Replacing the mistaken repair part:

Sears is coming through – we hope. They say that, based on the phone call from our local dealer, they have inspected their bins and corrected any problem. They are sending (what we hope is) the correct repair part and will not charge any shipping, will discount the part 10% for our inconvenience, won’t require that we send back the mistaken part, and will allow us 90 days to make sure everything’s all right. That last point is nice, since I’m at SIMO till the first days of July.

As to the 10% discount and not sending back the erroneous part – well, for a piece of metal that costs less than $5.00, they’re not losing much.

Three days into SIMO, and all is going well. We're having a very enjoyable, as well as productive, time.

HOW can I mow my grass?

Last week I was mowing our side yard and had made about 8 swaths when one of the back wheels fell off.

When I checked, I found that the spindle on which the wheel turned had broken off of the piece that allows the wheels to be raised and lowered on the mower. Not hard to replace.

So I got online to order the parts. I had my manual with a nice exploded drawing and the part number. I decided to order one for the
other side (unbroken), too, just in case it was wearing out like the broken one. The same exploded drawing and the same part numbers were online.

I needed these things by Wednesday so that I could mow the lawn tonight, 'cause tomorrow it's supposed to rain and Sunday afternoon I'm leaving for PA and SIMO (Summer Institute for Missionary Orientation) for two weeks.

Well, the parts came all right -- and I couldn't repair my lawn mower!! Wouldn't you know that the replacement part for the unbroken piece was the right one (top photo), but that the

replacement for the broken piece was the wrong one?!?!?I had to get ahold of another mower so I could cut my grass this evening. Who knows when I'll get the correct replacement part.

Anniversary Update

Since Karen asked, I thought I'd let you see the meal we had (or most of it -- we ATE the brownies and didn't take pictures of them).

Well, we ate the rest, too, but had to shoot photos first.

Kathy's eating the chicken tortilla soup. It's thick with large chunks of chicken, rice, onion, diced green and red peppers, zucchini, and has thin strips of crisp, thin tortillas, and is just a tad spicy.

On the table for the main part of the meal: Kathy got two tacos while I asked for a beef taco and a tamale. Well, it was their version of a tamale; certainly neither Guatemalan nor even Mexican (at least the parts of Mexico I've visited). These entrees were accompanied by the usual rice and beans. We had a choice of refried pintos (which we
picked) or black beans (which I had in Arizona).

It's a pretty decent amount of food. I think next time I go there I'll just get the soup and the Border Brownie.

Our 36th Wedding Anniversary

On Monday, June 9, Kathy and I celebrated thirty-six years of wedding bliss. Thirty-six years sounds like a long time, but, as I told one of the ladies in the EFM office, it doesn't really seem like that long.

She understood. "It feels like you've been married your whole life," she commented, "yet seems like just yesterday when you had the wedding."

That's about right. And living in two other countries besides the good ol' USA and traveling to various places has helped fill our lives and make the time seem shorter.

Kathy likes lavender and purple, so these are the flowers I got her. Would you say that the florist managed to get the hues right?

That same evening we went to Lafayette to see
our grandson, Steven, play ball. He's on a church team that plays against other teams from his same church and from another congregation in the same city.

Steven plays the catcher's position, one which I wouldn't envy, especially with my old knees! Can you imagine crouching behind the plate for an entire game like this?

I wanted to get several shots of him, but my camera batteries died before I got very many. I'd have liked taking a picture when he slid into home plate, beating the opposing catcher by a smidgen and scoring a run.

Unfortunately, I only got one offensive pose. Next time I'll charge my batteries before I go to the game.

They won this one, and then won again the next night, a game we couldn't attend. Their record is now 7-2, the same as the team they beat last night, so the two are tied for first place.

Makes Grandpa feel like smiling a little!

Check out this clever animation:

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf