Five Things to Know Today, April 11

Welcome to Wednesday. Here are some things to know today.

The Weather: Chilly! It just got colder overnight. The front that blew through yesterday brought some distinctly early-spring temperatures. The high today will be just 65 degrees, with a (very) low tonight of 38. But skies are blue, and temps will creep back up into the 70s on Friday.  

Gas prices haven't budged. The lowest reported for Lilburn to www.georgiagasprices.com was $3.79 (at Citgo, 331 Rockbridge Road), and the highest was $3.87 (at Citgo, 1218 Turner Road at Five Forks Trickum Road).

Trouble: Apollo 13 launched on this day in 1970 on the mission that gave the world the phrase, "Houston, we've had a problem here." Two days into the flight that was supposed to take the astronauts to the third moon landing, one of the oxygen tanks blew up when the craft was 200,000 miles from Earth. The three-man crew had to evacuate the command module and spent most of four days in the attached lunar landing module, doing impromptu engineering and navigation with remote help from Houston mission control. Despite the obstacles, Apollo 13 made it safely back to earth on April 17 with astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise.  

Erskine Caldwell: This is a good day to remember the great Southern author whose classic novels portrayed the lives of the poor, white and black, in the 1930s and 1940s with grim realism leavened with humor. Born in Coweta County in 1903 to a schoolteacher mother and a minister father, Caldwell grew up in Georgia and around the South. He won world renown with his first novel, Tobacco Road, in 1932 and followed it a year layer with God’s Little Acre. He wrote about tenant farmers, factory workers, collapsing families and lynch mobs, and poured out short stores and non-fiction as well. Caldwell died on this day in 1987.  

Pets: It’s National Pet Day, an opportunity to think about how important the mllions of pets in American homes are. Maybe it's time to think about lending a hand for animals, like donating to a local spay and neuter program or opening your home to a rescue critter. In any case, love your pets!

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