Had a bit of a car issue yesterday.  When I started it up, it made a horrible grinding noise (starter going out?) but then was fine.  Decided to change the order of my errands, and stopped at Kathi's house (not that far away) to drop off the buttons for the school project.  She was just leaving for work, so it was mostly a quick hello/goodbye - though I did pass along the ladies' request for pictures of projects for all the goodies they save and give me to pass along to her.

  When I got back into the car it made that same awful noise again, so I decided to head home instead of risking the library. (Tom was off getting a haircut, and wouldn't be able to 'rescue' me for a while.)  Stopped at Marcie's, where Mike was out working in the yard.  He knows quite a bit about cars, so I had him listen, and his thought was either the starter or the solenoid.  I backed into the garage (in case it wouldn't start next time we'd have better access to the engine) but since I'm not used to doing that I didn't pull in far enough to close the garage door.  And wouldn't you know... when I started up the engine, it did not grind.  Still, something is going on and it will need to be addressed. 

When Tom got back I had him run me up to the library, where I picked up Michelle's new book - and of course started it last night.

Alex's friend Mitch came by yesterday, and we talked to him about adding a cover to the back patio at the guest house - and also about redoing the 'ceiling' of the front porch over there, which has a major peeling issue.  Now just waiting for his estimates.

Watching the weather back East (quite a storm they just got) reminds of why we "do" summer here in Arizona!  I hope that weather doesn't affect my flight in a few weeks - and I certainly don't want to have to drive in any snow/ice!  Even though I grew up with winter, and of course drove in plenty of it, it's been so long that I would not feel comfortable!

 

I did a little sewing yesterday, and (now that the weather has warmed up, at least during the day) more weeding of the driveway.  Since I'm only doing that in 5-10 minute dribs and drabs it's taking a while... but I do get less complaints from my back!

We had no internet service this morning, and once Tom got up I had him reboot the modem.  When that didn't work I called COX - and it turned out there was a outage in our area.  Obviously that has been fixed now, but we have been having LOTS of issues with them the past couple of weeks, and it's getting to be a real drag.

New pool service started this morning, and things with Aaron seemed to go well. 

Before the gym this morning I was going to sew on one of my holiday gifts - and before I actually got started I broke the needle.  Of course I can't find the broken off end (even after taking apart the sections of the machine that I know how to remove) so am in limbo until Marcie comes up after lunch to see if she can help.

After the gym (car started up fine) I stopped to see John up the street, and of course it didn't grind for him.  Still, he says that's not unusual; there could be a bad spot, and "when it goes, it goes - and the car needs to be towed."  I'm waiting to hear back from him; he's looking up some info on what would be involved to replace the part, but if the transmission needs to be pulled (a possibility for many newer cars) he doesn't want to tackle that.

Did speak to Mom this morning for a few seconds (she says she's not avoiding me, and yet….!) and the plan is to speak tomorrow when she has a less hectic schedule.

Not even going to bother with pix now, thinking I'd better post before we lose the internet again!