I still believe in miracles

Last monday,I had the day off,we celebrated President's day , it was cold and miserable,but we decided early afternoon to try and salvage the day, I called my daughter in Pampa and inquired if they wanted to go to eat some place that evening in Pampa, We normally let the grandson chose , and with a little autosuggesting he picked the right place, unfortunately Pampa doesnt have a huge selection of eating establishments, if some one opens one , they have tons of business for the first thirty days,then most gravitate back to their normal eating haunts, I have watched this process over the years and it tends to always work this way.
Most of the places in town are family owned, one family has several,and while not being a monopoly,they have plenty of business,the balance of remaining places are tex mex,which is good as far as I am concerned,and I understand that we may get another one ,which if it is as good as the original in Borger,It will be very good and most likely be here to stay, Pampa is a tough town on eating establishments, always has been, I have been in this area since 1965 and I have seen a lot of good places come and go.
I decided to shower and clean up before going to pickup my daughter and grandson, which i did,took my regular shower , shaved with my new cordless electric razor, and splashed some smell good on,and was out the door, this later proved to be my undoing,for when we returned several hours later,I realize too late i did not turn the faucet back on in my bathtub,and that by the next morning and several inches of deep water wound up costing 150.00 to restore the water service to normal again which was done two days after the break occured.

I was happy when the plumbing company came, it was nice outside helped my attitude alot and i know the men doing the repair were elated that it had decided to turn off nice and be warm,made the whole thing a much more pleasant experience.
I showed them where the water had come from and they set immediately to repairing it, as an afterthought i did tell him about my water heater not producing much warm water and ask if he had any heating elements for a hot water heater in his truck, he replied that they did and repaired the line that was broke and then started on the water heater repair, I had comtemplated doing that my self,but in the long run the money i spent was well spent,as my self cleaning water heater (apparently I hadnt found the place to turn on the self cleaner as it was full of mineral deposits , and that was cleaned out and everything looked spic and span in about an hours time.Water service was restored and I was smileing like a cheshire cat, got out cheap,no extra broken lines from being frozen after i had to shut off water,some times things do work out.
Some of the advertisement about products you buy make me think of election year promises,They look good,sounds wonderful, but if it just a sticker on a product, that infers or implies somewonderful achievement or promise , generally they mean nothing ,and I knew when I purchased that water heater with the sticker on it that says self cleaning, doesn't that make you winch just a little, knowing the ability for mineral deposits to collect in our water, but being an eternal optimist, you always hope that some of what is there, is true technology and maybe some engineer did design something in it, that did actually clean it as you went along, but after the service man opened up the heater, i wont repeat what he told me when i ask him if there was any meaning to the still new looking sticker on the front of the water heater.
That was today, the point is this is that back in the summer, before I had my prostate surgery, i put up a knife my youngest son had given me ,for father's day , in a safe place where i could go back later and find it. Well apparently that in fact did happen, for last week when i was on the front porch, talking to some friends in Dallas,I looked down on a what not chair next to where I was sitting, and low and behold, there was my knife, apparently right where I had used it, only thing is, I dont remember what month that was or what I used it on. Then in the next day or two, i happened to go looking in our utilityroom for something in the stored treasure (junk Pile) area. I actually had to move some stuff, that is when the shirt jacket showed up,I was convinced where ever the shirt jacket ,was , the rest of the items i had put away ,the foldback knife and bluetooth head set disappeared,these too were items I put up for safekeeping, then they disappeared, as most things do that i put up, normally gone for ever. I found my headset in my meds bag, when I cleaned it out a couple of weeks ago, so I do believe in miracles, there actually is a higher power looking outfor me,as it is quiet obvious , I need all the help i can get .

I have been there, i have done that , and i do Have that T shirt

Last thursday, i left here on my motorcycle around 12:30 am, on my way to Bastrop Tx.
i noticed sprinkles on the ground but it had quit before i loaded the bike, and didnt give it much thought.By the time i was ten miles south of town, it became more of a consideration, then a problem,I stopped in Clarendon to put on my top part of my rain suit, as the botton was covered with leather and in good shape, it rained on me all night long,
Every one i talked to said that no moisture was expected out of this cell of storms, it may not have been expected, but was solidifying on my windshield for the next 11 hours, it only became a hazard when i found my self in the opposite vehicles lane twice, i honestly do not understand what kept me from hitting the second car that happened to, i was allready waiting for the crash, and when it didnt come, me and God had some serious words together, I have always heard he protects fools and goldwing riders and not necessiarly in that order.
So looks like time for new tires, I can't really complain, as 8-9000 miles are average on that type and brand tire, i have going on 17,000, i am not an aggressive rider, and run the tires as full of air as the manual will dictate.
I finally got to Gatesville about ten the following friday morning, knowing i would be later arriving to the funeral, i contacted ER (Wingman) Stroud, a friend of my older brother's to let him know i would be late.and late i was
I finally found Bastrop about two o'clock in the afternoon, well after all the procession and grave side services were over, so ER told me to find the what a burger and we would break bread there.Now at this point ER usually l ikes to take over , i ran my battery down sitting in the parking lot next to what a burger in bastrop, talking on the phone and looking at my gps, which was very dark now.
I pushed my bike,not a pretty sight, into the what a burger lot, and parked it, hopeing for a miracle as i a hadnt taken my jumper cables with me, nor did any one else have any, pushing an 800 lb. bike very far is not condusive to longevity for a fat man,that has been on light duty since august.
We went in and ate lunch, and had some good conversation about the ride and past rides and also going back to dallas, i begged off, as i was beat and decided to stay in austin. ER said the bike would start, which it did after he related a battery test my oldest brother had been conducting on his bike , which ER ruined when he turned off the key and took it to my brother .Seems this must be a family trait, usually the nuts wont fall far from the tree.
ER and Bill showed me how to find 290 to find my way to austin, and i found the cross street i needed and found my lodging in short order , and crashed, I slept the sleep of the dead for a couple of hours,then got up so i would sleep during the night which i did.
I got up on saturday morning, and by noon was having a great degree of difficulty breathing, i have been to austin three time here recently and all three times i came away with respitory distress. I finally l oaded the bike and headed out, only to be held up in traffic by a huge wreck , was nearly the h ood ornament for a hi cube ambulance twice, after the third one showed i had learned to watch both ways, they can sneak up on you too easy. Troopers and police officers and first responders from all over started showing, and things began to start moving, i talked on the cell phone for nearly an hour as they cleaned up the highway , flew in a flight for life chopper, and got roll backs in to pickup the carnage, all the time sucking on my albuterol, glad to have what i had just to be able to breathe.And i am sure living three miles east of a new cotton gin probably doenst help my asthma much, but what ever there is in austin, can nearly take me out, i left before it got that bad
I am guessing it must be the cedar trees , pollen counts had been over 1500 for a few days when i got there, i feel sorry for the people there that are really sensitive to cedar pollen, that can be miserable
You haven't lived till you sneeze in your helmet, and it is closed as your eyes swell shut while you are riding, you are taking motorcycleing to a higher planewhen you sneeze and have snot running in your l eft ear cause you can't see or stop, or blow your nose.

I have been there, i have done that and i do have that T shirt.

This was my first major riding effort since the second hernia surgery, and the second since I had the prostate surgery, and it was fun.Even in the rain all night long and in austin and i coudnt breath, it was fun,
oh y eah, the bike did start like ER said it would after we let it build back in about ten minutes, I have rescue insurance , but being in a zombie like state friday afternoon, it was a wonder i found my lodging as tired as i was, no more all nighters , getting to old for that, my kids been trying to tell me that for a long time, i think we may well be there
By the time i got to Waco after the interstate clean up , i was allready breathing a lot better, and by the time i got to dallas, i was in really good shape.
I had some pizza and a hot shower after i got to my brother's, and business was looking up