Turtles, lizards and my other pets

     As a kid growing up I always had multiple animals, which included box turtles, little water turtles that I kept in a fish bowl and many chameleons, a hamster and my chicken (Peep Peep the City Chicken), which is in a previous post and of course our dog Trixie.  The chameleons (lizards) used to come with a little string around it’s neck and a clip that would fasten to your shirt so they could climb around without getting lost.  I doubt that you will find these anymore I'm sure that would be considered cruel nowadays.  Chameleons would change colors depending on the color of the surface they were on which was cool.  Their color change was slight which to me was a little disappointing because I expected an exact color match.  These were much smaller than the gecko’s you see on the TV commercials for Home Depot or Toyota.  The chameleons were available at any pet store and at carnivals but they never lived very long.

     We had 2 box turtles that lived in the basement and eat bugs, which was pretty common in those days.  We would throw some lettuce down to them occasionally, turtles need their veggies too, they can’t just live on bug meat. I’m sure we named the turtles but I don’t remember their names.  They were working turtles clearing the basement of bugs so I didn’t play with them like I did the little water turtles.  The box turtles didn’t like each other because they got into a big fight and chewed each others shell up and we got rid of one or it died I don’t remember exactly.  Maybe turtles are territorial I’m not sure or maybe there weren’t enough bugs or lettuce to go around.

     The water turtles were more fun to watch because they seemed more active.  I kept them in a fish bowl with some rocks to climb on as well as pool of water to swim around in.  At times I would have 3 or 4 in the bowl, which turned out to be a problem when they would climb up on each other and escape the fish bowl.  It was hard to find those little buggers when they crawled under the bed or some other obscure place. 

     I also had a hamster but mine had a nasty temperament and didn’t like to be handled by a young boy.  I guess I didn’t have a gentle touch with it.  The hamster bit me once so that kind of changed my interest in it but I didn’t tell my parents that he bit me because I was afraid they would get rid of it.  He died a few weeks after the bite so I informed my parents then and they took the corpse to get checked for rabies but nothing was found. 

    Our dog Trixie was the family pet we had for many years but she had to be put down in her later years when a tumor was discovered on her stomach.  Just as today our pets were part of he family but I don’t remember ever dressing them up in clothes or costumes like people do today.

Impossible Questions for men

     Some questions posed in life are easy to answer, others are hard and some are impossible.  Here are some examples:  What is this dirt on the chair cushion?  Why are there spots on the carpet?  What’s wrong with my phone?  Who got dirt on the wall?  Where are my keys?  Why is this broken? What’s that funny noise in the car?  Movies even reference these impossible questions as in "Christmas Vacation" when the question is asked  "How did the carpet get all wet, Todd".  Answer "I don't know Margo".

     There are many more questions like these that are usually posed by a loved one.  When I’m ask one of these questions my go to gut response is “I don’t know, it wasn’t me” or  "That's terrible, what will we do" or something equally useless.  The truth is those dirt spots could have been me, but those things don’t always register with guys, so I really don’t remember.

     The question asked by women and heard by men can be completely different.  When a woman ask “Who got dirt on the wall, chair or carpet?”” a man hears “How did you get dirt on the wall, chair or carpet?”  It’s a subtle but a critical difference.  So how does a guy answer that question, is there a right answer, I usually rely on my gut response “I don’t know, I didn’t do it.” 

     Some of the impossible questions you may get are more difficult and tricky to answer, What’s wrong with my phone?  Any questions regarding the phone or computer always gets my usual response “Must be operator error” which is over used and seems lame at best.  Well I’m not sure if there is a right answer but my go to answer is not working so I need to come up with a more interesting or entertaining response.  Here are few new (untried) responses that may help you answer those impossible questions or may get you in trouble for being a smart ass, but be careful it might just get you "The Look".  Let me know how they worked out for you.

"Negatively charged floating ions are the cause of your electronic issues."

"Forest fire soot has permeated the air causing a spontaneous transference of dirt to all clean surfaces."

"Ninjas could be involved in some way but we shouldn’t talk about it."

"I suspect global warming to be the culprit."

"Atmospheric changes have affected my memory and decisions skills so I do not recall and I should not be held responsible."

"Thank you" or "Your Welcome" 

"Sounds like rich people problems"  

     Some of these answers don't make any sense but lately, my answers lean toward ridiculous responses, which I find to be more fun although offering no worthwhile help.  However many of these questions won't have an acceptable answer anyway so why take it seriously.  “Just Saying…..”

Positive Thinking versus Positive Action

     I have always believed in positive thinking even reading self-help books that supported my belief.  Positive thinking helped me have a better outlook on life, which is an important part of life but there’s more to it than thinking positive. 

     You could go through life with a positive attitude but without positive action your achievements might be diminished.  You need a positive attitude to take positive action so that attitude is important but it’s only the first step.  It’s not always easy to take that all-important step toward positive action but it is rewarding and gets easier with each step you take.

     Some people are blessed by knowing what they want in life but others (including me) tend to meander through life without that internal knowledge of my personal objective.  Positive thinking helped me be open to possibilities and positive action makes some of those dreams possible. 

     Even though I wasn’t sure what life would bring I was anxious and somewhat tenuous about the experiences that lay ahead but in the end those positive actions always lead me to be more confident.

     Positive thinking and positive action can help everyone but who is better off the person that knows their purpose in life early on in life or the person that tries many things looking for their purpose.  Which is sweeter knowing your purpose or finding your purpose? I’m not sure it really matters as long as you don’t give up your search.  “Just Saying…”

Up's & Down's of Owning a 70's English Sports Car

It was 1985 when I convinced my wife (Mimi) that it would be fun to own an MGB, Based on that discussion I purchased a bright yellow, 1970 MGB which had a roll bar.  The yellow color made the car really stand out, and it was fun to drive but it was a bit of a challenge to maintain.  When it ran it was great but if it didn’t start it was aggravating.  I was somewhat adept at working on cars but I was not a mechanic by any means so any major issued needed the skill of a professional mechanic.  I did however remove the heads and put on a new head gasket and I learned to adjust the oil pot carburetors but mostly praying that the Lucas (known as the prince of darkness) electrical system would start the car and not die while driving around town.

It was my main form of transportation so I needed it to be reliable.  What was I thinking this is a 1970 English sports car, which was always fun but rarely reliable.  I was on my way home from work one evening while driving down Hwy 40 my MG just died without any reason except that it was a 1970 English sports car which really is reason enough.  I tried and tried to get it started but to no avail, so only being a couple of miles from home I walked, which I had done before (refer to my truck in a previous article).   As I am approaching the house Mimi sees me walking and runs out asking “What the hell happened to the car?”   At this point it’s important to know that Mimi did not have much tolerance for broken cars (she inherited this trait) and she certainly didn’t appreciate the delicate interworking of the British designed electrical system of a 1970 English sports car.  She just expected cars to always work and also never need tires; just having to buy gas for them was enough of an annoyance.  All that I could do was explain the car just stopped maybe it was Tea Time.  I had the car-towed home and pushed it in the garage until I could take a closer look at it. 

To my surprise the next day it started up like a champ, but I knew this was short lived so I contacted a foreign car mechanic that was on the way to work.  He was a German guy (Hans) that spoke broken English and he worked on a lot of high dollar sports cars so I knew my MGB would be in good hands.  I explained the problem and left the car with the mechanic fully confident that my problems would soon be over.  I was in a vanpool at the time, which passed by the foreign car repair shop on the way to work so it would be convenient when it was ready to be picked up.  The problem is 1 week went by without any call from the mechanic, so I called to find out the progress only to be told he was working on it when time allowed.  I asked what the bill was so far since I had no estimate upfront and all I was told by his wife is that she would get back to me.  Now the 2^nd week passes without any word from the shop so I call again with the same question and get the same answer.  All I can see are $$$ flashing across my brain.  I explained that I did not want to spend a fortune repairing a $1600 car.  Now it’s in the 3^rd week and my vanpool buddies are giving me a hard time about having to sell my house to pay for the car repairs etc.  I call repeatedly in the 3^rd week trying to find out info related to the cost of this repair but with the same results.  The wife explains that her husband is working on it but there are a lot of electrical problems, really, it’s British.  I explained it wasn’t necessary to make the car brand new because I couldn’t afford that.  It’s not that I needed the car since I’m in a vanpool but the idea of not knowing what it cost to fix was driving me crazy.  So I call and tell them I’m picking the car up so tell me how much I owe.  They explained the bill will be ready when I pick the car up.   Great so now I can lose sleep until then but as it turns out the bill was not excessive and the car ran good.  

Thankfully that ordeal was over, but I just couldn’t leave it there.  I wrote the mechanic a letter saying I was confident he was a good mechanic but I was unsure of his business skills explaining that maybe Porsche or Mercedes owners didn’t care what their bill was but MG owners did and it might help his business greatly if he provided estimates or periodically updated his clients about repair cost.  I never received a response (didn’t expect one) but I felt better because I wrote the letter.

I happily drove the car until it needed more work but this time I took it to a foreign car shop in St. Charles.  The repairs there went well but the trip home was memorable which will be another article titled “Rode Rage on Hwy 94”.