It's been a rough day for me. In fact the entire last couple of weeks have been rough, but today things hit me harder than on most days. I know I'm getting older, but I am having more 'senior moments' than usual.

The adjustment to the job I started last summer has simply gone quite badly. I like the company, the work, the people (well, at least there aren't any I particularly dislike), and the benefits. So it really hurts when I realize I said something totally bone-headed. There are times I might as well have a brick for a brain, and an Etch-A-Sketch for memory. Last week, the company put me on a 30-day plan. If I don't perform satisfactorily in that time, I'm out. In fact, they offered me a face-saving way to quit with two weeks of severance pay.

Today, I shot myself in the foot at least twice. As I left work, the noise from my 150cc motorbike suddenly got quite loud; that exhaust pipe has already had the mounting flange welded back on once, so I thought it must have fatigued again, due to temperature cycling and vibration. I wanted to stay home tonight and watch some training videos, but had to play chauffeur, instead. I had little to eat today and was partially dehydrated, too. So I wasn't looking forward to working on my bike tonight, but I knew it would colder in the morning.

On my way to pick up my daughter from rehearsal--she plays with the Gwinnett Youth Symphony Orchestra, I stopped at Pep Boys to get some smaller welding rods. I went in the door, Acknowledged the "Hello!' from the cashier, then promptly forgot what I had come in for. After about 30 seconds of standing awkwardly at the front of the store and searching the aisle signs for clues, I finally remembered my purpose for being there.

Arriving a good 20 minutes before the end of the rehearsal, I waited patiently for Kristin and another violinist (oh, yeah, I had to take him home from practice, too). At 9:30, I called her cell phone, but she didn't answer, so I took about a few minutes to type in an SMS and send it to her. About 10 minutes later, I called her phone again--a lot of students had come out of the building and left with their parents, and I needed to get back to studying and scooter repair. This time, the phone was answered. By my wife. Not really thinking, I asked "where are you?" "In the living room", she replied, and then added, you left your cell phone here. What a pair! She was as ditzy as I. "No, I'm calling you with my cell phone", I said. To which she replied "Then who's phone is this?" "Kristin's. She's the one I was calling." This "Whose on First" routine went on for a while.

Finally, Kristin saw the van and got in with her friend. It was a long ride to his house, listening to the lack of object or point in their conversation.

At last, I reached home, watched just one video lesson, then went out to inspect the bike. Both nuts that hold the exhaust pipe flange to the motor case had walked off the job. I would probably have to wait until at least 0800 to go to the Ace hardware store up the street and find the right size metric nuts to replace the missing ones. Then I thought about the mixed nuts I have in a drawer of my workbench in the basement. In a couple of minutes, I found the only 2 metric nuts of the righ size lying on top of all the others in the plastic bin where they were stored.

Back to the garage. The studs coming out of the cylinder head were quite long, and I don't have a deep well metric socket set, so I still had little hope of fixing the bike. Amazingly, the nuts fit, along with the only two lockwashers of the right size that happened to be in plain view in the compartment next to the nuts. The socket I had was just barely deep enough to be able to tighten them. Shaking my head, I knew they wouldn't last long; I wished I had a couple more to run on the studs to lock them in place.

That's when I noticed a nut on the garage workbench. It was a little bigger than the ones I had just tightened in place, but that was because it had a nylon insert designed to make it difficult to vibrate off. And nearby was its brother. I'm sure they are the only two of that type I have. I ran them up the studs and securely jammed them in place over the nuts from the basement. That's when I said "Thank you, Lord, for making my day!"