacing both side ball joints at the same time, as well as the sway bar in front, with all of that, I just assumed that they would have re-aligned the front end. I guess not. If the front is out, it can affect the rear wheels as well, so, instead of two, I now have 4 new tires. Align job could not be done that late in the day, They close at 5, and it was already after 4:30. So, to continue on, I now also have an alignment set up for early Monday morning.
It was now after 5 PM and I needed gasoline. On the drive there, I happened to be going across E 12th St, and once you get by East Ave, those of you who know Erie, know that you can open the vehicle up to about 45 MPH. I felt like I was "Secret Agent Man" and my car was in stealth mode. No shimmy, no shake, and no vibration in the wheel. It has been so long, I felt like I was sneaking up on some prey silently! WOW, how I have missed that! Even though it feels good now, I have learned my lesson, and it still will get its alignment this time.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Whirlwind Weekend / The Road Not Taken
And here, on Monday at the start of our adventure on Monday, we passed some grape fields. As you can see, grapes are ripe and just about ready to be picked. Click on any of the photos to make them larger and easier to see.My sister and I would stop anywhere along the road and take photos of almost anything that caught our attention along the way. Here are some wild flowers along the road.
We stopped once again when we came to Barcelona NY. We espied this lighthouse and stopped to take some photos.
By the way, I forgot to mention that our destination was to be Niagara Falls. I know, I let the cat out of the bag on what to expect in some of the further photos to come below.
This lighthouse is in Dunkirk NY. It is just outside of Gratiot Park. I did not post many photos from there, but we did spend a lot of time in that park before going to the lighthouse.This is a view from Gratiot Park, in Dunkirk NY. This shows the beach stairway to the beach. That is Lake Erie in the background. This park has many parking lots as well as picnic areas as well as play grounds and bike paths. We spent a few hours here at this park. Let me just say that we started today around 10 AM, and we never got to the Falls until around 3.
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| View across Niagara River back towards the States |
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| Horse Drawn Carriage Ride |
This is from along the Niagara River that joins Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. Along this scenic drive, we came across this bird. It is a loon! This is the first one I could say that I have ever seen in person. It kind of looks like a submarine periscope here. A bit later, we came across more filling a tree, but we were unable to stop to photograph them. Am sorry that I could not get that photo. In the tree, we saw at least 8 pairs of the loons.
Now is a close up of the Horseshoe Falls. As you can see, I was quite close to the edge. Alas, no rainbow that day, because it did turn out very overcast in the afternoon.
Finally, we departed the Falls around 6 PM, and this photo was taken on the Skyline drive in Buffalo just near sunset. This was last view of the day on the road. We did stop for dinner, but this is a good way to end day one.
Next we had traveled about an hour inland, and we arrived at Pymatuning Resivoir. This is the place where the ducks walk on fishes backs to get at the bread that is being fed to all. The video will show this!
Finally, arrival back in Cleveland area to drop off my sister, so that she can continue the rest of her vacation. On this trip, we decided not to take the fastest road to any destination. We chose a bit slower route, and one that may at time offer more views that just what you can see from super highways. All thru these two days, I had a song in my head. I could hear Chuck Berry singing, " Riding along in my automobile.........With No particular place to go.............................." and the other thought was a poem that I will share from the Poet Robert Frost.
1. The Road Not Taken |
Friday, August 19, 2011
I Am Allergic To Leprechaun Gold / Thank You Monro
This is a harder Blog to write than most. As this one was happening, it has metamorphosed many times. In the Grand Scheme of things, this will ultimately be about a great Customer Service Kudos that I had rec'd. I will start to where i was going with the title of this one.
As most of you know, I have been unemployed now for almost two years. The few jobs I had been offered, were one I had not even applied for. They were contacting me saying how well my resume matched with what they were looking for. We were a perfect match! One of the ones I was referring to here, was from a company that wanted me to go to all the businesses around Erie, and get them to sign up for the company I would represent, where the business accepts credit cards. Use their service instead of the banks and they would get a smaller service charge. Sounds sweet right? Wrong! Just on a whim, I was getting my car serviced, and I knew the counter people, and I asked them about this set up. They all laughed at me and said yeah, Right, we get at least 6 of those offers each week. Hmm, Does not sound like it would be a profitable deal for me either.
Another one who had contacted me, was a company that also said that my resume was exactly what they were looking for. I was to go to companies such as the one I had left, and get them to compare health insurance plans from the the big boys and compare to what company XYZ could do for them whom I represented. I responded to this one and asked how could i be such a perfect match when i do not have any sort of license to sell any sort of insurance as they are claiming? I did get a response. Not what I had expected, but they related that they would help me find the proper schooling to become an agent. I had pointed out in my resume that I had no such license.
Well, I had gotten off track here, so I will start to bring it around. My unemployment ran out, and I have been doing what I can to keep going. It has come to the point in the last few months that i had turned in most of my 401 k money to keep paying the bills. Last two months, I had dipped further into my horde of gold coins. Back in the day, when I had a great job, I had a good savings account, and I bought a few gold coins. It started out as Christmas gifts for my niece. She was into Panda Bears, and I found once in a coin shop that China had 24k gold coins with Panda on their faces. This was back in the day when Gold was in the $ 370./oz. range. I had purchased some 10th of an oz, and sometimes maybe a 1/4 oz sized coin for her each Christmas. I started to like them as well, and got a few for my self. And before you say, did I name them; "My Precious," no, I did not. I kept them in a safety deposit box. I had not been to that box in like 15 years.
Well, with my current economic situation, I had dipped into my horde. Last month, I sold two items. One was a 10 gram Credit Suisse 24k gold bar.
The next item also sold last month to pay bills was my gold necklace that I had owned for more than 20 years. For just these two items, I had rec'd $ 682.52 WOW, I was in heaven. I was flush with money once again. This was when gold was at $ 1560/oz. After paying bills, I still had some money. That is when the curse set in. Within a few days, that is when the wheel broke off my car. Refer to older post. I had given it no further thought about it.
Comes this month, on the 15th, to be exact, I traded in a 1/10 oz Panda coin, and a 20 Franc French Gold coin. Gold had continued to go up. For these two coins, the Panda is smaller than a dime, and the franc coins is just wider than a nickle. BTW: The franc coin was only 18k. These brought me $ 485. Again, I paid bills and was ahead a little.
Well, once again, within a few days, The car broke down. I was on my way for routine maintenance on the car, and I was driving thru Wesleyville in the outskirts of Erie to go to Monro muffler Shop to get oil change, and tire balance. Right in the middle of town, the engine shuts off. I am moving, but dash lights come on, and steering becomes hard. Thankfully, I did not panic, and was able to steer to side of road. I called Monro, and told them what had happened and I would be late. they understood, and were sorry that they did not have a towing service. So, for the second time in two months, a wrecker was called for a tow. Here is an interesting fact. Vehicles with all-wheel drive should not be lifted and towed. Could ruin the drive trane. They should be loaded onto a flatbed. The curse of all of this was, I was only 4/10ths of a mile from Monro when I broke down. From the side of the road while I was awaiting the tow truck, I could see the sign for Monro's.
Alas, flatbed towers are not as readily available as the normal wreckers. So, I had to wait just over an hour and 15 minutes. Great Job for McMillan Towing. They were the ones contacted thru AAA for the towing job, and they did call to let me know where they were, and that they were on the way. Hooked me up and gave me a ride to Monro. driver was very friendly and a great help. While I had to time to sit and think while waiting to be picked up is when I had come to think of the Gold as Cursed. It must be Leprechaun Gold, and when it came out into the sunlight the leprechaun could see where his stolen gold was at and could curse the owner. Both times I sold it, The car needed expensive repairs.
Finally at Monro's and over an hour late, they still made time for my car. it had to manually pushed into the work bay, and i never saw any complaints from the workers. They started in on mine while working around the ones that were scheduled in already at their appointed times. Good thing a have a learned habit that seems to run in my family, I almost always have a book with me when I know I may have some butt time sitting. After quite a few chapters, the manager asked me to come out into the bays where my car was. That is not a good sign. I got there, and I saw that my valve cover had been removed from the top of the motor block. They said that there were almost positive what the problem was from the moment I called and said what had happened and why I was going to be late for my scheduled appointment. It was the Timing Belt. It definitely was broke, and that it is a major expense. Chuck ( the manager ) said that he would highly recommend that he also replace the water pump, because when like the timing belt goes, almost always the water pump goes like within a month. As long as they need to do almost a 60% rebuild on the motor to do the timing belt, it is far easier to do the water pump at the same time. I agreed and he gave me a quote.
I intake a big breath at the estimate. He said was a ball park and would, get a better one once we went back inside the office. Original estimate was for about $ 1700. OUCH. He found the part prices, and labor, and fiddled here and there, and gave me a revised estimate of just over $ 1500. He said that since is doing the water pump at the same time he was able to do me a bit better. Still it is quite high, but did cut off 200 bucks. Thank God for friends and Credit Cards. I asked how long this all may take, and was told that it is normally a two whole day job for all that we had there. Since it was already about 5 Pm I figured I would not get it back until Saturday sometime. he asked how I was going to get home, I had said I originally was going to wait on it, but I guess I will have to call some one. he told me to just sit and wait, and as soon as he could free up one of his guys, they would give me a ride home.
As we were chatting there, I was kidding around saying that I guess I will be having quite a few TV dinners for the next few days. You always would go grocery shopping before you car goes in for repair for a few days and since I expected to be driving home today, I will scrounge for the next few days. The driver dropped me off at home and I circled the wagons to wait out the repairs.
This all started on Wednesday. I am trying to break from my father. I had the original appointment set for 2 PM, and I was going to be there at 1:30. If any of you knew my father, he was perpetually late for appointments. I guess I am cursed to be my fathers son. Even with the best intentions, and leaving early, I still managed to be over an hour late. Once there was a free spot from customers, I was offered a ride home and I got home just after 6 PM.
Come Thursday afternoon, I hear a loud knocking downstairs at the front door to Aunt Mary's. That is unusual because almost all the delivery people just ring her doorbell. I was sitting in the computer room and I looked out because a knock is so unusual. I see parked out front a blue Honda CR-V That looks familiar. I look back at the tire cover. It is dry rotted on top. WAIT A MINUTE! That is my car. How could that be? It is only 2:30 in the afternoon on Thursday, the day after I dropped my car off. It was fixed! WOW. I did not expect this to happen until late Friday afternoon/evening or Saturday morning. They came to pick me up. WOW
As the final bill was being prepared, Chuck, the manager said that he does not like having to leave people without their cars and have to eat TV dinners, so he, himself, came in two hours early before the shop was to open, and he started on my car because he could work without interruptions. And, after he had done his work, another tech had stepped in and done his part, and they got it fixed as quickly as they could. On a job that is scheduled to take nearly two full days, they had the job completed in less than 24 hours. JOB WELL DONE MONRO. I Thank The company, the manager, Chuck Simpson, and the techs, R Miller, and D Churchill
They really live up to their Logo .
One last entry here, my Blog would never be complete without a photo of the work being done. here is the top of my engine with valve cover removed. the first photo has a black belt shown at bottom of the photo. That is the timing belt. and the second photo is showing how tightly the engine fits into the compartment and the spaces they had to work in.
As most of you know, I have been unemployed now for almost two years. The few jobs I had been offered, were one I had not even applied for. They were contacting me saying how well my resume matched with what they were looking for. We were a perfect match! One of the ones I was referring to here, was from a company that wanted me to go to all the businesses around Erie, and get them to sign up for the company I would represent, where the business accepts credit cards. Use their service instead of the banks and they would get a smaller service charge. Sounds sweet right? Wrong! Just on a whim, I was getting my car serviced, and I knew the counter people, and I asked them about this set up. They all laughed at me and said yeah, Right, we get at least 6 of those offers each week. Hmm, Does not sound like it would be a profitable deal for me either.
Another one who had contacted me, was a company that also said that my resume was exactly what they were looking for. I was to go to companies such as the one I had left, and get them to compare health insurance plans from the the big boys and compare to what company XYZ could do for them whom I represented. I responded to this one and asked how could i be such a perfect match when i do not have any sort of license to sell any sort of insurance as they are claiming? I did get a response. Not what I had expected, but they related that they would help me find the proper schooling to become an agent. I had pointed out in my resume that I had no such license.
Well, I had gotten off track here, so I will start to bring it around. My unemployment ran out, and I have been doing what I can to keep going. It has come to the point in the last few months that i had turned in most of my 401 k money to keep paying the bills. Last two months, I had dipped further into my horde of gold coins. Back in the day, when I had a great job, I had a good savings account, and I bought a few gold coins. It started out as Christmas gifts for my niece. She was into Panda Bears, and I found once in a coin shop that China had 24k gold coins with Panda on their faces. This was back in the day when Gold was in the $ 370./oz. range. I had purchased some 10th of an oz, and sometimes maybe a 1/4 oz sized coin for her each Christmas. I started to like them as well, and got a few for my self. And before you say, did I name them; "My Precious," no, I did not. I kept them in a safety deposit box. I had not been to that box in like 15 years.
Well, with my current economic situation, I had dipped into my horde. Last month, I sold two items. One was a 10 gram Credit Suisse 24k gold bar.
The next item also sold last month to pay bills was my gold necklace that I had owned for more than 20 years. For just these two items, I had rec'd $ 682.52 WOW, I was in heaven. I was flush with money once again. This was when gold was at $ 1560/oz. After paying bills, I still had some money. That is when the curse set in. Within a few days, that is when the wheel broke off my car. Refer to older post. I had given it no further thought about it.
Comes this month, on the 15th, to be exact, I traded in a 1/10 oz Panda coin, and a 20 Franc French Gold coin. Gold had continued to go up. For these two coins, the Panda is smaller than a dime, and the franc coins is just wider than a nickle. BTW: The franc coin was only 18k. These brought me $ 485. Again, I paid bills and was ahead a little.
Well, once again, within a few days, The car broke down. I was on my way for routine maintenance on the car, and I was driving thru Wesleyville in the outskirts of Erie to go to Monro muffler Shop to get oil change, and tire balance. Right in the middle of town, the engine shuts off. I am moving, but dash lights come on, and steering becomes hard. Thankfully, I did not panic, and was able to steer to side of road. I called Monro, and told them what had happened and I would be late. they understood, and were sorry that they did not have a towing service. So, for the second time in two months, a wrecker was called for a tow. Here is an interesting fact. Vehicles with all-wheel drive should not be lifted and towed. Could ruin the drive trane. They should be loaded onto a flatbed. The curse of all of this was, I was only 4/10ths of a mile from Monro when I broke down. From the side of the road while I was awaiting the tow truck, I could see the sign for Monro's.
Alas, flatbed towers are not as readily available as the normal wreckers. So, I had to wait just over an hour and 15 minutes. Great Job for McMillan Towing. They were the ones contacted thru AAA for the towing job, and they did call to let me know where they were, and that they were on the way. Hooked me up and gave me a ride to Monro. driver was very friendly and a great help. While I had to time to sit and think while waiting to be picked up is when I had come to think of the Gold as Cursed. It must be Leprechaun Gold, and when it came out into the sunlight the leprechaun could see where his stolen gold was at and could curse the owner. Both times I sold it, The car needed expensive repairs.
Finally at Monro's and over an hour late, they still made time for my car. it had to manually pushed into the work bay, and i never saw any complaints from the workers. They started in on mine while working around the ones that were scheduled in already at their appointed times. Good thing a have a learned habit that seems to run in my family, I almost always have a book with me when I know I may have some butt time sitting. After quite a few chapters, the manager asked me to come out into the bays where my car was. That is not a good sign. I got there, and I saw that my valve cover had been removed from the top of the motor block. They said that there were almost positive what the problem was from the moment I called and said what had happened and why I was going to be late for my scheduled appointment. It was the Timing Belt. It definitely was broke, and that it is a major expense. Chuck ( the manager ) said that he would highly recommend that he also replace the water pump, because when like the timing belt goes, almost always the water pump goes like within a month. As long as they need to do almost a 60% rebuild on the motor to do the timing belt, it is far easier to do the water pump at the same time. I agreed and he gave me a quote.
I intake a big breath at the estimate. He said was a ball park and would, get a better one once we went back inside the office. Original estimate was for about $ 1700. OUCH. He found the part prices, and labor, and fiddled here and there, and gave me a revised estimate of just over $ 1500. He said that since is doing the water pump at the same time he was able to do me a bit better. Still it is quite high, but did cut off 200 bucks. Thank God for friends and Credit Cards. I asked how long this all may take, and was told that it is normally a two whole day job for all that we had there. Since it was already about 5 Pm I figured I would not get it back until Saturday sometime. he asked how I was going to get home, I had said I originally was going to wait on it, but I guess I will have to call some one. he told me to just sit and wait, and as soon as he could free up one of his guys, they would give me a ride home.
As we were chatting there, I was kidding around saying that I guess I will be having quite a few TV dinners for the next few days. You always would go grocery shopping before you car goes in for repair for a few days and since I expected to be driving home today, I will scrounge for the next few days. The driver dropped me off at home and I circled the wagons to wait out the repairs.
This all started on Wednesday. I am trying to break from my father. I had the original appointment set for 2 PM, and I was going to be there at 1:30. If any of you knew my father, he was perpetually late for appointments. I guess I am cursed to be my fathers son. Even with the best intentions, and leaving early, I still managed to be over an hour late. Once there was a free spot from customers, I was offered a ride home and I got home just after 6 PM.
Come Thursday afternoon, I hear a loud knocking downstairs at the front door to Aunt Mary's. That is unusual because almost all the delivery people just ring her doorbell. I was sitting in the computer room and I looked out because a knock is so unusual. I see parked out front a blue Honda CR-V That looks familiar. I look back at the tire cover. It is dry rotted on top. WAIT A MINUTE! That is my car. How could that be? It is only 2:30 in the afternoon on Thursday, the day after I dropped my car off. It was fixed! WOW. I did not expect this to happen until late Friday afternoon/evening or Saturday morning. They came to pick me up. WOW
As the final bill was being prepared, Chuck, the manager said that he does not like having to leave people without their cars and have to eat TV dinners, so he, himself, came in two hours early before the shop was to open, and he started on my car because he could work without interruptions. And, after he had done his work, another tech had stepped in and done his part, and they got it fixed as quickly as they could. On a job that is scheduled to take nearly two full days, they had the job completed in less than 24 hours. JOB WELL DONE MONRO. I Thank The company, the manager, Chuck Simpson, and the techs, R Miller, and D Churchill
They really live up to their Logo .
One last entry here, my Blog would never be complete without a photo of the work being done. here is the top of my engine with valve cover removed. the first photo has a black belt shown at bottom of the photo. That is the timing belt. and the second photo is showing how tightly the engine fits into the compartment and the spaces they had to work in.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Picture Worth 1000 Words
How Apropos
How fitting it was this morning whereas the Gospel this morning so reflected what happened this morning. Just before 8 AM this morning, we had a torrential downpour of Biblical proportions. When driving down to church this morning for Mass, it was like the parting of the Red Seas. The rain had come down so hard and fast in such a short span of time, the whole road was covered from curb to curb.
The last street, from 10th St. to 9th was so flooded, water was over the curbs. As some of you may remember, At Holy Family, from the street curb there is a sidewalk, and then another curb at the grass. The water was up and over that curb as well. I normally park on Fulton St, and we go up the side steps to the church. Driving down the street, and as I mentioned, there were no markers as to where the street was, I kind of forded the waters to drive down. The water was coming up higher than the windshield on the sides of the car and I was only driving like 5 MPH.
I decided there was no use walking on water to get to church, so I pulled around front of the school, and pulled into the lot to get out of most of the water. We kinda waded to the steps of the church and climbed in. Comes to be, that the Gospel today was where Jesus walked on the water. I have to admit, I would have been like Peter, and had my doubts as I was walking on/in the waters this morning. We made it safe and sound, albeit a tad wet. Church was very warm today, but we made it, and after Mass and prayers, the waters receded. Well, maybe not a miracle, but, water finally had time to flow away. It is threatening again to rain, but hopefully not as bad as the first on.
The last street, from 10th St. to 9th was so flooded, water was over the curbs. As some of you may remember, At Holy Family, from the street curb there is a sidewalk, and then another curb at the grass. The water was up and over that curb as well. I normally park on Fulton St, and we go up the side steps to the church. Driving down the street, and as I mentioned, there were no markers as to where the street was, I kind of forded the waters to drive down. The water was coming up higher than the windshield on the sides of the car and I was only driving like 5 MPH.
I decided there was no use walking on water to get to church, so I pulled around front of the school, and pulled into the lot to get out of most of the water. We kinda waded to the steps of the church and climbed in. Comes to be, that the Gospel today was where Jesus walked on the water. I have to admit, I would have been like Peter, and had my doubts as I was walking on/in the waters this morning. We made it safe and sound, albeit a tad wet. Church was very warm today, but we made it, and after Mass and prayers, the waters receded. Well, maybe not a miracle, but, water finally had time to flow away. It is threatening again to rain, but hopefully not as bad as the first on.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Reprieve From The Heat ?
Today, was Friday, and we have been in the 90's all week. Thursday night into Friday morning was the pinnacle of hot and humid. At 2 AM Friday morning, it was still 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Anyway, this will be a short one. I was working today, and brother Phil was dues to come to visit in late afternoon, so we agreed to meet up for dinner.
Just after 5 PM, I rec'd a text asking me if I was going to arrive at dinner before the rain came. It really made me sit up and take notice of the sky. A weather front was actualy moving in. Yipee! As I was driving, I stuck my phone camera out the window and snapped off a few shots of the approaching front. We had been promised thunderstorms all week, but none had ever appeared. Could this be the one? Well, with only one viewed lightning bolt, did not really live up to expectation. Temperatures actually did drop, but only by about 11 degrees. Hey, don't get me wrong, it is a start, but i was hoping for a much greater change in temp. We did get a little rain, but did not last very long.
Just after 5 PM, I rec'd a text asking me if I was going to arrive at dinner before the rain came. It really made me sit up and take notice of the sky. A weather front was actualy moving in. Yipee! As I was driving, I stuck my phone camera out the window and snapped off a few shots of the approaching front. We had been promised thunderstorms all week, but none had ever appeared. Could this be the one? Well, with only one viewed lightning bolt, did not really live up to expectation. Temperatures actually did drop, but only by about 11 degrees. Hey, don't get me wrong, it is a start, but i was hoping for a much greater change in temp. We did get a little rain, but did not last very long.
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