2022 Life Logs, Day 38: Tires
Date: Monday, February 7, 2022
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Intermittent Rain; High Temp 45, Low Temp 38 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Yep. Its warming up and that means rain for a couple of days. Then it looks like a string of warmer days until Valentine’s Day when the daytime high will be below freezing. I guess we’ll have to get our warmth on that special day by thinking of all the people we love. But, then, who cares about the weather? Obviously, I do.
Yesterday I managed to totally do in the tire that picked up a nail last week. Yesterday when I turned into the parking area for the local barbeque place, Wicked and Wood, I turned too soon and hit the curb rather hard. I didn’t think anything about it until I was almost home and realized the car was definitely listing to the right front. By the time I got into my driveway to check the problem, my front passenger side tire was once again totally flat. I figured the jolt of going over the curb must have jogged loose the fix for last week’s flat. I found out this morning, however, that the tire actually had a cut in the sidewall. A new one has been ordered and will be here Wednesday or Thursday. For some reason, I bought tire insurance when I bought the four new tires in September. I had never done that before, but I sure am glad I did. The new tire will only cost me $18. Good deal.
I spent most of my morning at Sullivan Tire waiting for a diagnosis on the tire and my afternoon walking with Shadow, finishing my fourth jigsaw puzzle of 2022, and enjoying an impromptu afternoon visit by friend Christina Brodie. Christina has been my first reader and technical editor for the Voyage of Windbird, but I had not let her know that I was writing again. Her husband Warren had a cross country skiing fall early in January and has been in a full leg cast since. Plus, they had pipes freeze in a room over their garage that resulted in water damage on the three floors of their house a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t think she needed to be bothered with editing. But when she found out I was writing again, she was anxious to read once again. Warren has another month of immobility except when with a physical therapist and repairs on the house can’t begin quite yet. So, she has time. I so appreciate her invaluable input and am so glad to have her back on board.
My fourth Dowdle puzzle of 2022 was The Statue of Liberty. The puzzles I have been working on are fairly easy, 500-piece puzzles. They are not as challenging as the 1,000 piece puzzles my daughter Heather works on, but they are fun to work and I learn new things with each puzzle. I have done two focused on Italy, Cinque Terre and Florence, one focused on Norway’s Olstinden Peak, and now one focused on a historical rendition of the Statue of Liberty as seen from Battery Park. The puzzle information sheet informed me that Lady Liberty weighs 225 tons or 450,000 pounds and wears a shoe size 879. Liberty Island was originally named Bedloe’s Island and Frederic-Auguste Bartoldi was the artist who designed her. He is included in the scene, as well as other important New Yorkers like William Maxwell Evarts, chairman for the American Committee for the statue, and Joseph Pulitzer, the newspaper magnet who raised crucial funds for the pedestal’s construction. Today I started on another Dowdle that I bought at Costco when I was there last. It is a scene from Prague. I really enjoy taking breaks from my writing to work on the puzzles for a bit.
On Monday afternoons, I take Ollie and Jonah to their music lessons and then drop Ollie off at his Cub Scout meeting place. Tomorrow is a school Early Release Day, so I will pick Ollie up at 12:30. Jonah and Sam get out of school earlier, so Ollie and I will stop to pick them up at home and then come to my house for an afternoon of Olympic Games watching. Tomorrow morning I have a one-on-one computer tutoring session at the Senior Center and then an online book club meeting before picking up the boys. Looks like it will be another day when I don’t get any writing done. Hopefully Wednesday.
