Saturday, March 31, 2012. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Today was a really mixed bag with good, bad, and ugly.  Things started out ok, I mean, I woke up and I was NOT looking up at grass roots, and at my age, that is a plus.  After breakfast, I took Linda over to Desert Ridge Resort to meet up with her sister and cousin for a day of shopping.  Unfortunately on the way back, the bad struck big time.  Driving along and heard a thump, then the power steering quit, the volt meter started dropping and the engine temp began climbing.  I quickly concluded the serpentine belt had broken, and after pulling off into a restaurant parking lot, raising the hood, and looking, I confirmed my suspicion.  Fortunately I had my Garmin with me, and plugged in "AutoZone".  Even more fortunate, the closest AZ was........right across the street!  Lucky me!  I hoofed it across the road, and bought a new belt, plus a wrench to move the tensioner pulley.  A closer investigation revealed that in addition to the broken belt, the tension pulley was gone, as a result of a bad bearing.  Hoofed it back to AZ, and got a replacement pulley, and after about a half hour of wrenching, the new pulley and belt were installed and I was on my way.

I finished my drive home and then gave the puppies a bath.  As usual when we are traveling they have a tendency to pick up a lot of dirt and the normally white coats have a grey cast to them.  After washing the dirt down the drain in the shower, the pups look much better.

After that it was off to sister Nian's place for a dinner get together with some members of my extended family, including my favorite aunt and uncle who are also celebrating their 68th wedding anniversary.  We got to see cousins, and uncles and aunts and others, some of whom I have not seen in many, many years.  A good time was had by all and many thanks to my sister for hosting.

Now for the ugly.  While at the party, we had the TV on and watched the Ohio State, Kansas NCAA b'ball game.  Sad to say, the Buckeyes came up a couple points short and will be going home instead of to the final to play Kentucky.  Congratulations to Coach Thad and the team for a great season.