Virtual Friday

Tomorrow is a holiday and we have it off from work. So that makes today a virtual Friday, yay! Brought my car in to the service center yesterday morning, walked around and tried every door and all was locked up! Then I noticed an “Early Bird Dropoff” thingy where you fill out an envelope and drop your car keys into it. I grabbed one and was going back out to the jeep to fill it out. It was horribly cold and windy and I was thinking, “Well, if I put my car key into this envelope and drop it in the slot, then I’m going to be stuck here.” But someone finally came and opened the door so I didn’t need to do that. I got very blown around before that happened, however.

Then the mall was not open yet, so I really wished I’d taken a later appointment. So I walked across the huge parking lot to Perkins. I sat and had a cup of coffee (yes, my second cup that day) and one of the huge muffins. I wasn’t even hungry and had most of the muffin put in a box for later

The time went really slowly, I wrote in my journal, read some stuff for two hours until the mall opened. During that time the wind was still blowing and it was snowing! The snow didn’t stay, though. Finally I walked back over to the mall and to Barnes and Noble where I sat another two hours reading a book about quips and one about being a waitperson. The waitperson book sounded so interesting and full of life that it almost made me want to try it again. I was both a food and a bar waitress while in college but both were PT jobs held along with other PT jobs and going to school.

Next time I think I’ll plan a car repair appointment much better. My son could have picked me up if I had scheduled it when he was off work. It seemed to be a long, long morning even though I wasn’t at work. The bill was large, too, almost four times as much as former big boss had told me it might be. And I had just paid house insurance too. So half of the repair cost went on a credit card. Like I really needed more on my card with Christmas coming but it was unavoidable. Driving down the hill every day with bad brakes would have been much worse.

And then there was work. It was busy from the time I walked in, everybody needed this or that right this very minute! So I worked later than normal and actually got home fairly late.

Today is the anniversary of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Remember that song from Gordon Lightfoot? You can listen to it on the link, above.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, by Gordon Lightfoot
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the words turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early.

They had remembrances on the local news last night that were touching even though it happened so long ago. Have a great Thursday!