I made it to Jefferson City and back home again on my own. It's been quite a while since I've actually traveled on my own (for more than just a day), so I must say I was quite proud of myself that I didn't get lost. I even ventured out on Tuesday evening to eat at an Applebee's that was more than 2 blocks away from my hotel. (our meeting place was only a block away, and there was a mall just down the road as well) We do have a GPS, however, it hasn't been updated in a while but it got me there and back.

We rented a car for me since we really weren't sure if the Jimmy would make it there and back, so I got this bright yellow Chevrolet Cobalt; complete with a spoiler on the trunk lid. (okay...we just wanted a small economy compact car...)



Pretty snazzy, huh? Well, it's a pretty cool car to say the least. We did notice that this particular one did not have cruise, but that's okay. It did have a audio connection for a MP3 player, but that didn't work either. Okay, no problem, I can use the radio (which WAS neat because it would show the name of the station on the display, and I found one station near Camdenton that also showed the song they were playing!!) So I come home early from work, finished packing, and was ready to head out by 4:30. Billy had to go to a meeting, so Chris helped me load the car. I get in and he notices a spider that is in one of the air vents over the radio. Now I don't like spiders (or snakes..just like the Jim Stafford song...) so I get out of the car and ask Chris to try and get it out for me so we can kill it! I go inside and grab a couple of paper towels, and found one of those 'skewers' like you put meat on to try and coax it out.

I go back out and Chris is trying to play 'freeze out' with the air conditioner thinking that will make it come out, and when it doesn't, he turns on the heat. Well....that didn't make him come out either, instead he crawls back down inside the vent. "Great"....I'm thinking this thing is still inside the dash somewhere. I didn't get a real good look at him, but Chris tells me it's 'fuzzy with a red butt'. GREAT.....well, I need to get on the road, so I tell him to close that vent off for me (thinking he'll just stay inside that vent 'tube') and away I go. I get about 2 miles east of town, look down at my speedometer, and there is a 'spot' right where the "60" is.


I'm trying to figure out what that 'spot' is...when it starts MOVING. Yep, by golly that freaky little spider is crawling across my speedometer. So I call Chris to let him know that he was still alive and now behind the dashboard glass. Then it crawls in the area just below the gas tank gauge....but by this time it looks like it's in FRONT of the glass!! EEEKKK!!!! So I tell Chris that I have to get off the phone so I can pull over and KILL this thing!!

So once I safely pull over, I notice that nope, it's still behind the glass. I then watch it crawl back up by the gas tank gauge, and disappear. I closed the other vent, but kept the ones by the door open. For the next 2 hrs I am watching the gauges, and the other open vents for sign of this little booger. I never saw him again. But I can say that's the first time I've seen a spider crawl across my speedometer.

My meeting went well, and now I have 2 weeks to come up with what I'm going to say about my section of our class for the clerk's college. So far we have about 60 people registered for this one class, which is in the afternoon on Thursday of the college. (there are other classes going on at the same time, so you 'choose' which ones you want to attend) There are 3 others from other counties teaching with me, and an employee of the State Courts Administrator's office will be there to help if needed. I found out today that this is their first time teaching at the college as well.

So it's been an eventful couple of days; I do like the car, but it's way beyond what we could afford to buy. Speaking of buying things....we are having our new air conditioner/heating unit installed in our house hopefully next week. I'm sure it will be messy around our place for a few days, but it will be worth it to not have to worry about getting carbon monoxide poisoning this winter. They are even installing a 'pigtail' that will enable us to plug it in directly to our generator in case of another ice storm.

Billy is taking a group of around 20 students to the "GetAWay" conference at Tan-Tar-A this weekend; I was able to go last year, but have an obligation at church on Sunday that prevents me from going this year. They always have a lot of fun and good fellowship with other BSU'ers around the State.

I guess that's about it for now.....it's feeling like Fall in the Ozarks!!