***********************************
"Hi, this is Steve, at XYZ Ford, and we have some news on your car."
Hi, Steve, thank you, what's up?
"Well, it's the transmission control module, and it's covered by the warranty, so it won't cost you anything to fix it, but the bad news is, the part is on backorder, there are over 52,000 of these parts on backorder around the US, Ford is not telling us when they might be releasing the part, and I have two other vehicles here in the shop, once since last November, one since last October, and they need the part, too, so we really have no idea when we can fix your car."
You're saying my car is dead until you can get that part, and it might be weeks or months or even a year or more before it becomes available.
"That's right."
That's it, i need another cup of coffee.
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is
(Yes, that really is the latest on my poor, broken down car!)
***********************************
While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!
***********************************
It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
Day by day and step by step,
Don't let yourself get too far ahead.
Day by day and step by step,
make a plan to beat back dread.
Moment by moment and tie by tie,
These tracks have a place to lead.
Moment by moment and tie by tie,
You will find you have what you need.
***********************************
Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop. It's time to share something for which i am thankful.
Today, i am thankful that i have transportation, just for today, and probably through Saturday. Grandma has loaned us her car through Saturday. When i go down there, i will return it to her. After that, Sweetie and i will be sharing Lunceford the Land Yacht and i will either borrow or rent a car each Saturday to drive to NOLA until Ford sees fit to release the part so my car can get fixed.
Today, i am thankful that i have transportation i need, just for today. Tomorrow i expect to be able to say the same thing, and the day after that, too, on into the future.
***********************************
Today is:
Coldest Day Ever -- the lowest natural temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2 *C (-128.6 *F; 184.0 *K) at the Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on this day in 1983
Feast of Damo -- Ancient Greek Calendar (keeper of secrets of philosophy; daughter of Greek sages, Pythagoras and Theano, date approximate)
Get To Know Your Customers Day -- third Thursday of each quarter
Hemingway Birthday Celebration -- Hemingway Museum, Oak Park, IL, US
Independence Day / National Day -- Belgium(1830)
Kazanskaya -- Russia (Feast of Our Lady of Kazan)
Lakota Sun Dance -- Lakota Native Americans (festival of the sun god Wi, with offerings to Maka (mother earth) and Haokah (father sky), both aspects of Creator Tukaskanskan; dating approximate, as outsiders are usually no longer allowed at these multi-day ceremonies)
Liberation Day -- Guam (1944; from Japan)
Lucaria -- Ancient Roman Calendar ("Feast of Clearings", with prayers said as land was cleared for planting)
National Junk Food Day
No Pet Store Puppies Day -- ASPCA sponsored this day in previous years, and while i can't find a confirmation of another campaign, you can still Take The Pledge to not shop at any pet store that sells puppies, because they are almost certainly from puppy mills
Racial Harmony Day -- Singapore
Sapporo Summer Festival -- Odori Park, Sapporo, Japan (through Aug. 20, the park becomes a beer garden)
Schoelcher Day -- French West Indies; Martinique (Schoelcher worked for abolition)
St. Lawrence of Brindisi's Day (Patron of Brindisi, Italy)
St. Praxedes' Day (Patron of single laywomen)
Touch Hammer's Birthday Bargain Day -- Fairy Calendar
Tug-Of-War Tournament Day -- if you have a problem with someone today, solve it with an old-fashioned tug-of-war!
Birthdays Today
Hatty Jones, 1988
Josh Hartnett, 1978
Justin Bartha, 1978
Lance Guest, 1960
Matt Mulhern, 1960
Jon Lovitz, 1957
Michael Connelly, 1956
Robin Williams, 1951
Garry Trudeau, 1949
Cat Stevens, 1948
Kenneth Starr, 1946
Tony Scott, 1944
Edward Herrmann, 1943
Janet Reno, 1938
Norman Jewison, 1926
Don Knotts, 1924
Kay Starr, 1922
Isaac Stern, 1920
Marshall McLuhan, 1911
Ernest Hemingway, 1899
John Joseph "Johnny" Evers, 1881
Today in History
Herostratus sets fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, BCE 356
A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt, 365
The first landing of French troops on the coast during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight, 1545
Twenty-four-year-old Scottish physician and explorer Mungo Park became the first European to see the Niger River, the third longest river in Africa, 1796
In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown, 1865
At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West, 1873
Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land, driving a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium, 1904
In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100, 1925
Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission, 1969
After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed, 1970
The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at -82.9*C (-129*F), 1983
The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years, 1997
NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135, 2011
India scraps a proposed tax on feminine sanitary products after a campaign by activists, 2018
Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed announces the completion of Stage 1 of the controversial filling of the Blue Nile River dam, 2020
In the largest decline since WWII, life expectancy in the US falls by 1.5 years overall (3 years for Hispanic Americans. 2.9 for Black Americans), 2021