Tuesday's Orts

Hi everybody!  The return of the orts, those random bits of thoughts and events that land here most every Tuesday.

• I was wearing some of Grandma's jewelry the other day and the delicate chain made me wonder if it was something she picked up in Europe on one of their trips.  The tiny tag looked exotic enough to give me a little thrill, but when I really looked closely it read AVON.
• Last week's weirdness included a couple of frustrating days waiting for a system upgrade on the hospital's computer system, the one I log onto for my transcription work.  My boss was kind enough to reward my all-day-Sunday wait with a couple of gift cards.  I chose Trader Joe's, my new favorite grocery store. 
• Bunco last week was held at a player's house who has two young girls.  Youngest daughter is 4 and, as each guest arrived, she invited them to look at the wildlife.  I peeked at baby birds nesting on top of the columns of the front porch, tadpoles in a plastic wading pool in the backyard, and inspected the garden and her toys.  I politely declined going to the garage to visit the guinea pig.  An hour or more later she implored again, "Are you sure you don't want to see Snickers?  He's really cute".  Since I knew at least three other ladies had already visited the guinea pig, I again declined politely.
• The Blogger problems seemed to clear up slowly but one night all my followers disappeared from my sidebar.  I was relieved to have you all back within an hour!  Thank you so much for following.
• DD Elaine bought me a book for Mother's Day but I never got it.  I texted her to ask if Amazon was holding it hostage and she replied that she never ordered it because she has "bride brain" and forgot.  That is a serious affliction!
• Traffic rant: The weirdest event of last week occurred when I hit a bicyclist with my car. Rather, a bicyclist rode in front of my car as I was pulling out of the driveway of my brother's auto repair shop, which is on the corner of a major intersection. He was riding on the sidewalk against traffic with no helmet on but a pair of radio headphones. Luckily, I was only going a mile or two an hour and missed the actual frame of his bike, just striking the rear wheel and bending it. He was not knocked over and was unhurt, thankfully. This young man's immediate response told me something wasn't quite right: He had no reaction other than to reach down and try to turn the wheel. I realized he was developmentally delayed or something and I could not just give him cash to fix the wheel of what I learned was his only transportation. Therefore, a two hour odyssey ensued of getting him a new wheel. The guys at my brother's shop helped take the bike apart and stow it in my trunk, and we were off to the bike shop. The first and second shops could order the wheel but it would take a week to get it. The third shop thankfully did have the wheel in stock and transferred the tire, gear, etc and tested and tuned the brakes, front and back. $88 later, Ralphie was on his way again. He very sweetly said, as he shook my hand before leaving on his bike for home, "I really want to thank you". Oh, my!
  
  
  

Doesn't look so bad here...

But it definitely was not fixable! 
Lesson learned:  Always check twice when pulling out of a driveway because someone may be illegally riding on the sidewalk in front of you.