I have transmission fluid coming out from my engine area and I decided to get under the car and figure out what was going on, since the car is becoming quite frankly an eyesore – but I love it. Still, it is due to have its brakes fixed and I don’t want to spend that kind of money if the transmission is going to be expensive.

So, I put on old clothes and slid under the car and stared at dirty greasy things. I got out from under the car and started it . . . then I sort of got a little bit back under it and saw the drip seemed to be coming from a certain area.

I wiped that area clean (after shutting the car off) and then turned it back on for a few seconds to see if I could narrow my search area down. Well, I think I did. Then I get this great idea to put tape around the tube/hose that looks worn and is leaking and see what happens. Okay. Nothing leaks.

I go and get transmission fluid and put it in; fortunately the pour point is on top of the engine and Thank God I remembered to get a funnel. I put the fluid in, could shift and everything . . . and then my patch started to leak.

But, hey, I didn’t give up. I did it all over again. This time it leaked more. I am going to have it towed to the shop.

I don’t know how many times I got under that car and out from under that car. A lot. I also got dirty and after a while I realized I was lying in transmission fluid. My hair was in the stuff.

I showered but my hands are pretty black still and my hair feels really, really funny.

I really tired hard and failed, but it doesn’t feel so bad. I think there is a fix out there that I just haven’t thought of yet. I did consider super glue, but that is probably better not tried.

This week they should be coming, the coupon cards for my mother to get two converter boxes for her antenna connected sets. I applied for them on January 31st, and according to the schedule, they should be mailed out today or in the next couple of days. Yes, mother lives in a no cable zone. She does not really want to get a satellite dish and she reads a lot anyway. If something really, really big were to happen, she could come down here. As it is, I do her internet searching for her. She likes it that way.

Usually I wait until the last possible moment to meet a cut-off date or deadline, but when it came to Mother and these boxes, I was right on it. I think they are easy to set up . . . and we have duct tape. Oh, I guess we should have purchased electrical tape. That was a joke. But if it weren’t, I’m sure we could find some in the drawer of the old Hoosier cabinet where buttons and screws from decades and decades ago reside.

The website (official) I used to apply for Mother’s converter boxes is HERE.

I am not complaining, but I have noticed that when spring comes round, birds are loud. It has finally dawned on me where the word atwitter came from, as in, “The tearoom was all atwitter.” It is not unpleasant at all – just a sound that was missing in the past winter mornings. I think it started off with one bird chirping right outside in the shrubs by the windows. Now, those shrubs are alive with the sound of music. Oh, look, there’s a bird in lederhosen! I have not looked at the weather prediction – I am hoping for at least some cheery sun as I continue to scrape my way though the layer cake of dirt, leaves, more dirt, and rotten leaves that were caught beneath the snow this year. There are occasional other finds as well, such as a wind-caught soda can that was once entombed, unknown, in an edge of the driveway mound of packed snow and ice. Then we have been working away at things in shady areas which have only bit by bit been released from the ice – errant pieces of firewood for instance. Leaves are everywhere, in every crack and crevice where a late fall wind blew them and an early snow trapped them. But, while working on them, I looked up at the maple and saw those reddish buds against a blue sky. What is so fascinating is that in a month we will have leaves ON THE TREES and fresh mulch and grassy areas cleared of sticks and twigs the occasional dropped knit glove.