The Sun Rises in the SOUTH!

To finish the saga of getting to Caliente, I got to Discount Tire and the flat tire was not reparable, was covered by warranty AND they have the size I've been running in stock, a slightly better tire than what I've been running. So $27 later for mounting and balancing, and I'm now in Caliente.

However, as to the sunrise, as easy a town the border town I spent last night in should be to get around (streets are mostly either numbers or letters), I still have no idea as to where the motel is that I stayed in is or which direction anything I visited is in that town. My solar powered internal compass did not serve me well.

Never on Sunday

So, for those that haven't heard, Grandma died Saturday. My wife flew home to be with her siblings; I on the other hand decided to drive. The plan was simple: take off after church, and 11 hours later arrive. As David & Sarah were heading back to school, and it's "along the way", we drove in a caravan.

The easy to drive northern route was closed, so we took the alternate route through the mountains. What should have been the first two hours of the drive, took 4 hours (and that's the second hour of the drive took 3 hours): heavy traffic, snowpacked roads (but open, unlike the northern route), and just ugly conditions. We can tell by looking at the oncoming traffic (which was also backed up - only more so) that turning around was not an option.

We had just cleared the worst of the "bad roads", and I was able to get up to speed (65 mph) when I noticed the car handling a little funny... then that tell tale sound from the rear of the car... I had a flat tire.

Changing a tire in a Honda Insight is a major production. You have to first open the hatchback, clear out all that's stored there; open up the "secret" compartment, empty the compartment (about 1.2 cu ft of emergency supplies & junk), remove the compartment liner, then you can pull out the tools needed to change the tire and of course, the spare tire.... which was flat, too.

Coincidentally, Sarah's car has a tire bolt pattern that matched mine, and was gracious enough to lend me her spare tire. Not wanting to drive very far on a donut, we stopped at every major town in the next 150 miles to find a truck stop that could fix a flat tire.

We finally figured out that my spare tire would work just fine if we put some air in it, so doing so, we put my spare on, and gave her back her spare. I decided to camp until I could get my tire fixed. Tire stores open in the morning, and in case the tire can't be repaired, I checked the Discount Tire web site to see how much the replacement tire would cost. A replacement tire is $94 plus the extras... and they can have one available in two or three days.

Here's to hoping it can be plugged. For now, 10 hours after leaving home, I'm now 4 hours into an 11 hour drive.

I think I will not be traveling on Sunday again without an exceptionally good excuse.

Mileage: 11/12:Mutual 8.5, Sun 11/16 8.5, Wed 11/19: Mutual 8.5; Thurs 11/20: all over the ward delivering thanksgiving baskets and making calls, and I forgot to track mileage; 11/23 8.5, Sat 11/29 & Sun 11/30: printing programs, directories & church: 56 mi. MTD: 326 miles

Menopause... the Musical

I made the mistake of calling a local radio station to win tickets without paying close attention to what I was winning tickets for. So, I win and have a ready made date to see Menopause, The Musical. The worst part of winning was that the tickets were for Saturday, and my date was in Orlando. That means that one of the kids has to accompany Dad..... and the victim is .... Scooter.

Scooter was definitely the youngest in the audience; I, being male, was definitely in a minority. The show lacked a plot; parodies of songs from the 60's to the 80's performed by 4 middle age singer / actresses describing various symptoms of menopause, for the main part in good taste. The scary part was the audience... a lot of hooting and hollering from middle aged women. I hope that Scooter isn't scarred for life.

American Food

So, I took Samara to the Temple for part of our Stake Temple Day. I had some family file names that needed some work, after my visit with Grandma, and Samara was available (no school), and willing to help.

On the way home, we stopped for breakfast at my favorite local Greek hamburger stand - you know the kind. They have gyros, hamburgers topped with pastrami, shakes, onion rings, and baklava. It's a mom and pop kind of operation and has been around forever. A good example is Greek Souvlaki in Salt Lake, which still has the best "yeero" (which I miss) and now the second generation has opened branch outlets throughout the valley.

Anyway, they're still serving breakfast, so I decide to try the breakfast burrito. Gyro meat, scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, in a tortilla bigger than a Chipotle burrito, and green salsa. Sounds crazy. Tastes great. Still, it was too big... I've got breakfast for tomorrow in the fridge from the leftovers.

It's not Greek; it's not Mexican; must be American food.
Mileage: Temple X 2; 149 mi

Remember

So I was at an Arctic Circle and couldn't resist taking a picture of the "reward yourself" ad. It was a quick trip to SLC to see mom, an interesting trip at that. Just as an update, grandma is steadily going down hill. She can no longer use her left hand anymore, and needs someone to feed her. Her speech is deteriorating; it's difficult to understand much of what she says.

However, when the topic came to genealogy (she brought it up), she wanted to know if the Temple work was done for ... and started naming ancestors, whose work wasn't done. For my part, I had to get out the computer to find said ancestors, but she didn't, so she gets the reward.

Find a Wheel... and it goes round and round

And when is a jack not a jack? I was on my way to join Samara at the oral surgeon's office to get the evaluation before her wisdom teeth come out. Then there was this noise. I pulled off to the side of the freeway. Not only flat, but a blow out. And on top of that, the jack was broken. I had to call the office and have the boss come and bail me out. A Lexus jack to fix a Festiva flat. That's changing a tire in style.

The First Week of the Month - Breathe

The first week of the month is always the busiest: reports at work for end of month (plus this month, special reports for our actuary and special reports for the state dept of labor); extra meetings at church (plus this week, there's been a funeral - fortunately my only involvement was to attend), and a few extra self inflicted meetings as we try to make sure we're ready for the Stake Temple Day, which is next week - the second busiest week of the month.

Fester's made two trips to the repair shop - axles and bushings are good things to have, although it is somewhat exciting to have the car pull to the left when you accelerate and to the right when you decelerate, and today it'll be a third - the alignment is off by just a hair and the car consistently pulls to the left, so today will be a third (not that I have to sit in the shop and wait, but it's just one more thing to do)... or maybe that will have to wait until next week after Samara's wisdom tooth appointment - - - just so that the car's done in time to make it to the appointment.

And I'm still trying to get to SLC sometime in October; flights are looking good for this Friday & Saturday (will get me there late morning, and back in time for Stake Conference on Saturday).

Oh, by the way, Carebear - Toni says "hi" - she hasn't kept touch since Laurels - it was her grandmother's funeral. Four of grandma's kids are living or have lived in our ward; the fifth is just outside of our ward boundaries.

Sun:Viewing 12.4 mi, Mon:Funeral 36 mi(I skipped crew meeting), Tues: Interviews 8.5 mi; Wed Interviews/MIA/city utility dept 13.4mi; Tonight Training: 8.5 mi. Total for the week/MTD: 87 mi