SUNDAY MORNING MUSINGS

SUNDAY MORNING MUSINGS
By Andy Weddington
Sunday, 28 January 2018

Great ideas emerge from useless fragments of thoughts. Michael Bassey Johnson

Yesterday was a strange day.

Mentally I'm (still) in Abaco. And warm. Without life's headaches. 

Physically I'm in the mid-west. And cold. With life's headaches.

Two-thirds of yesterday was spent solving a car battery problem - not dead but not enough juice to turn over the engine. 

So I drove my reliable 1968 VW to Walmart and bought a portable jumper. 

The first one I took to the automotive center cashier proved impossible to remove the anti-theft device.

In a bit of a hurry, after five minutes of watching a silly struggle, I commented how good the anti-theft device worked. 

The clerk looked up but my expression of 'don't even think about a witty comeback' worked. 

He wisely asked if there were others of the same model on the shelf. 

Yes, I said, but they have the same anti-theft device. 

He got one anyway and managed to remove it. 

I still don't know if the first one had a faulty device or the clerk didn't know how to remove it but figured it out on the second try. 

Driving home it occurred to me maybe the anti-theft devices are battery-operated and the first one was dead. 

Maybe someone could have walked out without paying for it so it was a good thing I, an honest Joe, came along. 

Once home, unlike most things new and because I am not an authority on electricity, I read all the instructions - twice - and even the Spanish version (which took me three times as long), to ensure I knew what I was doing. 

Perfectly, it worked.

Yes!

And, Si! 

Amazing tool - not much bigger than an iPhone (that comes with a short set of jumper cables). Too, it can charge cell phones and iPads.

For $50.00 everyone should have one. If not for a personal emergency, to help a stranger. You never know. With all the electronic junk installed on today's cars, dead batteries (from parasitic draws) are more common. 

To charge the battery I drove to a grocery store about 20 minutes away.

I picked up plain non-fat Greek yogurt (which I imagine to be any real food I'm in the mood for). 

At checkout, the teenage boy asked, robotically as coached, if I had a "fuel savings card."

I told him no idea what that card was but had a money tip for him - if someone in business is telling you they're trying to save you money they're not. Everybody is trying to get your money so the best way to protect, save, and double yours is ignore savings pitches, fold it in half, and put it back in your pocket.

He and the teenage boy bagging my eggs Benedict, Canadian bacon, and grits smothered in butter (disguised as cartons of plain non-fat Greek yogurt) listened and as I was leaving said, "Now that was some good advice." 

My hope is they're still thinking about those words. 

Last evening, while watching the movie Coach Carter starring Samuel Jackson, I saw on social media a Marine pal hosted his college freshman daughter and 14 of her sorority pals at his home for the weekend. 

A few thoughts came to mind ...

1. Are you crazy?;
2. When I was 18, girls of 18 looked a lot older but now look like babies; 
3. I'm glad to not be 18. 

About 0130 this morning my eyes popped open. 

In order, the things that occurred to me ...

1. If you can add water to powdered milk to make milk why can't you add milk to powdered water to make water?;

2. At furniture stores you can buy kitchen tables and dining room tables and card tables and end tables and coffee tables. But why can you not buy water tables? At least periodically?

3. King Solomon resolved, quickly, a baby's fate by putting pressure on the mothers. With all the ongoing investigations in Washington, D. C., seems to me to resolve, quickly, the fate of (corrupt government) babies, there must be pressure put on the muthers. And how about starting with the previous head muther?  

Anyway, the good news ...

My friend, host of the squad+ of girls, told me his daughter awakened him at 0134 with an 'all present' report. He went back to sleep (for real).  

Powdered water? Surely someone is working on it.  

We have all sorts of tables. But not a water table. Yet. 

Our car started this morning. 

But the portable jumper is charged and ready. 

So those are my recent useless fragments of thought. 

Great ideas to emerge?

Definitely.

Maybe. 

To close ...

Coach Carter - a true story about leadership, about preparing young men for college and more so for life. Superb. Recommend.