I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here today.

Okay, no special reason. I am back to work full time though it is still bothersome after 4 hours but you have do what you have to do. In other news I had a tire blowout. Right rear to be specific. I was traveling on a local street. There was no great drama as I was only going 15 or 20 mph. I heard a loud pop and on the little screen on top of the odometer it read "Low preasure!" with an image of a tire. Of course it didn't tell me which tire. The steering was fine and the direction of sound told me it was the right rear tire. Since I was only a minute away from my friends house I continued and pulled into his driveway. I put on the skinny doughnut spare and continued on with my evening. I had never heard of the brand of tire that was on my car, Nexen. It is always recomended that you have the same brand tire all the way around. Long story short it was very difficult  to find. So I did something I don't like to do. I went back to the dealership where I bought the car. I have never had a good experience with dealerships when it comes to repairs. More expense and lousy service. But I figured, though the car I bought was used, the tires were standard equipment on this car when it was new. Well anyway they didn't have those tires in stock. What a surprise, but they could order one for me and have it by Monday,my day off. The flat happened on Thursday so I would have to drive on that skinny doughnut for three days. Not a reassuring thought. 
I get a message on my phone from the dealership. All it said was it was concerning my car. I had told the lady at the dealership that I would be home by 5:30 and she said she would be there until 6. I called her at 5:30 but she wasn't there. I call her back on Saturday morning as I had a late shift that day. She said that the tire would be there on Monday and would I like to make an appointment? Well Yeah! So I make the appointment which I wanted to be as early as possible. She offers 8:15 in the morning to which I say fine. I get home from work on Saturday to another message. What's the message? She says it's concerning my car car. Well pardon the expression,  NO SHIT SHERLOCK! I didn't think you were calling to find out how my celebrity toenail collection was coming along! Since the dealership was closed when I got home I would have to wait until Monday to find out the latest wrinkle in my odyssey to find one Nexen tire. I didn't have a good feeling about this. Aside from driving to work I didn't want to use my car with that skinny little tire. Flash forward to Monday morning. I'm in the bathroom getting ready to go to my appointment when the phone rings. Guess who? The lady from the dealership. She tells me there is a problem. The truck delivering the tire caught fire. Yeah sure and the dog ate my homework. I told her to just forget it. My biggest complaint I told her, was that her messages told me nothing just that her call said it was concerning my car. She left me hanging all weekend. 
My next plan of action was to go to a local warehouse store who I had been to previously but they didn't carry that tire. I decided to buy two tires, Michelin's, so at least I would have matching tires on the front and on the back. I had to spend much more then I had planned to, but again you have to do what you have to do. Guess what? They sold out on my tire size over the weekend. But their store in a nearby town, about 10 miles away, had them. I get the directions and go there. They had the tires but it would be a 90 minute wait. After 4 days, what's 90 minutes? I buy the tires and settle in with a book. I told them I wanted the new tires on the front as they do the majority of the work, such as steering, braking and they bearing the weight of the engine. 90 minutes turned into 4 hours. I was seething but I never said anything. Finally the car is done. They told me I should come back in 24 hours or after 25 miles to have the lug nuts re-torqued. That was a new one on me me and besides they had already torqued my nuts, if you know what I mean, by having me sit there for 4 hours. I drive home. I pull into the driveway and realise that I had to put a circular plastic disc back on the wheel. It covers the lug nuts. I had the thrown it in the trunk when I changed the tire on Thursday night. As I bent down to the rear drivers side tire what do I see? The brand new tire on the back instead of the front. I know I should have checked before I left the facility but at that point I just wanted to go home.  Besides I didn't think the instructions to put the two new tires on the front of the car was all that hard to comprehend. Apparently I was wrong. Now I have to go back next Monday to switch the tires. Instead of spending $95.00 on one new tire, plus all the little extra charges they weasel you with, I ended up spending $474.00. Hey eating isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Well this post has worn me out recounting my sordid tale. Time for supper...oh yeah I'll do that next month. 
I'm outta here.                                                                                                                                   

Beautiful Sunday for a limp around the grounds.

Yes the leg is getting better. I am on my second and final week of limited duty at work. It's back to full time next week and a full paycheck as well. Short term disability helps but it's only 60% of my pay so monetarily it's been a bit tight this month. Sunday was a beautiful day though warm. Not like the heat wave that has plagued most of the country though. It topped out at 89 with low humidity. I just had to get out. One day about a week ago I was surfing the web looking for some place to go for a day trip. I found this place called the Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich Ma. on Cape Cod. I never knew the place existed. Apart from working a restricted work schedule (4 hours a day) for the last two weeks I have been pretty much house bound. I needed to get out. Sure I went to a ball game last week and being at Fenway Park is neat (Did I say neat again? It must be the insidious creeping threat of middle class bozo-ism.) getting there, getting a drink, and getting home again are not that neat. Being crammed in a subway car with some guys nether regions practically in face is not my idea of a good time. And though the park is only about six miles away driving there is an aggravation all it 's own. On top of it the walk from the station to the park and back did put a strain on my leg. Too much too soon.

Still it was time to get out. From the website this place, The Heritage Museum, looked beautiful. It was. Meticulously maintained grounds, an auto museum and a Norman Rockwell exhibit, which unfortunately didn't allow picture taking. The downside to all this, it was a Sunday. It was a beautiful day and lots of other people will go to the Cape. Driving down wasn't bad. It's about an hour away. The museum was only two exits after the bridge. Cape Cod is essentially an island because there is a canal that cuts through the entire upper Cape. There are two bridges spanning the canal. Cape Cod is a beautiful place but it's very crowded during the summer and the roads down there are not built to handle all those cars. Upon leaving we took 40 minutes to go a half mile to get to the bridge. The rest of the drive to go 5 miles north of Boston took 60 minutes. Then of course, on the beaches, because of the seal population, there are the sharks. This happened on Saturday. This is not my photo.

   The museum garden encompass 100 acres. Just gorgeous. The auto museum, a bonus for me because I do like cars, was surprisingly large and the Norman Rockwell exhibit was fascinating. I didn't know that a good deal if not all of his painting were taken from photographs. He would take pictures of models he hired in all kinds of poses and places the paint a picture using different models in different locations. Sort of piecing together scenes from all these pictures. He didn't do this all the time. They had many of his paintings that were used for the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. Great stuff! A fascinating thing I observed in the parking lot was a car from Alaska. And I am whining about my drive home to Boston.

The sun was quite bright so there is a bit of a washout effect on some of the pictures. The auto museum was a a bit dark. I don't particularly like using a flash as there is a moment of hesitation when the flash happens and the actual image is exposed making for some blurry pictures. I had to lighten most of those pictures up Someday I will upgrade my camera. If you care to see them you can find them here <iframe src="https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=657692B4E34B334B&resid=657692B4E34B334B%21322&authkey=AMgN4rV6v6KtgRY" 

I hope this link works. Anyway I've, as always, have gone on long enough. Thanks to the folks who visit here. There aren't many of you but I want you to know it is appreciated.

I'm outta here.

Leg is better. CBS screws up. Esplanade Evacuated In Boston « CBS Boston

Just a quickie because I have to see the doctor at 1:30 today. My leg feels better but it still gets fatigued when I stand and walk for about 4 hours. I'm hoping for another week of a reduced, restricted shifts. 20 hours instead of 40.

If anybody watched the fireworks from Boston last night. CBS really did a strange thing. They never reported that there was a brief but severe thunder and lightning storm. Everybody in front of the stage (100,000 to 250,000 people.) was ordered into a nearby tunnel because of the lightning. There were several lightning strikes in the area including two people who were hit while standing near a grill. This was not on the Esplanade but in the Boston area. What CBS showed at 10pm was a tape from the previous nights rehearsal concert. They never informed national viewers. If you were watching locally, the show actually starts at 8pm. So local viewers were informed that everybody in front of the stage was evacuated into a nearby tunnel. Everybody on the other side of the river, another 100,000, 200,000 (who really knows) were evacuated to a local mall in Cambridge. I do find it hard to believe they got that many people to got into a mall. By the time the fireworks started everybody was back and that was shown live.

Esplanade Evacuated In Boston « CBS Boston
The local CBS station had informed us that the 1812 Overature shown was from the previous night. It does make me wonder about the news in general. They can decide what to tell you and not to tell you. Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave.
OK it's time for me to get ready for the day. 

I'm outta here.