STRIDE FOR STRIDE

We were at a discount store yesterday and I saw a book about a race horse written by a Thomas Marshall. When I was in High School I was on the wrestling team with Thomas Marshall. We also rode race horses together for a few years. He was way better than me and had the opportunity to ride in the big time. He decided to do what his Dad told him and became a doctor instead. I wondered if it was the same guy. I bought the book and it isn't written by him. It is a good story about twins, a colt and a filly. I have enjoyed reading it so far.

It has been quite a while since I read a book just for the heck of it and I have kind of enjoyed that too. Maybe I'll get started on the part of the bucket list that was to read a million pages---right now I am 1/4 through with that.

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'

When we moved here over ten years ago our youngest daughter was playing basketball. Her coach gave her an assignment to make 100 baskets every night before she had dinner. Well we lived a ways from the school playgrounds so we bought a free standing basketball hoop that could be adjusted to be the correct height or could be lowered for younger kids. She conscientiously made her baskets every night until she no longer played. (1st picture)

She wasn't the only one that used this hoop to shoot on. The boys in our neighborhood played for a few minutes every day on their way home from school too. It got used a lot. A few weeks ago there were two boys playing on it and they were rocking the backboard with the pole to make the other one miss their shot. To their amazement, and to mine as well, the pole broke at the base and tipped forward---a lot. (2nd picture)

A couple of days later the wind came up and blew pretty hard---it tipped the standard a lot further and I was worried that one of the kids would get hurt when it finally fell so I went out and took it apart. (3rd picture) While I was doing this all of the kids were coming home from school and they all told me how bad they felt about it getting broken. One boy, from a very athletic family, asked me if he could have it. He said if he could he would carry it home. I told him he could have it if his dad approved of it and I would bring it up if he did.

Nothing happened for quite a few days and I was getting ready to put it all in the garbage when two dad's in the neighborhood showed up and loaded the pole and the backboard. They tried to take the base to the dump but I had filled it with sand and then water so it was really heavy. After they left I chopped the top out of the base with an ax and piled the sand on the drive way.(4th picture) I let it dry and then put it in buckets and moved it into the garage to use for putting on oil drips on the road and garage floor.

Monday I loaded the base onto the garbage can so it could be hauled to the dump. It took quite a while but we are finally finished with the basketball standard. (5th picture)

WE TALKED ABOUT BUYING ANOTHER ONE BUT DECIDED SINCE ABOUT HALF OF THE COURT WAS IN THE ROAD AND WE HAD PUT IT THERE WITH OLDER CHILDREN PLAYING ON IT WE DECIDED THAT WE WERE PROBABLY AT PERSONAL RISK SHOULD A CHILD BE HIT BY A CAR WHILE PLAYING ON IT. HATE TO WORRY ABOUT THINGS LIKE THAT BUT FOR SURE---TIMES ARE A CHANGIN'!!!

SPENDY CAR REPAIRS

We just got our car out of the shop tonight and what I thought was wrong with it was not the culprit this time. Saturday afternoon we took a ride around the valley and when we made the final turn at the STOP sign to go back home our car quit---just quit. It has done that several other times and it has always been spark related so I told the mechanic that towed us into town that I was pretty sure the part that was bad was the distributor for the dual coils. We have replaced that part several times because it is a pretty weak link in the electrical system of the car. It was also still under warranty from the last time we replaced it so he did that. I told them to replace the spark plugs since they would be so close to them with the work they were going to do for the distributor. After they completed that work the car still would not run right.

So he started looking for the additional problem. The break down happened so fast that it had to be spark, fuel or both. Turned out to be BOTH and it was a healthy bill to replace the fuel pump. Oh well, look at the bright side I guess, we have a new distributor, the car has been tuned up and we have a new fuel pump. Inklings drove it home and said it runs real good. Although this repair cost quite a bit, I am really happy to have the car back. I love my truck but it gets lousy, no, really lousy gas mileage. This repair would pay for itself in a couple of months if we had to drive the truck for everything.

I am also glad that our favorite mechanics are back in business---GOTTA LOVE IT!!!