February

24^th. . . . Jiner reminded me that tax forms are available at the Library. I decided to stop by there today and check it out. Awoke to an inch of snow on the ground. . The clouds had thinned out by 9:30 and the sun was out in all of its glory. . . . . .  My haircut was due today and that is up the hill a way so I phoned Bernita before leaving the house to make sure I could get in the driveway. She assured me all was fine so away I went. On the way I stopped at the library and found they were open only noon to 7pm today. I planned on stopping there on the way home from bowling . . . . . .The drive up the hill was uneventful and I even made it as far as her front door before I lost control in the two inches of snow and slid toward a pickup that was close by. Luckily I was able to get my rear fender beyond the truck far enough to not slide into it. After visiting with Bernita for a few minutes and getting my haircut I drove back to the house for a quick ‘brunch’ before going bowling. The one inch of snow that had been on the driveway and hour before had melted. I felt OK about getting to Longview bowling because it is at a lower elevation and the highways would be clear because the traffic would have smashed the snow into water.. . . I was very pleased with my results today, 158-147-157. That may not be the best bowling I have done during league play but it has to be really close. . . The team had a ‘conference’ after and I put away half a beer before deciding to get out of town. The snow was starting to make a serious presence and I knew it was only going to get worse the closer I got to home. I got to headquarters road when I noticed the red ‘ Check Engine’ light had come on. The temperature gage had reached the shut down point so I pulled on to the off ramp and turned off the key. I noticed during the process that there was a very large cloud of steam coming out of the tailpipe. The last time that happened to me was about 1997 when my Nissan blew a head gasket. I had my cell phone with me and called the tow truck. I had the car hauled to R&R Motors up the hill near where I had just been earlier getting a hair cut. It was about 5pm so they checked me in and told me they would phone me tomorrow when they find the problem. The owner drove me home and I got in the house seven minutes before O'Reilly came on…….. Muammar phoned me from Libya this evening, wanted some advice. I mentioned that Brent is getting too expensive and he should get out before someone takes him out. He hung up on me. Some friend he is. I have to say that Mubarak never treated me with that much disrespect.