!96466202 Mornin', everyone. Y'all will excuse me while I move snow this weekend. On the way up to the farm, Luke and I had a unique experience: a triple-whammy on the "no good deed goes punished front."I stopped to help a neighbor, Eric, who was struggling with his small tractor, trying to pull another neighbor, Laura, out of a ditch. Laura got stuck because she ignored the weather to go out and feed the cats for yet another neighbor, who was away on vacation.
Eric's small tractor, lacking chains, wasn't up to the job. Laura ended up sliding into his stone wall and taking out his mailbox. It seemed easy enough a job. I hooked onto her, but as I tried to put my vehicle into gear, my shift lever (its an automatic) traveled freely without moving the shift indicator. There I was, in neutral, the shift indicator on "D" but freely moving with no effect on my transmission. Long and short of it: Eric had to call a tow truck to come haul me away. I'm sure that the problem is minor; a broken cotter pin or something similar, somewhere in the shift linkage. But it was nothing we could figure out on the spot. So three of us all ended up in a jam, just trying to be decent neighbors, and had a good laugh about it.
It all kind of made me wish I were in Dubai, where rain has halted Novak Djokovic's attempt to defend his title. Well, that will give y'all something to watch today, although I plan on taking my very first peek at the Olympics - Canada vs. the USA for the hockey gold medal. I missed all the Alpine skiing, which I regret. It's just hard to turn on the television or computer when there's something more fun or important to be done.
And how about that Alisa Kleybanova? She had a good Australian Open, a good Fed Cup weekend, and now she's in her first WTA Tour final, against countrywoman Elena Dementieva. Granted, her road in Kuala Lumpur wasn't exactly filled with speed bumps, but don't for a moment think that diminishes the satisfaction Alisa must feel. Do we see an upset in the making?
Have a good Sunday, everyone.
-- Pete