a weekend of oddities

Derby is seriously fascinated with cicadas. At night there are always a few that congregate around the light on the corner of the garage near the gate in the back yard. He’s always sniffing at them and trying to catch one. They sputter about on the ground after he nudges them with his nose. It gets him very excited. Friday night Derby would not take care of his business. He was too interested in the cicadas. I finally pulled him away and wondered why he suddenly decided to confidently trot ahead of me with his head held high. Once inside the family room Derby looked at me over his shoulder. I could tell he had something in his mouth. I asked him, “Derby, do you have a cicada in your mouth?” He ran to hid from me in front of the recliner. He dropped it on the floor. It sputtered about. I tried to get it away from him. He took hold of in this mouth. I tried to pry it open. He dropped it. I tried to get it away from him. He grabbed it again. I tried prying his mouth open. He would not budge. I tried harder. He claimed down harder. I was trying my best to wedge open his jaw. He gave a little. Then, *CRUNCH* *CRUNCH*. I had to leave the room. While I was gagging and coughing and doing some sputtering of my own in the bathroom my mom was able to gather the cicada remains and take them outside. To say it was gross would not do the situation justice. I’m even going to leave out the part about later finding cicada eyes on the floor. Derby learned that if you eat a cicada you’re going to get a mouth full of Listerine administered by medicine dropper.

If cicadas and locusts are the same thing than Derby is being very Biblical. – My mom

The next day I took my car for an oil change. I had an appt 30 minutes prior to close. I’ve taken my car to this place for over a year and they’ve always proven to be reliable and trustworthy. I settled on the comfy couch and began to knit. Within 10 minutes two of the technicians came out to talk to me. Uh-oh, what now? I have an eight year old car with over 170,000 miles on it. I braced myself. They tell me that my dipstick broke. One guy holds up the orange handle. They thought perhaps it had been broken before and someone had glued the handle on. The two guys sit down to talk to me. Their long faces made me think this was more serious than I thought a broken dip stick would be. The other end of the dipstick had fallen down into the dipstick casing and they were afraid some of the washers would fall into my engine.

They talked about oil pans and o-rings and other things that I didn’t really understand. The younger of the two guys sat in disbelief saying they couldn’t get the dipstick out. I burst into laughter as the two guys just stared at me. I could tell it was not the reaction they were expecting. But it was funny. Really funny. They worked for, well I lost track, but for at least an hour trying to get the dipstick out without causing further damage. At one point two of them were on the internet looking for ideas. Finally one of them pulled the casing loose and got the thing out. Many “how many dipsticks does it take to retrieve a dipstick?” jokes later all was fine. They’ve ordered me a new dipstick.

Sunday a hard rain came (thank You Jesus!) and the sound of it on the roof was so unusual that Derby began to park. It has been a long time since we’ve had much rain to speak of and it was a sound Derby was not accustomed to. Then the power went out and we watched the dogs chase one another for entertainment. As I walked into the living room Memphis ran past chasing Derby and Memphis stomped on my foot. I had no idea that the paw of a 40 pound husky on the top of a barefoot could hurt SO much. He even broke the skin.The power came back on 30 minutes prior to the final IRL race of the season. On the final lap Scott Dixon ran out of gas in turn four and Dario won the championship. He’s probably going to NASCAR and Ashley had to run her mouth in a post race interview. But it was one of the most exciting finishes I’ve seen in a long time. And to think he wants to give it all up to drive a taxi cab.