What’s In a Name

On our way home from the doctor’s office Wednesday we pulled into the auto mechanic’s to see if he could tell us why Bessie was squeaking when we drove. After taking Danny, a very nice guy, for a short ride, he decided it sounded like the brakes. He threw Bessie up on the rack and sure enough. It was the brake sensor squealing. So Danny tweaked the sensor to make it stop squealing and then said, “Your brake pads are getting low. If you’re going to trade her in soon, just don’t drive her.”

Which brings me to my story. We drove Todd’s truck to my appointment yesterday and, as I said in yesterday’s post, it was snowing. His truck is a huge hulk of a beast. It has four doors and four-wheel-drive and a big-enough-to-pull-a-house transmission. It’s a manly truck, to say the least.

He was so pleased with how the truck was handling the snow and slick roads that he started patting and stroking the dashboard, whispering endearments and making kissy noises. It was kind of hot — but I digress.

So I asked him, “What’s her name?” For a quick second he was offended that I called his manly man’s truck a “her” until he realized how wrong it would be for him to be sweet talking and smooching a “him”. He came up with Bertha. I thought the name appropriate.

If anybody here is a Bertha or related to a Bertha, please accept my humblest apologies for saying Bertha is a masculine girl’s name. I don’t know of any Berthas and the name conjures up a very large, probably hairy woman in my mind. I’m sure there are any number of lovely, extremely feminine ladies with the name of Bertha. I just don’t know any.

Todd took Wednesday and Thursday off work so he could take me to my doctor’s appointments and it was nice to be with just him for a while. He had already taken today off so he could drive up to Martin Guitar Company in Nazareth. He bought a Martin guitar a few years ago in Nashville and he’s had problems with it ever since. The people at Martin are so nice and have tried to fix it numerous times, but to no avail. They decided they’d just replace it.

So this morning after the kids left for school we hopped into Bertha and drove an hour and a half or so through some beautiful country. I don’t know about you, but I LOVE road trips. After being trapped in the house for the past five weeks today’s ride was like a balm to the soul. I like that Todd and I can ride in companionable silence or we can chat and laugh and talk about anything.

As much as I’ve enjoyed spending all this time with Todd, it’s time for him to go back to work. After all our running around he comes home and works and will probably hide himself away this weekend to catch up on stuff he’s got going on at the office.

One more thing. Taylor smacked Todd’s face with one of my gloves in a challenge, wherein Todd threw him down on the floor and got him in some kind of wrestling hold. Between the laughing I heard Taylor say, “Curse you and your superior body mass.” Boys!