Memorial Day 2014. Busy days. Car problems.

It's been a busy time. On Tuesday evening I attended the wake of my friend. It was delayed a bit because one of his brothers lived out of state. On Monday, I attended the Memorial Day Ceremony at the local cemetery. Arlene's daughter runs the city website and her own website about local news. I volunteered to take pictures for her website. My parents are in this cemetery. Someday I will reside here on the other side of the grass. My aunt and uncle, my grandfather, Arlene's parents, maternal grand parents and two cousins. One killed in Vietnam in 1967. So it's an emotional place for all of us. And believe me seeing my name on the gravestone really creeps me out.

Still it was a nice ceremony and seeing all the flags planted on the graves of people who had served or killed in battle really had an affect on me. There were plots for WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the last few wars. The mayor made a comment about searching Memorial Day on Google and coming up with sales events and car ads. It's also called the unofficial start of summer. But as we all know that was not the original the reason for the day. It's something I had forgotten about. I don't know maybe that should be one of the days when just about everything shuts down. Like Sundays used to be once upon a time. It's just one day. Surely we could survive.

The featured speakers and guests. The Police Color Guard on the left. The young women standing left of center, on the right in the light blue/green jacket is Allison, Arlene's daughter. The other woman was hired to video everything.





 I also took some video. A bit of the Mayor's, two other snippets of speech. The high school band was there but, I know they're just kids and they tried, but at some points they just sounded like a bag of cats. A quick wrap up of the ceremonies, with taps and the retiring of the colors.






On to a much less solemn, but very annoying and no doubt expensive topic. Over the last week, my air bag icon has come on, my sunroof won't slide open, I have a air leak in one of the wheels, not the tire, there was a water leak from under the dash on the passengers side possibly connected to the fan on the heater/ac fan not working and for the last couple of months the cd player won't eject the cd's. It'll play 'em but won't eject 'em. All six of 'em. They couldn't fix anything this week. I hate dealing with the dealership and would never take my car there for maintenance. I have a regular mechanic.

The car is not that old. It's a 2008. It has run like a top. Flawlessly. Not one mechanical problem. Rides quite nicely and handles well and has a bit of get up and go. Now all of a sudden all these annoying, mostly electric related problems have happened mostly in the last week and it could possibly be traced back to a relatively inexpensive drainage tube under the hood near the dash that's clogged. They have all kinds of warning chimes and sounds so why don't they have some warning sign or sound telling you when your tube is clogged, so to speak.

This raised another problem concerning our rapidly approaching vacation. My car is registered to go on the ferry. I don't want to take it because I can't get the wheel or heater/ac working this week. I could let the rest go until the week we get back. So I had to call the  ferry company and find out if I can take another car other than what's on my reservation. Arlene's car is the same size as my car. My car is based on her car. Almost identical in size. I was told as long as the person who made the reservation was in the car and showed some ID, everything will be fine. I certainly hope so!

So I haven't been around for a few days and I might be able to look in later today as it is very early in the morning as I write this. The anticipation is growing for the two of us. As long as my car gets me to work the next three days, it can sit dead in the driveway next week. I'm not going to let it spoil my week. I didn't make the fancier count down placard for this post but it doesn't change the fact that there are 4 days till vacation! I will, more than likely, be reporting in from down there. Now I really have to get to bed.
I'm outta here.