One of those days, and a fire

6/20/12 Wednesday

          You ever have one of those days, where everything falls apart? That was today for us. Cherie called as she drove to work to tell me the noise we have coming from her truck was getting much worse. I had already decided that the truck needed to go to a shop to have the front end looked at but had forgotten all about it. So, with that reminder, I headed into Midland to get her truck worked on. When I got to where she works I looked at the tire and saw that it was so out of line that the rubber had worn all the way to the thread underneath on the outside edge. No way around it, we needed a new tire before anything else. But first I decided to take Cherie out to lunch, even though the budget is tight. We can eat at the Thai house for under $20.00 and seldom eat out. Besides, Cherie was a little stressed out and needed a break.

          Lunch was fantastic as it always is at the Thai House but when we got done and got into my truck it refused to start. This is a problem that has been occurring on occasion with that Chevy diesel, along with it suddenly speeding up too. So I cranked and cranked but suddenly it kind of kicked back. Nuts. Then it stopped cranking and the battery connection went bad, another problem that has come up before. This one I knew how to deal with so tightened the cable connection on one of the two batteries the truck has. It now had a good connection but now the starter decided to not work. It just spun and would not engage the motor.

(Some of the wind carved sand on the farm)

          Wonderful, that meant that both of our vehicles are out of commission and we are stuck in a shopping mall parking lot. I got the phone out and the first call I made was to some friends we have from First Baptist Church. We just needed a ride back to Cherie’s work, where her truck was sitting. It was in dangerous shape but I was confident it would make it to a tire place. Wally, (the friend we called) said he would follow to make sure I made it. We had already spied out a tire place that said they could get to it fairly quick. Come to find out the front end needs major work and the mechanic said he would insist on us replacing the power steering hose that leaked so bad it soaked him when he examined the truck. This I knew about and we have just been pouring power steering fluid in every other day because we did not have the funds to fix it. We have some help now to pay for these badly needed repairs and are grateful for it.

  (You can see on this fire how the wind is blowing it to the north, not at all in the direction of that church that shows right next to the road)

        However my truck is still sitting in a mini mall parking lot, where I must work on it to remove the starter and hopefully be able to repair it. That may be quite an adventure as I must crawl under it while avoiding others as they pull in to park in the spaces next to me. All of this inhibits my ability to get out and work on the 1929 model A Ford as well as mowing lawns and stuff for the asset management company, thus it will cut into the income we so desperately need. I know a starter for my diesel truck will not be cheap either, and I hope that is all it needs.

          In other recent events, there was a nasty fire near the church we used to attend, the same one that kicked us out because of gossip and a jealous pastor. About half a football field length from that church was a bank of what the call tank batteries. These are used to store salt water and crude oil. One of them blew up and of course set all the others on fire. What was strange was how the flames managed to wrap around this church despite how far away it is. The lawn between the church and tank batteries is still green and unburnt. Makes us wonder if this was the hand of God in some way bringing judgment on those who were so anxious to judge and reject us, all the while purposely disobeying the very scriptures they claim to follow.

          I harvested my first watermelon for the year the other day. It was from one of the many renegade plants that came up by themselves from seeds strewn about by wild animals last year. Did not know what kind of melon it was until I cut it open and found it is a yellow meat watermelon.

          In the morning I will drive Cherie to work in her truck. They were only able to replace the tire and can’t get to fixing the bushings and stuff until next Tuesday. So we are down to one vehicle and it is limping along for now. Hope it doesn’t wear the new tire too badly before we can get it fixed. I am wondering if we can somehow tow my truck out of that mall parking lot and perhaps take it to where Cherie works. That is only a few blocks away.

          So the adventure continues. I was up at 3:00 this morning and thus am making this blog post. Suppose I will get out when the sun starts coming up and do some work on the farm and then drive Cherie to her job and start working on fixing my truck. Bye now.