I’m so happy you are in my Odd neighborhood and stopped by for a cuppa and a little El Morno musing. Please help yourself to coffee. If you would rather have tea just let me know!

On my rides home from taking Cole to school this week, I had two very funny encounters.

Yesterday, I was stopped at a red light when a homeless person approached my car waving his sign and shouting, “God does not love people driving blue cars.” This admonishment that God no longer loves me because of my choice of car color got my attention — and then the homeless guy asked me for $2; so I gave it to him. My usual rule of thumb is not to roll down my car window for crazy homeless people waving signs and telling me God does not love my choice of car color, but this time I felt the need to make an exception. After I handed him the $2, he smiled and said, “God loves people driving blue cars.”  I felt like I had my first win for the day: I had just bought God’s love for $2! I know some people think God’s love is free, but better safe than sorry I always say.

Today I was driving home from my school run and stopped at Target to pick up some huggable hangers.What kind of hangers hang inside your closet? Please tell me they are not those ugly plastic hangers or, worse, wire hangers! If they are, I would suggest you immediately head over to Target or Cosco and replace them with huggable hangers.

Huggable hangers are amazing. They have a non-slip, velvety finish that will prevent your clothes from slipping off the hanger, and they conserve precious space in your closet!  Ok, now that you have promised to think about replacing your unsightly hangers, let me continue my Target run story.

But first let me cut you a piece of Devil’s food cake to enjoy with your cuppa.

Now, I didn’t mention this on El Morno, but today, in 1310, the Romans are supposed to have come up with shoes designed specifically for the left and right feet. I didn’t mention this piece of trivia on El Morno because it seems unlikely that on this day in 1310 a Roman noted the left-right shoe invention on the calendar. Apparently, little Jacob agreed with me.

Standing behind me in line at Target, there was a very cute four-year-old boy sporting one red and one yellow rain boot. I admired his sense of style by telling him I thought his boots were very cool; to which he responded (giving his mom a look that said ‘see I told you this was a cool boot choice’), “My mom said I was really weird”; to which his mother responded, “Jacob, I told you you were weird because you are wearing two right boots.”  Jacob started to giggle, and of course so did I. Boys are so silly!

Today is the second to last day of Cole’s official school year. On Monday he leaves with his class for a two-week service trip to work on a bio-dynamic farm. I have so much to tell you about this trip . . . but what I am really excited about today is that he completed his heat engine, and after many “try, try agains,”  it actually worked for five seconds last night — and then a rubber band popped.

I now know more about heat engines than I ever thought I would, including the fact that duct tape lets off rather toxic fumes when heated with a heat lamp. I’m not sure if Cole’s project will be the little engine that could today, but I think the most important thing he learned is that inventors fail a whole lot before they see a little success; and then they fail again and have to make adjustments to achieve a little more success. Every time he showed me his beautifully executed project, Cole got very tired of me asking, “Does it work?”  (I think he might have compared me to the Tiger Mom.) But when it finally did work for even five seconds —WOW, was I excited! And so was he —until the heat popped the rubber band; and Cole got a little heated and said something that was not very nice. We didn’t try it again after the rubber band was fixed; so whether it will turn today, nobody knows. BUT, I do know my son will stand by his heat engine smiling with the inner knowledge that the @#* heat engine project is finally DONE!

Goodbye Cole—I think it Can, I think it Can, I think it CAN!!

I hope that dumb little heat engine works!

I’m off to start my day. Glad you dropped by for a cuppa of my El Morning musings. Please feel free to leave your musings or comments. Odd loves company.

Katybeth