Entry # 95
(five more to go for the big #100)
Three Things I Am Thankful For:
~~ 1. LATEST VISITORS AT CHURCH: First set of visitors were Tom and LuAnn on last Wednesday night. (I DIDN’T take photos of them!!! I didn’t think about it until we were on our way home from services UGH! That is the second time on a Wednesday night, I forgot to take pictures in such a short time. So now the Woodys will have to come back as well as the Greens). 2nd SET OF VISITORS: This past Sunday we were blessed with the fellowship of the Armstrong family. It was good to see Dennis, Pat and Ann again. They were vacationing here in my litle city. I did take pictures, but it is in a film camera . . . maybe to be developed in a few weeks.
~~ 2. TONY SNOW. I am glad that I got to know him as a talk show host as well as a White House speaker. He did many guest appearances with radio station WLS in the morning on a regular basis before taking the White House job. The hosts Don and Roma got to be really good friends with him and I looked forward to the 15 minutes or so he would spend with them each week during those times Even after he left the news, talk show, and White House duties, Tony would come on WLS once in a while. He would have been one famous person I would have enjoyed meeting. From what I have heard he was one good guy and not a disappointment to meet in person. His death on Friday (correction: that should be Saturday), came as very sad news to me.
~~ 3. NO NEED TO BUY A NEW MICROWAVE. See below.
~~ A strange thing happened the other day. I put in a small pizza in the microwave and after the cooking time took it out and it was barely warm and still completely frozen in the middle. I tried this 3 times and still it was cold. Oh, no, I was thinking, we are going to have to buy a new microwave. About 20 minutes later, all our power in the house went out. It was out in the whole neighbourhood. The next day, I tried the microwave again and it was working perfectly fine and has since. So it must have had something to do with the electric company, maybe they had a lower output or something. It may be if the power is low that a microwave doesn’t work? Is that possible? Seems kind of weird.
~~ Below photo: Know what this is?
According to the man at the "Midwest Appliance" store that sells all different types of appliance parts this is the last one in the world. Isn’t that amazing? I kind of doubt that is true . . . though I was beginning to wonder when we couldn’t find one.
One more clue to this mystery item, Richard Garbi used it one time when he was a young boy when he stayed at our house. And I posted a photo of him using what it is connected to.
Know what it is now?
A few empty spaces to make you guess while you scroll 
It is a foot control pump for our Maytag wringer washing machine! You pump it with your foot to make the wringers turn so you can run your clothes through it. The one for our machine had really fallen apart and hardly any air could get through it to make it work. I have been having a difficult time with it for a couple of years now. It (and me) had a hard time working and hard on the foot as I had to keep trying to force air into the little pump as well as duct tape around the pump. Lots of duct tape. Dad was going to try to fix it but when he tried taking the tape off to look at the pump it just collapsed in deterioration.   He tried putting another little pump on to it, but that was only worse as the wringer would only go a couple of inches at a time as this pump let too much air in.
Luckily, we found the last place Dad got one to replace previously, through the internet and Dad called them up and they had one though they had to look for it and called us back about five hours later. Before that, Dad couldn’t find his papers, receipts from that company in his filing cabinet. Dad saves and organizes his appliance papers, forms and such. He is very organized, so he was kind of upset he couldn’t find the papers or remember their name. Anyway, while he went golfing I decided to look in his filing cabinet under M for Maytag since it wasn’t under W for washing machine and sure enough there it was. I should have looked for it myself sooner. I looked up the name on the internet it indicated the business had moved across the street of where they were and had changed phone numbers since we last used them.
We had tried finding a pump of some sort elsewhere but couldn’t find anything. However a funny moment did happen while we were at Home Depot. I asked a worker if they had any sort of foot or hand pump and told him what it would be used for he was astonished there were washing machines like that. He had never heard of a wringer washing machine. Needless to say this was a VERY YOUNG man. He asked me if I really put clothes through wringers. He seemed interested in how it works. Before he directed me to an older worker in the store, that was suppose to know everything, he said that I must have a washing machine that was a classic.
Last thoughts about this wringer foot pump. The little pumps were all the same material but sure different in price as the years have gone by. From Dad’s receipts:
the first replacement pump in 1992 cost $12;
in 2000, $20;
in 2008, $30.00.
~~ I’ve enjoyed all the camp out pictures and stories on the Xanga sites. Thank you campers, one and all for posting them.
~~ Back to the wilds of Chicago: A few weeks ago, they found a 5 foot American alligator swimming in the Chicago River. Some men were on their lunch break, eating their food by the river when they saw the reptile swimming by. At first they couldn't believe it. They called the police who in turn called animal control (they aren't equipped for this kind of animal) who in turn called a father and son team of the herpetological society that handles this sort of stuff. One of the reporters on television said when his boss said to get down to "Bubbly Creek," (what they call that area because it once was "a churning sewer for the city's slaughterhouses,") he thought it was some sort of hoax, but sure enough it was a real alligator.
They think it was someone's pet that either was released because it was too big or escaped and found the river. Alligators are illegal to have as pets in Illinois. The animal behaviourist believes that the alligator was recently released as it is unlikely to be able to survive Chicago winters. This alligator weighs about 45 pounds and is a five year old female, when mature she will be between 10 and 12 feet in length. The wildlife people are planning to send it to some sort of sanctuary in one of the southern states where they living naturally. Yesterday, it was reported on the news another alligator was discovered in one of the rivers in one of the towns outside of Chicago. They showed photos of it swimming. They figure it too is a pet that was released. They are hoping to catch the 4 foot alligator in a alligator trap . . . laced with bloody chicken meat.
One more animal story. Sixteen of our stingrays in the Brookfield Zoo exhibit died due to some unknown reason of the temperature going up 10 degrees. That is about half of the stingrays the zoo has. They don't know why the controlled (doesn't sound controlled) went up in degrees like that. They are checking with ComED (our electric company in this area) and their own security and ComEd is checking too.
~~ That’s it for now. Until then . . . it’s popsicle season again. Aren’t you glad they don’t make bloody chicken meat popsicles? or for that matter alligator or stingray flavour?
 Bye-Bye for now 
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