Yikes!

There's so much I could write about today. So much, in fact, that I have designated this post as "Yikes." I had quite a few "yikes!" moments that I'd like to share with you. According to Merriam-Webster, "yikes" is "probably an alteration of 'yoicks'-- used to express fear or astonishment." Just thought you'd like to know.

Obviously, I'm still in a state of mourning after the ousting of Bob Huggins at UC. I was really planning on writing a lengthy criticism of President Nancy Zimpher [who really looked rattled at the news conference yesterday], but I'm going to hold back. It's not like Huggins ran an incredibly clean program; she had enough evidence to fire him with cause. I just hope she knows what she's doing because, unless she brings in a top-notch coach, she just cost herself a job. Good luck, lady. All I can say is, "Yikes"

I could also talk about the wonderful remarks by a Mr Pat Robertson concerning the President of Venezuela. Hugo Chavez is a tyrant of a ruler [which was quite visible when I was down in Venezuela last year], but you can't say things like this: "I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." What a great example of spreading the love of Christ throughout the world: encourage the assassination of public officials. Yes, something should be done about him, but hearing a preacher encourage murder is a little icky. Yikes, sir.

But I had my own personal "yikes!" moment yesterday. As I was driving back to the Johnson house in the afternoon, just half a mile from their house, my Explorer felt like I ran over something. In an instant, the engine shut down [along with the power steering] and I had to maneuver my car off the major thoroughfare and into the parking lot of a business park. I popped the hood and could see that my engine belt was mangled around the center pulley of the engine; also, one of the pulleys was snapped. Fortunately, I have Micah Steele, car repair extraordinaire, on speed dial. He said to go up to the Car-X on the corner and see if they'll fix it. So I took a walk up the street and explained to the guy inside my problem. He was able to pull up a diagram of the engine and asked me to point out which pulley busted. Sure enough, it was the crankshaft. This would be a little more complicated than simply replacing the pulley: they could have to replace the whole engine.

I was actually handling it all pretty well considering this pretty sucky news. The Explorer's paid off. But fortunately, when I bought it, I went ahead and paid for the extra long warranty: the 10 year/100,000 mile kind. I have no idea why I did that [I never get the extra warranty on anything] but all this should be paid for. I'm sure I'll have to wrestle with Ford today to make sure they don't skimp out on the deal. So I'm not freaking out or anything, but I am in a some sort of stage of disbelief.

So all I can say is "yikes!" Yikes, indeed.