finally, it's SATURDAY!

I remember having a rough time getting up last Monday morning, and I said to myself, "I can't wait until Saturday when I can sleep in." Then every morning thereafter, when I wanted to go back to bed so badly after the alarm rang, I thought, "Wait 'til Saturday". Well, here it is Saturday. I didn't get to sleep in much longer than usual, because I got up at 7:20 as opposed to 6:45. I guess the celebration came after I got up. I got to read the paper in bed. I listened to NPR. I read a little bit of my New Yorker. So the "sleeping in" part wasn't so great because I didn't really sleep in, but the sense of not having to race to a train station to go to work, the sense of being so casual, the sense of being unshaven, unkept, in shorts and tank top (yes, I look terrible), was very nice and very pleasant.

What was really nice was that I made it a point to keep the phone lines open as Maribeth requested, but no one called which was nice. When I saw on the caller ID that there was a phone call from Firestone, I blew it off and didn't answer.

The highlight of the morning was hearing one of the popular programs on NPR called Car Talk, it comes on before the very popular show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me which is a quiz show focusing on people's knowledge of the past week's news events. I loved Car Talk because I hadn't listened to it in at least a year or so. I listened to it when I lived alone in Midlothian, but I haven't lived alone since the end of 2006.

Car Talk is a very good show made that way by the hosts, Tom & Ray Maglozzi (yes, they're brothers). They are very folksy, witty and the show can be listened to for its humor as much as the knowledge you get about fixing a car or finding out what the problem with your car is. Here's an example. The 1st caller was Christy of Washington, DC. Here's how the dialogue went.

Host: You're from Washington DC? Are you a lawyer, lobbyist or politician?

Christy: None of them, I'm a teacher.

Host: Teacher? Do you "reach" your kids?

C: Absolutely, yes!

H: What %age?

C: 100%.

H: Wow, sounds like a promoter more than a teacher.

After the humorous exchange, they finally get down to the problem. She loves her 1993 Honda Accord (& it has 270,000 miles), but there's a funny noise after she got a new clutch, & the noise occurs when she turns the car either right or left. They asked her if it makes the same noise when she is in idle and turns it right or left. She didn't know.

This is what surprised me: they told her to go out to the car at once and find out because that would help them diagnose the problem. They told her to keep her phone line open. So while she did that they took another caller a guy with a 1983 Volvo who lived in Malaysia. One of the hosts bragged that while his brother didn't know where Malaysia was, he did because he worked in the CIA. (OK that wasn't so funny but it seemed to be at the time; you had to be there, ok?)

After the guy was finishing up the car, he told the hosts how much he enjoyed Car Talk.

"It has kept me sane being so far from home"

Host: Well that's good because the show is driving us crazy!!!

So, the woman with the 93 Honda Accord came back after the call and after some discussion they came up in very expert fashion of what her problem was. Then a man came on the air with a car he has had for 20 years (man do they ever take a call from a car literally built this century???!?)

It was a problem with his front end. They asked what's the longest he drove the car and he said 400 miles. Then they chided him because he took such a big risk. The problem was a metal bearing connected to the wheel. They told him that it was breaking and if it broke completely off, he would smash into something. They told him to drive his car slowly to the car mechanic at once. But before he drove there, make sure that his life insurance was paid up and "all of his affairs were in order!"

To really appreciate the show, you would obviously have to listen to the show.

But I am enjoying my Saturday. I am hoping that this weekend is the 1st weekend I get to ride my bike and burn off a few calories in my fight against my fatness. I have lost 30 pounds.

You ever notice how much better complements are when it comes from family?? Well, when I was home last, my brother, Jerome, told me how much better I looked, and that he noticed I lost weight. I felt like I was handed $200. & from a guy who has to watch every dollar and is scrimping, saving and not taking a vacation in about 15 years ago, $200 would feel very, very good. Then I thought to myself, gee, I wonder if Bob (another brother, nicknamed good-naturedly "the Golden Schauf" since he has done so well and is prosperous {& yes, Bob, we know it was a result of hard work}) would ever make such an observation to me. Probably not, he would focus on the fact that I still need to lose at least another 50 pounds. That's ok, everyone needs a critic. Think of what a good critic our Lord is.