Some Thoughts In some countries it seems you can’t put a shovel into the ground without finding some ancient artifact or ancient structure. Even in the United States artifacts and treasures have been found. I remember when someone found a can full of gold coins. Did you ever want to get a metal detector and go over the land your house was on? I put my metal detector away years ago but have thought it might be fun to run it over my yard. I really don’t expect to find anything more than possibly something from the former owner who lived here 50 years ago. I was never lucky at finding much and what I did find I was not happy about. Today the detectors are far superior to the one I have, but I keep thinking I might head down to the beach with it someday, but I never do. I have never put off things because it is not in my nature. I am one of those persons who arrive early everywhere I go, and it really bothers me when I am prevented from doing this. Here is an example of what I am talking about, I had a recall notice on my car for the steering so I called the dealer and he said the parts have not arrived yet. I waited a couple of weeks but I was on pins and needles, afraid the steering might fail, but I don’t drive many miles so in my heart I felt I was okay. When I was notified the parts were in, I made an appointment. The dealer was in an area I was not familiar with so I used Google and left 30 minutes early for a 17-minute trip. Unfortunately, the app took me to the wrong place and I didn’t have their phone number with me. I saw a truck driver sitting in his truck and figured I had to be near so I asked him, and to my horror he didn’t speak English and it was an industrial area with no one else around. I pondered what to do and was really upset, but then had an idea, I would use the navigation built into the car and see what happens. It took me right to the dealer which was only ten minutes away from my location. I was late which I hate, but they took me anyway. All I could think about was if they didn’t take me, I would have to drive around with this steering problem until the next appointment. One thing I never liked was to have an important appointment at a place I had never been to. I always worried I would not be able to find it. I had to take many tests on my former job and they would usually be at schools in different places and sometimes hard to find, there was no car navigation in those days. I always seem to manage however. These tests were not planned very well. What I mean was the environment was sometimes terrible. I remember one time when the test was given in a first-floor classroom and right outside during the test a very loud band was practicing. The only ones who seemed to care were the people taking the test. Sometimes I never made it to my appointment, but not often. I remember when I was driving to an appointment to take a test for the state police. I owned a Volkswagen Beetle at the time. I had stopped for a red light and was just waiting for it to turn green when a big car hit me very hard in the rear. The impact was so strong the car landed on top of the back of mine. I was out of commission for six months and missed the test. That career ended before it started. Things can get in the way at any time. I was supposed to go to a luncheon for retirees from my job. I got there a little early as was my practice and began to look for a parking spot. The restaurant didn’t have a parking lot. I drove around going up and down blocks and even areas which were a long walk away and just could not find anything. I finally had to give up. When I was younger, I had a car which caused me a lot of problems, it was a Corvair made by Chevrolet. Three times I had to put out flames coming the air around the rear engine from gasoline fumes. Strangely, they never really caused any damage, but they did have a psychological effect on me. I didn’t have enough money to buy another car, and the car was out of warranty. I don’t think gas stations appreciated it when I pulled in when the back on fire so I had a place where I could put it out. There was another problem with the car and that was with the clutch. Yes, the car was stick shift. Since the engine was in the back there was a long cable running from the clutch to the rear transmission and from time to time the cable would break. I always carried a spare, but it was a real pain to replace. You had to crawl under the car, unbolt a plate under the car and remove the old cable completely, install the new cable and bolt the plate back on. As you can imagine this always made me late when it happened and if I was dressed in a suit for some reason, that was the end of my trip. That really disturbed me. There are just so many things out of our control which can either delay us, or prevent us from getting to an appointment. Obviously one reason is sickness. There are car problems which I just spoke to, a mix up at a hotel, an urgent family problem and many other reasons. The funniest reasons however belong to children who don’t turn in homework when they really don’t have a good reason. One kid said he didn’t have his homework because his homework was in the back of a pickup truck and it went through a car wash. I guess it would even be funnier if it were true. There is always that old excuse, the dog ate my homework. Here is one I think is cool. My brother has a contagious disease and touched my homework.
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