Susan's Scribblings the Blog

What you are looking at is an example of one of life’s little roadside disasters:

a deceptively large piece of scrap metal which embedded itself into my tire somewhere between my stop at McDonald’s for dinner and my driveway.  That is a span of about two minutes.  Fortunately I came around to the passenger side to retrieve the bag of take-out and heard the telltale hissing of the air escaping from the tire, because the spot had, by some miracle, rotated to the top as I pulled in.  Otherwise I would have awakened the next morning to an unpleasant surprise as I prepared to go to work.

Luckily for me I have a good car dealer with whom I have a good maintenance relationship since I bought the car from them, and AAA.  Between the almost instant road service (took less than ten minutes from call to pull-up by the service truck) and the shop employees at the dealer who now work until 8:00 at night, I was able to get a new pair of tires and meet my friend at the mall without missing a beat.

If life throws one a curve, it’s good to have it resolve itself so seamlessly.

We have come to the end of March at last.  I thought it would never get here.  It was a slow month for me, and I think a lot of other people might agree.  We got so impatient for spring to start, some folks were talking mutiny against Punxsutawney Phil–the early spring predicting groundhog–just because it snowed after the first day of spring.  We’ve seen snow in April; I remember one notorious day in May in which temps dipped into the single digits and the wind chill killed every living thing in its prime.  Nature throws rodents a curve, too, so don’t blame the messenger (in fact, Phil’s owner now claims he misread the little rascal’s cues and blames himself for the premature prognostication).

When April comes, tax day isn’t far behind, and this year it falls on Monday. Folks who hate Monday to begin with will really have something to gripe about, especially if they’re filing at the last minute.

April also puts us through the first third of the year, and some of us aren’t ready for the year to be one third over already.  There are still spring cleaning days ahead, plans for graduations and weddings and Mother’s Day (just another month away).  Some people wish we could have April days in February to give us extra time to prepare for the rest of the year.

April Fools Day is on Monday this year, so be sure to screw up everybody’s sense of balance and come up with some elaborate thing to say that will give them pause this Monday.  Remember that your workplace probably has to report on activities for the end of the week and month, and there are plenty of chances to cause commotion.  Try mixing up your Monday by giving everybody a reason to laugh.  Wear a funny hat or something.

The grass is going to start growing, which means you should start watching for crab grass and dandelions. I’m so in tune with my lawn, I can spot a dandelion at twenty paces as long as I have my glasses on.  If you’re a man, e sure to visit the DIY store in your area (both big chains if you have them); if you’re a woman, go with him and linger in the kitchen remodeling department.

Finally, now that March is ending, let’s take a look back on the past three months and sigh with relief.  We don’t have to go through them ever again.

I wish I had something riding on when the new pontiff would be chosen, because I knew when it would happen and I was watching when it did.  But that’s what happens when one goes on vacation.  Nobody knows what your life is like unless you choose to advertise it.  I didn’t brood on it: instead I’ve put money on the Powerball jackpot in the office pool now that I’ve gone back to the office.  The odds are worse than those of figuring out when the world would get a new pope, but it’s easier to handle losing on a lottery than on a prediction nobody witnessed.

There was also the pending issue of the can opener.  I did buy a new one, and it works great, except that it is too sleek to handle large cans without toppling over.  Funny that we can live in space (having moved up from just sending a man to the moon–and we sent women, too) but not invent a good can opener.

While I was gone my route to work changed dramatically.  It seems construction moves faster when you don’t see it for a week or more than it does for the months in which you’re driving in it.  I also received word that another leg of my journey will become a construction zone soon.  So I drive around hard hats and girders.  What else can happen to a long day’s journey to work that hasn’t already happened?

The office was glad to have me back.  They didn’t have anything tragic or hectic occur in my absence, so even though they missed me they didn’t get desperate enough to call me for advice on anything.  The worst thing that happened was a bit of confusion about finding a printer toner cartridge. That’s one thing on which you can bet one will run out while you are away.

I am taking a week off.  With any luck, I’ll have the opportunity to use my new can opener before I return.