Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't expect it to be blue — the name has nothing to do with the color of our closest celestial neighbor.
And we bid farewell for a spell to Kirsahn who is now back home in sunny Orlando. After a slight delay at the airport as they waited for other connecting passengers, but then the pilot put the pedal to the medal and got her there at noon. 
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"
So here's the deal with Mom's car. Supposedly what happened is when the mechanic went to replace the intake manifold gasket, he cleaned the surface of the old stuff with steel wool. A few of the fibers got down to the oil pump and caused the oil pump to fail resulting in no oil pressure. What needs to be done now is ... to replace the oil pump the whole engine needs to be dismantled.... it is approximately a 30 hour job in the best of times.... Happening at this time of year will require the car to be at the garage for about 2 weeks . They will need to inspect all the bearings to insure that they have not been damaged... replace the oil pump and clean the engine thoroughly. My garage man says he will inform the owner of all this (supposedly, he does not know about it yet) and he will tell him that we will need a rental car for the duration and for the garage to make the arrangements for that. After doing a computer search, they have since discovered a bulletin from GM saying, "do not use steel wool to clean the surface. DO YOU BELIEVE ALL THIS? 
Tis the season and Kirsten comes to town along with the jolly fat man at the end of this week. Enjoyed Billie's school Chrtistmas concert last night. Hope the weather keeps cooperating. I don't think that I am ready for the real bad stuff yet.... maybe in January. Should get Meems' car out of the repair shop sometime today.... but if it is later in the day, Meems will be out with my car doing the Brownie thing, so I may just tell them to keep the car until tomorrow, since I will not have a ride to pick it up. Hopefully, the cars will now last until the winter.
