Hey, Elmer:

Nice to see you. Missed all you folks.

When we picked our clear up at the airport last night, it was raining lightly and we had an hour's drive on mostly dark roads ahead of us. The care seemed fine, but after I'd driven it a couple of blocks, we heard a strange noise coming from the back of the car of the driver's side. I couldn't really figure out what ti could be... it wasn't a grinding, metalic noise or a bump... more of a low, vibrating noise. Now, I'm not much of a car mechanic, but I've driven enough garbage cars in my life to be intimately familiar with everything that can go wrong on a car. But this one puzzled me. When I accelerated, the sound didn't change. When I drove faster, or slowed down, or turned, the sound didn't change. It clearly wasn't in the motor, as it was coming from the back of the car. And then it stopped. For about a minute. By then, we were on the highway driving 65 miles an hour, so the road noise muffled the sound. Every once in awhile, it would stop for no apparent reason.
It did this off and on, all the way home and I was just praying that we wouldn't break down on a dark rainy night. Sounds like the opening of a Snoopy novel.

When we got home, the noise was still there, so we got out of the car with the motor running, and walked around it. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Weirder yet, when I turned off the motor, the noise didn't stop. We lugged the two large suitcases and two of our carry-ons into the house, and I could hear our car muttering away in the driveway. By the time that I came back to get the last carry-on, the noise had stopped, but as soon as I reached in to pick up the carry-on, it started again. I closed the door and walked around the car a couple of times, but couldn't figure out what was going on. So, I grabbed the carry-on and headed toward the house. This was after fourteen hours of traveling, so my brain was on stand-by. As I walked up to the front door, I could still hear the noise and couldn't figure out how it could be so loud. When I walked in the house, it sounded like the noise was in the house. And then I realized it was coming from my carry-on. Slow, but I got there.

I took the bag into the bedroom and Ruth and I opened it. The bag was making the same vibrating noise we'd heard off and on, and then we found out what the problem was.

My electric tooth brush was on.

Duhhhhhhh!

We both had a big laugh, and then sobered up when we thought what would have happened if it went off on the plane. From now on I will be E. Manual Brusher when I fly.

Jerry

I'll answer me e-mails after my acuity returns. I think I left it in Vegas. Or was it San Francisco?