A Week in Review

Hello! How do you feel about A Week in Review? Yes? Ok.

My Hero
It’s good to have a brother who knows how to do things. Last Saturday I was on my way home after my evening with the girls and remembered that I needed butter, so I stopped at the local 7/11. I was pulling into the parking lot when I thought I smelled coolant. When I parked the car I saw smoke pouring out from under the hood. Great. So I popped the hood and saw liquid spraying all over the place, and thought, “That can’t be right.” After buying butter (which I later found to be rancid, thanks for nothing 7/11), I drove home. It was only a couple of blocks, but that’s all it took for the car to overheat. So I parked it in the lot, went inside, cried, tried to figure out how I was going to get the car to the shop, cried, figured I could take the train to work, cried and cursed my life.

I kept thinking, though, that it had to be a simple problem. Obviously coolant was leaking, and I saw the spray, so the leak must be in an open place, probably on the top of all that’s under the hood. I still thought that I’d have to call a tow truck and get it to the shop, but was hoping that the repair would less than the usual $500.

By the next morning I had stopped crying, and was thinking again about what it might take to fix my car, and decided to call Barry and ask him if he would take a look at it. It was Sunday, but luckily it was the Sunday of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication, and they weren’t going to their session until 3:00, so he had time to come over, and Savannah came with him, and it’s always nice to see Savannah. We opened up the hood and stuck our heads under it and gave everything a good look. Then he had me turn the car on, and we looked again. Then he decided that all of the liquid had probably leaked out and that we should add some more. I got jugs of water, and he poured it into the radiator, and then we waited, and looked and waited some more. He got out his tools and adjusted a screw to make sure that there wasn’t air in the line (this is why Barry is good to have around, he knows things about air being in lines), and eventually he saw water coming through a small hose right by the engine. He pulled it off, and there was the hole. The hose was only about 5 inches long, and half an inch in diameter, and the crack was not even a quarter inch long. Strange how such a small thing could cause big problems, and lots of crying.

We ran to Checker auto parts for a new hose, went back to my car, put it in place, and now it runs like a dream. Hooray! And hooray for Barry! The moral of the story – marry a farm boy. They know stuff – like how engines work and replacing hoses. Since most of you are already married, my moral is of no use to you. But, for those who aren’t…you know what to look for.

The Girls
We had a good time Saturday. First there was dinner at Wingers, and then we saw the movie Post Grad – all of which was the girls’ pick. I didn’t have high expectations for Post Grad, but it was good. I liked it, and they did too. I get all gushy when it comes to the girls, all of the kids really. After the movie we were sitting in our chairs for a minute, and I was looking at the three of them, and my heart went all soft, and I got a little teary. They really are beautiful. I don’t know how to put that feeling into words, but I’m sure that you know what I mean. Great, I’m getting teary again right now. People are going to wonder what I’m crying about. Let’s move on.

The Alchemist
I finished Alice in Wonderland, and it was great. Really so much fun, I highly recommend it as a good read. So it was time to pick something else. I was reading The Writer’s Almanac yesterday, and there was a bio on Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian writer. It said this:

"The son of an engineer, he was educated by Jesuits and decided in high school that he wanted to be a writer. When he told his mother this, she said: "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical, reasonable man with a very clear vision of the world. Do you actually know what it means to be a writer?" The teenage Coelho did some research on what sorts of people writers were, and he concluded that a writer "always wears glasses and never combs his hair" and has a "duty and an obligation never to be understood by his own generation." He was determined to become a writer, despite the opposition of his loving parents. Hoping that they could save their son, his parents committed the 17-year-old Coelho to a psychiatric institution."

Can you believe that? An institution. He went to law school for his parents, but when he was about 40 he decided that it was time to do what he’d always wanted to do, and he started writing. His most acclaimed book is called The Alchemist. While reading this I remembered that I have a copy of that book on my shelf. This is because I have an obsessive habit – when I see a book that looks good I buy it because I’m scared to death that if I don’t I’ll forget it and never get to read it. So I buy it, and that means that I’ve got piles of unread books all over my room. I honestly have to make a firm commitment to not buying another one until I’ve read all that I’ve got, but really what are the chances of keeping to that? I work in a bookstore. Of course the day will come when I don’t work in a bookstore, and then I’ll have plenty of reading material saved up. Anyway, I got my copy of The Alchemist off of the shelf and started it last night. The first 15 pages are good. I’ll let you know how the rest turns out.

Well, I think that’s it for now. Thanks, as always, for being my shining stars.
You are loved.