Donald Duck and Annie Oakley?

 

Blairsville, GA,  (high 77, low 54)

 

A cold front moved in yesterday, bringing us some very nice weather this week.   We love it when it gets cold enough at night that we need extra blankets, and can enjoy the breeze from open windows.

Sherry and David are not the only fulltimers having issues. We have an issue with our truck.  The only options appear to be a long drive to south Atlanta.

When we bought our new truck 2 years ago, we chose a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab with an automatic transmission.  Unlike the 5 speed we had before, it couldn’t be flat towed without some modifications.  We ended up having a driveshaft disconnect installed.

When we want to tow the truck, we have to disengage the driveshaft by pulling out a little red knob that is mounted by the drivers seat.  It goes back in when we are ready to drive.

Before we left the Keys last May, the cable that the knob is attached to, broke when Al pulled it.  It wouldn’t allow the driveshaft to disconnect so that we could tow the truck. It turns out the cable was installed too tightly. We had it fixed by a reputable shop in Tampa and we were confident we had the problem fixed.

The other day, we were driving the truck in town and all of a sudden I heard a little pinging noise, followed by the engine revving.  Al quickly realized the driveshaft had disengaged and we were basically driving in neutral.  Fortunately, he still had power steering and brakes, but no acceleration.  We were going up a hill with no good place to pull over.  He managed to get up the hill and we were able to coast to a stop mostly off of the road.   As soon as we stopped, the guy behind us pulled around to see if we needed help.  Love these Georgia drivers.

We hadn’t a clue what we were going to do, but decided to see if the driveshaft would re-engage.  Fortunately, it did, on the first try and we were able to drive home with no further problem.

We don’t want to take it anywhere that isn’t familiar with these drive shaft disconnects and we knew it was unlikely there would be anywhere nearby.  We got on the phone yesterday morning, and found a place in south Atlanta.  It’s 129 miles away.  We are not thrilled about having to drive the truck through Atlanta with this problem, but it may be our only option.   We took the truck for a test drive yesterday, to see if it disengaged again.  It didn’t.

So, with this week of beautiful weather, it looks like we’ll be spending a day driving to Atlanta for repairs. 

 

I’ll bet some of you are wondering how the title of this blog post relates to the subject?   Here goes.

Since we bought places here in Georgia and in the Keys, we have been meeting a lot of our neighbors.  When you are at one place for a while and coming back the next year, you really need to remember names.  Al and I both are horrible in remembering names.  Last year, I wrote them down (if I could remember the name long enough to get it down on paper).   It seemed to take me forever to remember the names, and I would have to refer to my cheat sheet often.

Everyone says to associate their name to something, like the color of their shirt or where they are from.  Unfortunately, that didn’t work for me.

For some reason, it seems that I’m pretty good at remembering names if I give them two names instead of one.

For instance, neighbors Donald and Ann are Donald Duck and Annie Oakley.  Hey….I have to think fast and that was the best I could do at the moment.  If I spend too much time coming up with a second name, I forget the first.  :)  

Kenny and Janine are Kenny Rogers and Janine Turner. 

There are two couples with lots next door to each other along the river. The two women are sisters, one is taller than the other.  The four of them are always together, so we don’t know which husband belongs to which sister,  but they are Bobby McGee (which turns out to be his real name) and Wayne Newton.  The sisters are Patsy Kline and Tall Delores.   I know, I know….Tall Delores?   I couldn’t think of another name for her and she is the taller of the sisters.

I don’t know why I can remember two names when I cannot remember one name, but it works.   If you’re having trouble remembering names, give it a try!

 

the end