Burnt porridge etc. etc.

What a busy day. First thing this morning I started the porridge and set the time for the normal 8 minutes of cooking and went to look at the computer. Soon there was a burnt smell and I did not figure the timer went off yet. Sure enough there still was time left BUT I had forgotten to turn down the burner, so it had just been boiling and burning away. I sure was disgusted with myself. Good thing that came out of this episode was that we checked the smoke alarm and sure enough the battery was dead. We remedied that right away. This is what my pot looked like, but I got it clean again with a lot of elbow grease.

Later on I played nurse to a friend of ours who had an operation last week. He has help coming in but there is always a 3 hour time laps between shifts when he is alone and that is not good. Yesterday hubby went and today was my turn. On the way home, just as I was turning to enter the Highway I heard something that sounded like an explosion with a terrible rattling afterwards.  Luckily I was able to pull to the right into a spot that was wide enough and got out to see if I ran over something. The muffler was hanging on the ground. No way could I drive on like this. Right away a young attendant from the CO-OP station next door came to see if he could help, but of course there was nothing he could do. I phoned Cliff from the phone there (no cell phone) to come to the rescue. Soon  2 young fellows from the station came up with a stack of orange cones that they placed around my car to give me a bit more protective room from the traffic. When I got back to the car another car had stopped in front of me to see if I needed help. I thanked him for stopping but help was on the way. Another truck wanted to help just as Cliff was driving up behind me. It was sure nice to see how helpful people are. Must have something to do with my grey hair, "little old lady" etc. The muffler was off in no time and I was on my way home with a lot of noise coming from the rear end of the car. As soon as we got back Cliff rolled up his sleeves and as of 5 PM the muffler was back on and hopefully as good as new.  It sure is nice to have a handy husband and I am very thankful for that.
I had a great comment by email for yesterday's Blog and it is too good not to mention it here:
"History says that food left by Sir Walter Scott,was found frozen after 60 years at the south pole,and it was o.k so they eat it, and you throw yours out  while it it still fresh, Today's Tip. next time you have frozen outdated food ,make a meal and invite some one you don't like , they could test it       But make a excuse not to eat any your self.  If they survive you did not waste anything, after all ,,we are into a economic recession"

Time to go,
Good bye :-)