The Manic Mechanic

On Saturday Jeff and I went to see the latest traveling Cirque du Soleil show "Totem" in Baltimore. As has always been the case, we enjoyed the hell out of ourselves at the performance. This time, however, Jeff decided that we should spring for the "Tapis Rouge" ("Red Carpet" in that oh-so-French talk CdS uses so much) VIP treatment. This gets preferred parking included with the tickets, entry an hour before the show for hors d'ouvres and drinks, complimentary photos and other goodies. It's then to the show, where we had killer seats, and during intermission is was back into the VIP tent for desserts and more drinks. The food was trying it's best to outdo the performance that afternoon. OMG it was to die for. On the way out from the terrific performance I picked up some souvenirs and we went out for dinner. Since it was prime time for eating it was not easy to find someplace that we didn't have to wait forever, so we ended up at Red Robin (yummmm!). As has been the norm these days, I ended up taking half my meal home with me. This is in addition to the Chinese meal the day before.

Today being Zombie Jesus day, we would normally have had something rather fancy here at home. We decided to get into the spirit of the holiday and resurrect all the leftovers from the fridge for lunch and dinner tonight. No brains though. We managed to push the lawnmowers around for a bit before the rains blasted us. I had been putting off working on the tractor, since the mower deck needs to come out for some work beyond just grease shots and a sharpening of the three blades and I don't feel like wrestling the 250# monster around to do the work. I got the remaining outdoor power equipment all fired up and ready instead. If the weather holds, I will finally tackle the mower and do more picking up of downed branches before doing the more outlying parts of the lawn.

Much more trying to catch up on things and projects as my body allows it. I also have to get the travel trailer ready for action that happens in a few months. Hopefully that won't be a money pit. The vehicles get their pre-summer maintenance, and I have a box full of parts to install on the Stratus once I get some lift time at a buddy's garage.

This week is supposed to bring temps into the 80s again, with the threat of nasty thunderstorms that always seem to accompany such unseasonal extremes. I'll see what I can make out of all that.

Y'all have a great week.

Yesterday I heard that the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the Titanic has died, after 97 full years of life. As many of you might know, I have been an aficionado of sorts of all things Titanic, the ship itself, the era it was born in, the industrial might of the day, the people, and, of course, the tragedy itself and the resulting history. With the last human connection to that fateful day gone, it transitions forever into the history books. Like every historical event, of triumph or tragedy, large or small, anything of note, once there are no longer any people who can speak of it from being there, somehow it becomes almost a different sort of event. Such events lose some of the impact when the human presence disappears. It's as if it marks the point at which history becomes 'dusty'.

My fascination of the vessel and the events surrounding it could be a book of it's own. Yet even now, I still learn things I did not know previously. Ms. Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean, the last survivor and I share the same birthday. She was born in London on Feb. 2, 1912, just over two months old at the time of the sinking. We were born exactly fifty years apart. My feelings changed a bit more with the addition of a single word. We were born only fifty years apart. Something to think about, as I speed towards my own fifty years.

Bon Voyage, Millvina.