Tuesday, Sept. 9

Wow, 4:30 am sure comes early here in Richardson, thank goodness for alarm clocks. I got up early and hit the shower. I rushed around because I wanted to go by the donut store before I went to the golf course. As I was leaving the bathroom, I heard this loud clank. I grabbed a flashlight and the camera, doused myself with misquito spray, and headed for the trap. (We live on a creek with 8 acres behind the house, and the skeeters just love it. )

I found the cutest little ole opossum in the armadillo trap. I didn't know they liked tuna. By the way, I like opossum, they're cute and don't dig holes like the armadillo do. Anyway, I went in and woke up Gary, gave him instructions to release the opossum, not to kill him (like he ever listens to me).

Then I rushed to the donut store. I bought 8 dozen donut holes for my PA's. Got there at 6 am, and we started pulling carts. That took about 2 hours, then we started hauling beer and soda. We stayed a little longer than planned, but we accomplished a lot. I used the Expedition to shuttle players like I planned, and everything went smoothly. Sheila was there also, but I drove the car and she drove carts. She was nice enough to help me out.

On the way home, I heard an alarm from the message center, and looked at the display to see the term "engine in drive safe mode". My gauges all looked okay, so I continued to drive home. Got in the driveway and tried to find the meaning of the alarm in the message center portion of the car handbook. No luck. I called the dealer and told them I had a dentist appointment and wanted to know if it was safe to keep driving. They said it shouldn't be a problem as long as the gauges were reading normal and there were no driving symptons. Off I went to the dentist.

On the way back home, a new light came on. At that same time, my car slowed to about 2 miles per hour..... on the expressway. I turned on the flashers and took the most direct route to the house. The car was running fine, but the engine would not "rev", so there I crept..... down the feeder street. Pulled into a parking lot and turned the car off and looked up the new light. The book said it would be accompanied by a message that reads "engine in drive safe mode" which would indicate it was in the "limp home" mode. Damn right it was limping home. At least the book described the condition accurately. I restarted the car and it was fine. I made it home and left it there.

I had Angie take me to the golf course to work the evening shift. There were so many people helping that it only took about 1 1/2 hours to wrap everything up. Don K. offered to buy us all dinner one night at the Branding Iron, but we all decided to decline. Hey man, that's our job....but we did get a free beer. We all sat around and B.S.'d for an hour or so, and then I had Sheila drive me home. She is so nice to have for a friend. She's there when you need her.

That was it for my exciting day. I have an 8:30 am appt. to take the car in to the dealer. Wish me luck.... just hope it's a warranty item. Oh I failed to mention it, but I guess Gary also likes opossum. He released him. Dad hadn't see one that close up before, nor had Stella. Stella got really excited, but Dad wouldn't let her get too close. The opossum never got upset, and stayed long enough (even with the trap door open) to finish the tuna.

Later,,,