Yesterday

Lindie commented on a post that she was worried because I didn't leave an entry yesterday, because I normally update daily. She expressed concern about the shooting in Odessa, wondering if that had affected me.

Truth is, we simply had a busy day, and were away from home quite a bit.

Saturday Cliff was using his pressure washer and it broke. So yesterday, we went to Tractor Supply to try and get a replacement part, since it was broken in such a way Cliff couldn't fix it.

A lady at Tractor Supply (where we bought the washer some eight to ten years ago) was extremely helpful, but in the end her efforts came to nothing: Turns out that part is obsolete.

So here we have a machine we paid hundreds of dollars for eight to ten years ago, and it can't be repaired.

Cliff inquired about the price of a new pump, but that was going to cost almost as much as a new pressure washer.

We couldn't pin down the age of the thing, but I know we got it after Cliff's shop was built and before I went to work at Kohl's DC. That puts it between six and ten years old. Obsolescence shouldn't happen that soon.

We got the thing at a time when money was very hard to come by. Since then, prices on pressure washers have come down considerably, and we have more cash on hand.

So we went to Home Depot and bought a new pressure washer. Cliff said the shame of it is that there's a perfectly good motor on the old one.

"Can you make a go-cart with it?" I asked innocently.

"That would be some go-cart," he said, laughing. "with an eight-horsepower engine."

So, it wasn't a bad day yesterday unless you consider the money spent. I probably would have posted later in the day, but something happened nearby that brought to my mind the reality of what children have to put up with when their parents are idiots. And I just had no words to say after that.

I was reminded of a recent post by a local blogger where she was expressing the extreme anguish she felt at losing a relative. People left the usual comments (you are in our thoughts, our prayers are with you, etc.), and one guy simply left a dot. A period. That's all.

Yesterday evening I felt like doing an entry that was nothing more than a dot. Nobody would have known what it was about, but somehow I would have felt better.