Updates

Gosh! It's been a while since I posted anything!
I have been sneezing, blowing and coughing a lot since last Thursday evening. I still can't tell if I'm in the early stages of a head cold or if my allergies are going bonkers. Last Thursday I spent most of the day on my hands and knees weeding and cleaning flower beds at the park. I'm pretty sure I must have snorted a whole year's worth of pollen and dust in that one day. When I got home Thursday evening, I took a long shower, followed by a bowl of Ramen chicken noodle soup and a Benadryl tablet.
I stayed home on Friday and watched movies that I hadn't seen in a long time. First, I watched North By Northwest. It was as excellent, nostalgic, funny, exciting and fresh as ever. Then, I noticed that the Special Features segment of the DVD had a program titled:"Making of North By Northwest". Hmmm. I didn't notice that before! So I watched it. I was surprised and a bit confused by part of the program. I clearly remember when the film crew came to Rapid City in the fall of 1958 to film the Mount Rushmore portions of the movie. It was a big deal. I know people who went up Mount Rushmore to be extras. When the movie was released, it was obvious that the scenes "on the mountain" were fake, the forest scene where Cary and Eva meet after she shot him with blanks was really fake, and James Mason's house was a fake but I always believed that the cafeteria interior and parking lot scenes were actually filmed at Mount Rushmore. THEY WEREN'T! The "Making of.." program clearly shows that the cafeteria interior was shot on a sound stage in Hollywood! It looked exactly like the real place!! I'm not sure about the 10-second parking lot scene, where Cary is loaded into the back of a Forest Service station wagon. That may be the only scene actually shot on location. According to Eva Marie Saint, who narrated the program, when the local press learned that the script included scenes of people being killed on Mount Rushmore, they drummed up so much controversy that the Park Service refused to allow any filming anywhere! All these years I thought I was seeing the real interior of the Rushmore Cafeteria filled with "extras" I may have known from Rapid City. What a let down! It was all fake. That's show biz, I guess.
I also watched "Man's Favorite Sport?" with Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss. I still smile at several scenes in that one too.
Saturday, I felt a little better so I went over to the park. I decided to stay clear of the flower beds, however. I swept and tidied up the long island that divides the parking lot. There is a row of Japanese plum trees and bushes of some kind down the middle of the island.
I cleaned that up, then offered to change the oil and filter in one of the golf cart-type vehicles that park personnel drive around. What was I thinking? I am horrible at anything mechanic! I told the ranger I was a mechanical klutz on the first day I showed up to volunteer! So why did I think I could change the oil and filter on the cart? Well, it's too late now to change what happened.
Everything went smoothly at first: I put a pan under the cart and loosened the drain plug. Just as the plug came out and the oil started flowing, a washer fell off the plug and landed in the pan. I didn't want to forget to fish it out before it was time to reinstall the plug. After the oil was drained, I removed the oil filter and let it drain in the pan. When I tried to put on the new filter however, I couldn't get the filter wrench around the filter! There wasn't room to maneuver the wrench! The ranger came over and tightened the filter by hand. He said that it would be fine. Okay! Then, we took the old filter out of the drain pan and threw it away. So far, so good.
Next, I needed to figure out how much oil I would need to pour out of the second quart of new oil to total 38 ounces total in the cart. I started pouring the first quart of fresh oil into the fill tube while I was subtracting 6 from 32...that leaves 26 but the side of tha can only shows 24 and 28 so I'll have to remember... As I was about finished emptying the first quart, I remembered that washer that was in the drain pan, so, I casually mentioned to the ranger that we needed to remember to get the washer out of the pan before putting the plug back in. He immediately pulled the pan out from under the cart, and started fishing around for the washer. THEN IT HIT ME!!! I HAD JUST POURED IN A QUART OF OIL WITH NO PLUG IN THE DRAIN HOLE!!!!!!!!!!! AND NOW, THE PAN WASN'T UNDER THE CART TO CATCH THE FRESH OIL I JUST POURED IN!!! I yelled, "QUICK! PUT THE PAN BACK UNDER THE CART!"
I couldn't believe what I was seeing and what I had done! I was totally embarrassed.
The ranger was cool about it. He said, not to worry. Only a little bit got on the driveway.
Fortunately, only about a cup of oil landed on the driveway before he got the pan back under the cart. We let the remainder of the fresh quart of oil drain into the pan. I felt like a total idiot.
We only had two quarts of fresh oil to begin with, so I raced over to the NAPA store and bought a second quart. By the time I got back, the ranger had replaced the plug and washer and piled a small mountain of absorbent on top of the oil spill. I filled the cart with 38 ounces of oil and pushed it back into the garage.
About two hours later, I swept up part of the absorbent to see how well it had cleaned the mess. Wow! It did a great job! I swept up all the absorbent and threw it away. Now there is little evidence of my stupidity left on the driveway, but this dunce cap makes my ears stick out.