Surviving Goliath

According to the Weather Channel, it was the deadliest U.S. storm system of 2015. And we were right out in the middle of it.

::

The drive down to Abilene was (mostly) uneventful. We left on Tuesday after spending the morning packing up (and making sure the kids had a list of phone numbers in case something happened to us.)
It's a two-day drive, two nine hour days with one overnight stop in Springfield, Missouri. We had audio books to keep us entertained, when we weren't just chatting. The weather was perfect, the roads were dry and in relatively good shape, and the traffic wasn't particularly bad.

The Route to Abilene

[We had one little "adventure" in Oklahoma City when traffic stopped rather suddenly due to a left-hand exit which had become backed up, and I was forced to test the anti-lock brakes on Cheryl's car. They worked! In fact, they worked so well that I was able to bring the vehicle to a controlled stop in an incredibly short distance. Between two lanes of traffic. It was an incredible adrenaline rush! Unfortunately, it only made Cheryl more nervous than usual about my driving. As if that were even possible.]

The air was so warm and delightful when we got to Texas on  Wednesday. Got there in time for some dinner (lasagna!) and the usual mid-week service at the church. Went home for ice cream and visitation time, then to bed for a much-needed rest, after being on the road for two days.

We kept our eyes on the forecast the whole time we were there, knowing that warm air just doesn't hang around very long in the middle of winter, and, sure enough, the weather prophets started yammering about a big storm coming in. Unfortunately, it looked like the storm would be coming in right about the time we were needing to leave for home. And it would be covering roughly the same ground.

We'd been planning on leaving Sunday after church, but our route would've put us right at the edge of the ice storm making its way across the southwest. So we bugged out early, at the crack of dawn, and drove lickity-split towards Fort Worth on I-20 and then up towards Oklahoma City. But the storm was coming awfully close in, and we did not like the idea of driving across all those overpasses in OK City with the rain water turning to ice; so we took some side roads to keep as far east as possible, then turn up north to catch I-40 east (instead of I-44) until we got to Fort Smith, then north again on I-49 to I-44, which we would take all the way up to Springfield, our first stop.

The Return -- Trying to Avoid Goliath

It was a rough drive. We may have gotten ahead of the ice, but the rain was with us the whole time, and it was a hard, driving rain which obscured the view and made passing all those trucks very, very stressful. There were a million trucks. And the visibility was just horrible. Not only that, but our little detours extended the trip quite a bit; we ended up spending nearly twelve hours on the road that day.

We rested somewhat in Springfield, but morning came too soon and it was time to hit the road again.

The situation for Monday wasn't much better. The storm was still moving east, the frozen portion of it crawling slowly across the plains. We just tried to stay in the rainy part, ahead of the ice. We'd much rather be driving in the pouring rain than the deadly ice.

But, oh! what a pouring rain it was! The constant pounding of it on the car, the never-ending chorus against the windshield, the thrumming in my head like a thousand tiny hammers. And the spray from the trucks which rendered my eyes completely useless every time we came close to them. Sometimes the only part of the road I could see was the yellow line on my left.

We decided to avoid Chicago completely, owing to the wintry blasts which were heading that direction, and instead planned our route through Indianapolis and Fort Wayne in order to stay in as much of the warm air as possible. It was hard, though, because we ran into all sorts of flooding-related delays in Missouri which put us behind schedule, and by the time we got to Fort Wayne, it was late and the road reports from Michigan indicated that the roads were ice-covered and dangerous.

So we stopped for the night there in Indiana with only three hours distance between us and our home. Three hours of darkness and snowfall and ice.

It would be much safer to finish the trip in the daylight, with time allowed for the road crews to clean up the mess.

And so it was. We woke up after a restful evening and got on the road by 6:30 a.m. and arrived at our house by 9:30, without having encountered any problems. The roads were cleared, the sun was out, and we were finally home!

:::

It's hard to describe the feeling of driving at speed when you can barely see the road. Sometimes it feels like one is using "The Force" to determine where the edges of the road are; sometimes it feels like the world is going to end in a fiery crash in the next second, and every moment in which I find myself still alive is gloriously euphoric ecstasy. Experiencing this sensory overload is tolerable in small doses, but it tends to wear out its welcome after hours and hours of the same thing. By the end of each day of our trip, my brain was completely fried, my eyes dried out from all the straining to see what could not be seen, my ears ringing from the sound of the pounding rain, my hands worn out from constant clenching on the wheel. There was never a rest so appreciated than the one found after a full day of travails such as this.

I would like to think that God had a hand in the whole thing, but it is difficult to ascribe Godly intent to the success of one particular individual (or family) when so many others did not survive. That seems a bit presumptuous. Nonetheless, we appreciate the prayers of our friends and family for our safety.

Pre-Christmas Blues

Glen Campbell was born on my father's first birthday, which is kind of weird and coincidental. He also grew up in the church of Christ, which is kind of weird and coincidental. We watched a documentary on Netflix a couple months back about this group of studio musicians called "The Wrecking Crew", and, interestingly enough, Glen was one of 'em. And then we watched another documentary this week about his final tour, "I'll Be Me", which was very, very sad. Because it was like having a front-row seat to Altzheimer's.

I'd already had a front-row set to that particular disease way back when Grandma and Grandpa Meyer were living in Longview and I'd spend my weekends there (while working during the week in Seattle). Grandpa couldn't remember when he'd eaten last. He couldn't remember what time it was. He couldn't remember my name half the time. The only thing he could remember was that he loved Grandma, and she cried every time he said it. Because she was so frustrated with trying to deal with him, even knowing that his brain was slowly fading away, knowing that none of it was his fault or her fault, but that didn't make things any easier.

And watching the documentary on Glen Campbell, watching as his family had to deal with his inability to remember things, brought all those memories flooding back. Sitting in the living room in front of the huge color television with both grandparents in their respective recliners watching Hee Haw or Lawrence Welk or Golden Girls, with Grandpa asking when dinner was going to be every five minutes, and Grandma leaning forward trying to make her dead eyes see the screen which had all her favorite performers on it. Watching the tears sliding down her cheeks because life was so unfair. Her world had become darkness, and her husband was losing his mind.

In the case of Mr. Campbell, it was strange that the last ability he seemed to lose was his ability to play his guitar. Even when he couldn't remember the lyrics, his fingers still seemed to know how to play. And when those fingers finally couldn't remember anything, they knew it was time to close out the tour and go quietly into the night.

That was in 2012. In 2014, he was checked into a long-term care facility. This year, 2015, he lost the ability to speak for himself. The world would never hear his voice again outside of a recording.

It's depressing when these people, who have been icons my whole life, get old and fall apart. It's a reminder that we're all getting older and falling apart. And, as the Bible says:

"No one remembers the former generations,

    and even those yet to come

will not be remembered

    by those who follow them."

:::

It's been very stressful this past week not having a paying job and wondering when things were going to start up again. I don't really fancy the life of a contractor, not when we're living on the edge of the razor with regard to income and outgo. Even a few days of missed income is sorely missed.

Contractors normally get paid a lot because of two things: one, they never know when their next job is coming, so they have to save as much as possible when they're actually making money, kind of like teachers who have to set aside some money to make it through the summer months; two, they have to pay for their own health insurance, which is beyond ridiculous these days. Unfortunately, since I haven't been contracting very long, we haven't set things up on that basis yet. So there's a bit of a panic that ensues when suddenly one contract is up and the other hasn't quite started yet.

So when the word came down that another contract was going to start soon, we breathed a very tiny sigh of relief, and then got very nervous while waiting for the paperwork to get done so we could actually get started.

It took most of the week.

We finally started working on Friday, and then there was a mad scramble to get in as many hours as possible before the end of the pay period (which is Saturday); but it's still going to be a very short week (i.e. a very small paycheck), and that's not necessarily a good thing when Christmastime is right around the corner. We've been so busy fretting about all the things going on around here, we've had barely a thought about Christmas. Which is just as well. There's no room to put up a tree, and there isn't a lot of money to spend on presents, and the basement still isn't done yet, and I'm frankly just not in the mood for it.

Haven't been in the mood for it in several years, actually.

Last year, I was fretting about getting all the Christmas cards done and mailed while trying to finish the basement plans so we could get the permit and get started working on it.

The year before, there was so much going on that we didn't even have time or energy to write or send out cards, except to immediate family.

Every year, seems the worst stress comes around Christmastime. We just can't keep up with all the things we're supposed to be doing, like getting out cards and shopping for presents and finding time to visit with friends and family and taking vacation time to rest and relax before we have to go back to the old grind once the new year rolls around.

We read about our friends and relatives on Facebook taking vacations to Hawaii and Florida and the ski slopes and DisneyWorld  and other fantastic places and wonder if perhaps there's something wrong with because we don't go to amusement parks or campgrounds or resorts, we don't lay out in the sun and get tan while drinking fancy fruit drinks or hang out by the fireplace at the ski slope and drink hot chocolate and we're probably denying our children some incredible experiences.

But how can we enjoy ourselves at those exotic locations when there's so much that needs to be done at home?

And once it's done, once we've gotten it to be the perfect little home we wanted, why on earth would we want to go spend our free time somewhere else? That just doesn't make any sense.

Unless it's visiting family. Or friends. Those are good reasons to go someplace.

:::

We've been studying a lot of Asperger's literature in order to better understand Adam. And the more we study the subject of mental processes and their aberrant disorders, the more we are able to identify the aberrant behaviors in our own seemingly "neurotypical" brains.

For example, I cannot handle choices. Too many choices overwhelm my brain. And I'm not talking about trying to decide which cereal to get when faced with an entire grocery aisle containing hundreds of different brands. I'm talking about deciding whether to route the wire to the outlet box horizontally through the studs (which means boring holes through all the studs) or vertically from the joist (which means boring holes through all the joists and then down into the stud wall). I have spent hours contemplating those kinds of choices. Which may explain in some small way why it is taking me so incredibly long to get the electrical work done in the basement.¹

There are lots of neuro-atypical behaviors in this family. Some of us cannot look people in the eye when we're talking to them. Some of us get extremely nervous and jumpy when in crowds. Some of us are exhausted by social interaction. Some of us respond to stress by mindlessly stroking an object of clothing until it wears out.

The spectrum of behavior is very wide, and we're all on it somewhere. Our family tends to bunch towards the introverted end of the scale, right close to the drop-off where shades of autism start to darken the lines. When you walk into our house, you will not find a bunch of kids bouncing off the walls in need of a jog around the park; you will typically hear the soft strains of music leaking from headphones and the pitter-patter of little fingers typing on keyboards or iPods, each in his or her own room, each in his or her own little world. Those inquiring for playmates to engage in physically demanding games will not find takers. And woe unto you who disturb a reader immersed in a well-written story, for your name shall be Mud and you shall be cast out forevermore!

Yet we are not really that unique, not (at least) among the set of people of our close acquaintance. Perhaps it is merely a case of "like calls to like". Perhaps it is because our children associate with other children of the same mindset, and we are pulled into close orbit with those families which display the same idiosyncratic behaviors. Perhaps it is because we don't know what to do with people who dress up in their favorite sports teams' attire and spend far too much money to go sit in football stadiums in the middle of winter to cheer on groups of people they don't even know in the hopes that they will win a game that has very little significance in the grand scheme of things.

For the most part, we're happy in our delusions of neuro-typicalness. It's everyone else who is weird.

---

¹There are very simple rules to follow when wiring a house. They are all specified in the National Electrical Code (as amended by the specific State or Local guidelines). But they are not all as obvious as one might think.

For example, the Code says that all basement wiring has to be ground-fault protected. But should I use ground-fault outlets everywhere or just use a GFCI circuit breaker for each branch circuit?  If I have to add an extra branch to an existing branch that is already behind drywall, should I split the line between two junction boxes in the ceiling so I don't have to remove the wall, or just rip off the drywall and do the whole thing from scratch?

The same thing happens when I work on the car(s). A (relatively) simple fix ends up taking days because I'm contemplating all the possible ways it could be done. It took me a couple weeks to fix a bad brake line because I had to figure out the optimum route for the new line in order to avoid going up and over the gas tank (where the original line was routed).

Trepidation at the New Week

I still don't have a job yet.

It's kind of weird to think about because I have an office with a desk with a computer and a phone, but there is currently nothing for me to do, and if I don't hurry up and find something to do, there will be nothing on my paycheck. Naturally, it's making Cheryl very nervous. I'm not nearly so worried about it, just annoyed. Because there is work to be done, and there's going to be money coming in as soon as we start the work, but right now the two companies involved haven't agreed on all the terms.

Typical. The customer wants us to take all the risks and get paid next to nothing for it. We want them to pay for the work we're going to do, and to take responsibility for things that go wrong which are not our fault. Like, for example, finding out that the software we're supposed to be testing isn't really ready yet and we might have to re-run a bunch of tests. They want us to do re-runs on our own nickel, and we say Nope.

This is the kind of stuff that drove me crazy when I was doing Project Management. Dealing with customers who want Everything for Nothing. I know why they do it: their managers tie their pay and bonuses to their ability to swing a "deal". Which in this context is very nearly the same thing as a "swindle". But it's really stupid. We're not trying to cheat anyone here. We're trying to make enough money to pay our bills and give our employees a reasonable wage. After all, most of these guys have to get by in-between gigs. And pay their own insurance. Have you seen what it takes to get insurance on your own these days? Forget it.

I'm hoping to get a call tomorrow morning telling me that we are approved to start working. We already have a deadline to complete the tests, and every day we have to wait is one more day we'll have to work all the more faster to get it done on time. And you know the customer will start screaming if we even hint that it will be hard to make the deadline! Personally, I just want to keep the money coming in so that the CFO here at home is happy. Or at least not angry.

:::

We had our Family Meeting tonight but James wasn't able to attend, owing to the fact that he was Skyping with Tabea (and they were both falling asleep!), but we already know what he is doing this week: working crazy hours so he can save up enough money to get back to Germany. He's still thinking end of February. Which is fast approaching. December is almost over! January is almost here! Which means February is right around the corner.

December is almost over, Christmas Break is almost here -- one more week! -- and then the kids are out of school for a couple weeks. Adam has his exams Monday and Tuesday. Deb is grabbing as much work as she can; she's enjoying this thing of having money in her pocket. She did a little bit of shopping at Old Navy tonight and got a great deal on some very comfy outfits. Which she's currently wearing. She loves her cotton sweatpants! Mary is focusing on her (endless) homework. And her fan fiction, which she reads voraciously.  Did you know there was a fan fiction crossover series with Harry Potter (as a female) and Daredevil (from the Netflix series)? Nope, neither did I. That is just weird.

We're looking forward to getting down to Texas for the holidays. If it's as warm down there as it has been here lately, it's going to be a bizarre Christmas. It was over 60 degrees today! Of course, the weatherman says it'll be snowing by Friday, but the way things have been going, it might just melt away by the time we head south. I hope so. I don't enjoy driving on the interstate in the snow. Around here, it's easy because I know all the routes and alternates, and can anticipate the curves in the roads. But on the interstate, there's all those icky trucks and things which have 'momentum' and 'mass' and get pushed around by 'wind'. And I don't like being anywhere near them when traveling.

I still remember that winter back during college when it took me 24 hours to drive across the state of Illinois (on the way to Grandma's house in Indiana) and the roads were all icy and there were trucks sliding off all over the place and the adrenalin was pumping through my system so much that I couldn't think straight; it was enough simply to keep the car between the lines on the road -- when I could see them.

I'd still rather drive than fly, though. And it's a sad state of affairs in the US when I'd rather drive than fly. I love to fly. But I do not care for the current process. Nor am I completely confident of the condition of the aircraft which are flying. Sometimes it doesn't pay to know too much about how those things work.

:::

The basement is still moving along, but very, very slowly. Far too slowly for Cheryl. And I'm being a real butt about it. It's my house, my basement, my wiring, and after the fiasco with the plumbing company, I don't want anyone else touching my basement. Except for drywall. I don't mind someone else doing the drywall. But I want to know what's behind it! And I'm a bloody perfectionist about the technical stuff. I've got the design done just the way I want it, and that's the way I want it implemented.

I'm hoping it'll be ready for the rough-in inspection in the next couple of days. There's a couple of things I have to tidy up. But that shouldn't take too long.

I hope.

Reading Up on Things

We've been doing a lot of research on the Aspergers thing, trying to figure out what it is we're supposed to do in order to provide support and affirmation and all those things that parents want so desperately to provide for our children. Most of what we've read has to do with the alternate reality / universe that exists for Aspergians, how they view the world from a strictly logical viewpoint which so very rarely synchronizes with neurotypical folk, how they get so very frustrated trying to figure out the rules of society because those rules don't make sense. Society does not run on logic, but on people's ability to figure out what other people are thinking and/or feeling. Which Aspergians cannot do without lots of help.

I can't come up with a good analogy in order to understand what is going on inside my son's head. But one of the books -- which was actually written by someone with Asperger's -- mentioned that he (the writer) managed to "get by" in public by putting on other personas. And I can totally relate to that. Because as an introvert, it is impossible for me to go out in public without putting on a kind of mask. Sometimes the mask is only a slight departure from my "normal" self; other times, it's so completely different from the 'me' inside that I wonder if I'm suffering from multiple-personality disorder.

Being around kids is easy for me because my internal maturity level froze up around the age of seventeen. That was a great year. I could've stayed that age forever. But then there was graduation and college and career, and it became necessary to act a lot more mature than I really am. Yuck.

It's very difficult to be around adults, especially adults that expect me to behave mature. I'd rather be doing crafts with my Sunday School class, which consists of third and fourth graders. They know how to have fun! And they don't take life quite so seriously. After all, what's important in life, anyway? Having fun. Having snacks. Knowing that God (our Eternal Parent) is in charge and everything will be Fine. Oh, and nap time. That's important, too!

Dealing with adults, though, means I have to put on a Big Person mask. Talk about Big Person stuff. Like Work. Relationships. Theology. Issues.

That's hard work. Exhausting. So I can't wait to get home and take off all the masks and just be myself. If I have to be mature and adult all day long, it wears me out.

And if it's that hard for me, it's a lot harder for someone with Asperger's. At least I can read people's body language and facial expressions and tone of voice to figure out appropriate responses. But people with Asperger's are playing darts in the dark, just hoping to get something on the board.

It's amazing that of them have become very successful, married, had kids, actually faked their way into a seemingly "normal" life. They managed to create a persona that fit in with the rest of the world, at least for awhile. But there was always something ... odd ... about them. Like one of those absent-minded professors. Except some of them weren't professors. And it went a bit beyond absent-mindedness. And their families just couldn't figure out what was going on with them. Sometimes things worked out. Other times, things started to go south and everything fell apart.

We don't want that for Adam. He's incredibly smart, he's a lot of fun to be around (if you're into languages and games), he can be very sweet and affectionate when it suits him. He has such incredible potential.

Now we just need to figure out how to help him achieve that potential.

The Quiet Days

I haven't worked since Monday. I mean, I've worked, like, working on the house, in the basement, that kind of thing. But I haven't done any actual work for which a salary is earned.

Things are going to get interesting around here very soon if one of the many job opportunities doesn't pan out.

And there are many job opportunities around here. Oodles. Maybe not right in line with my career goals, but there is no want for work around here. No one has an excuse to starve around here (unless they feel that work is beneath them).

I talked to a recruiter today and filled out a couple job applications outside the context of my current employer, who has not yet provided any solid information about an available positions. It's maddening to work for a company which is supposed to be one of the biggest job placement firms in the world, and get nothing. Perhaps I'm expecting too much, too soon. But I'm impatient to get over this lull and move onto something else.

But this last gig really spoiled me rotten. Being a Systems Engineer and helping to build three flight simulation labs, getting to work with one of the most friendly groups of people I've ever met, actually looking forward to coming to work each day -- well, that's very hard to beat. Anything after that, short of going to Mars, is a let-down.

So my days are spent filling out more applications and calling recruiters and doing lots of on-line research to find out where the fun jobs are. That, and working on the basement.

:::

Finishing up the electrical work is a good way of going back over the original prototype design for the basement and discovering things that weren't done properly. Like the walls near the office door, down at the bottom of the stairs. I was wiring up the outlet near the bottom of the stairs when it occurred to me that the intersection of the door and the wall was wrong. Because no provision had been made for hanging drywall.

That is, the short wall I'd built to hang the office door on intersected the back wall in a place where there was no supporting stud. So the drywall could only be hung on the short wall and not on the back wall.

Like this:

So I could either move the interior studs closer in, or add some additional studs on either side. It would be easiest to move the existing studs, but that destroys the aesthetics of the stud wall, leaving an irregular gap between the studs, like this:

Sometimes, though, the aesthetics go out the window when the schedule (or budget) is tight.
So now it'll look more like this:

I thought about putting extra studs in-between the outer and inner ones, just to keep it from being some ridiculously large gap, but so long as the foam insulation can be cut to fit -- and it comes in 4x8 sheets -- there's no worry. The wall is not load-bearing.

:::

Tonight was the Holiday Band Concert, which is probably the longest concert of the year, bordering on two hours. Cheryl and I worked the booster table, selling Keycard books and Scrip cards and taking the money for the Florida trip, then dashed inside to catch the performance before heading out to the table again.

I am completely awed by my wife's ability to remember the names of all these people. They all come up to her as if she is some long-lost friend, calling her by name, smiling and giving her money. And she greets them (mostly) by name, too. Of course, she also knows each of the kids in the band and orchestra by name, so it isn't that much of a surprise. I know some of the kids in the Marching Band and some of the kids in the Orchestra (especially the ones who are in the Robotics club), but other than that, I'm clueless.

Makes me proud to be her husband. She is obviously well-respected in the community!

I had fun, too. She even let me sell a couple of the Keycard books! (I do best with checks, though; cash and I are not on good terms anymore.)

After the concert -- which was amazing, and Deb got to stand and be recognized for her amazing skills on the flute and/or piccolo -- we went home and had ice cream. And Deb, who has a soft spot for her old man, bought me some peanut butter cups! Which means I'll have to brush my teeth extra-carefully tonight.

I hope something comes up with the job soon. Otherwise, I'll have nothing to do but work on the basement...

Senior Preview

Deb is a Senior! (But you knew that...)

Survival is questionable. Survival at work, survival at home, survival in the sense that there are teenagers in the house and my brain is constantly fried trying to deal with them.

A few weeks back, Deb had her senior pictures taken by a good friend of ours from church who is a professional photographer. The pictures turned out very well, as you can see from the sample above. (Please don't print them; your copies are forthcoming.) In fact, they turned out too well. I'm considering the idea of locking her in her room until she turns 30. Otherwise, she might get bothered by all those horrible "boys". And then I might have to take some serious action.

The amazing thing about the pictures is that, for the first time in memory, she is actually smiling. With teeth. It's a miracle! Probably the only pictures of her teeth that we've ever seen, outside the dentist office.

She is focused now on surviving her senior year, passing her classes, especially the AP classes and the college writing classes. And her job. She's working at Old Navy now. Which leaves her very little time (thankfully!) to deal with icky boys. There is hope for her yet!

:::

There is still nothing definitive on the work side of things. Today was the last day of my contract, but there are two good job opportunities which have come up. I'm still waiting to hear back from them. They both said, "We need someone NOW!" But they're a bit slow on the response time. Either way, I'm not too worried about it. I've got plenty of other work to do around here.  Like the basement. I'll just consider this a cheaper way of getting the work done. Instead of paying someone else to do it, I'll pay myself! And get it done my way!

But in reality, Cheryl won't be happy until I've got another contract and the income is guaranteed. So this week is going to be all about locking down that next job.

:::

On the surface, it seems that a basement wiring should be a simple thing to accomplish. Down in the basement, however, there are all sorts of complications that arise, slowing progress, causing me endless consternation.

I had to add some outlets for the kitchenette which had been overlooked in the drawing; this pushed my load limit over the line for the branch circuits I'd already devised, so it was necessary to create an additional 20-amp branch to cover the microwave and refrigerator. But there was no more room on the basement wall near the breaker panel to run the lines without running into the plumbing and gas lines.

Cramming all those lines on the wall is a bit of a challenge. It would be easier to re-route the wiring in another direction, but that would require drilling holes through a lot of overhead joists, and there's a limit to how many holes can go in them before their strength is compromised. And I'm generally nervous about compromising the strength of structures which are keeping the upper stories from falling on my head.

There's also the issue of needing to cut into existing lines in order to extend a branch to cover a new wall outlet. Especially when the existing lines are behind drywall that cannot be removed because it was glued to the studs by the original builders. (Grumble grumble grumble.) 

This particular branch runs along the top of the south wall near the back windows, dipping down every so often to pick up an outlet which is located by the window ledge. The new wall runs perpendicular to the south wall, forming one of the bedroom walls, and the outlet serves both the living room and the new bedroom. The branch that runs along the top of the south wall is an obvious choice to pull from; unfortunately, the south wall is also the one wall in the basement which was "finished" by the original builders, and instead of simply relying on screws to hold the drywall on the studs, they decided to use Concrete Nails as well. Which means it's very, very messy to try and break into the wall in order to modify the appropriate wires.

There's a solution, of course, but it's tricky.

Obviously, a junction box is required so that the new line can be added in. The problem is that there isn't enough wire available to just drop in a junction box and tie in the new line. Each line into the junction box needs at least six inches of wire inside the box. So it is necessary to add two junction boxes (in series) to give enough slack in the old line. Which makes it a bit messy, but functional.

I checked the code to make sure there was no limit on the number of junction boxes in a line.

There are not.

Still, it's far from ideal. The ideal solution would be to remove the drywall and add the new line directly from the existing outlet, probably running straight across instead of up to the joists and then down again. But then there's all that cleanup. And scraping old glue off studs. Ick.

Some days, there just isn't enough time for ideal. 

Leftover Day

It's Friday, though it feels like a Saturday. It should feel like a Friday because I actually went in to work today, but it feels like a Saturday because my mind wasn't really on my work so much as it was on the things I needed to do when I got home.

The refrigerator is stuffed with food from yesterday. Oh, did I mention that yesterday was Thanksgiving? Yes, you already knew that. Hopefully you were celebrating the day with friends and family (and pets), sitting around yapping while stuffing lots of yummy things into your pie-hole. Including pie.

We had turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and green been casserole and rolls and gravy and sweet potatoes with brown sugar and walnuts and a veggie platter shaped liked a turkey and apple pie and pecan pie and pumpkin cheesecake and a whole lot of other wonderful things to eat. And we had a very dear family as our guests, with lots of good conversation and silly games and funny stories. And at the end of the evening, we split up all the leftovers so that each family had more than enough to keep them going for another few days.

There was plenty of food. And we are so thankful for all that we have.

And we are very thankful for all that has been given to us, including our friends and our families and our jobs and our houses and our cars and our pets (mostly) and even the fact that the weather is turning cold so that we might (eventually) experience some real snow, the kind that piles up to five or six feet and lasts until mid-Spring so that we can all get our exercise shoveling it.

Believe me, after all that food we ate, we're going to need all the exercise we can get!

::

We got up on Thursday in time to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade. It was weird. The show had more musical acts than it did marching bands and floats and balloons. I mean, seriously! What's the point of having a Thanksgiving Day parade when the majority of the 'action' was essentially promos for Broadway shows? Each of the 'acts' stopped in front of Macy's and did their bit, and then moved on, often a little bit before they were actually done. I imagine that the float drivers were getting a bit annoyed with the delay and just decided to drive on. At least, that's what I hope was going on. If not, was weird that they would drive off before the performance was done. On purpose.

The 'parade' was over before we knew it, and then it was time for our annual tradition of watching Miracle on 35th Street (the classic version). We watched it in honor of Maureen O'Hara, who died this year. She did a great job in the movie. I decided to watch the colorized version of it this year to see what she looked like with her actual red hair. Funny how the mind forgets about things like color when getting into the story, though. I paid attention to the color at the beginning, but by the end, I had completely forgotten about it.

Our guests arrived around 2 pm, and we spent most of the rest of the day eating and yapping and watching the kids play card games.

::

It was hard to get going on the basement this morning because James was sleeping most of the day. He works 3rd shift and has been sleeping downstairs, but I may have to change that tomorrow. I really, really need to get some work done down there. Maybe I can convince him to sleep upstairs on the couch. It's mostly quiet in the living room these days. All the kids sit in their rooms and do homework or browse the web or read; hardly anyone comes downstairs during the day when they're not in school. Except me and Cheryl.

But I finally managed to get one of the circuits done, the one that will be above the kitchenette, running the appliances. Installed a couple GFCIs. They were not easy to install since the screws on the side did not loosen enough to slip the wire around the screw head so the loop could be formed. It took quite a bit of finagling to get the wire wrapped around the screw-post. I could've used the plug-in slots, but those are a real pain if the outlets need to be swapped out later on, so I like to do things the old-fashioned way.

Tomorrow I need to finish adding two of the new circuits and get the lighting circuit split according to the plan. Not putting too many eggs in one basket, you know. I switched it up so that there are two lighting circuits in the basement, and they alternate between rooms so that no two adjoining rooms have the same lighting circuit ... so in case one circuit goes out, there's still plenty of light down there.

Almost, Maine for Four Nights Running

I had such a good time attending the play. Four nights in a row. Dress Rehearsal, Opening Night, Friday Night, Closing Night. Watching each night to see what was different about each performance, who missed lines, who got nervous, who positively nailed it.

Mary was amazing. She had her lines down like I could only dream of, and her character was so hilarious! And, of course, she got to kiss the boy! Three or four times. I lost count.

The highest energy level seemed to be Opening Night. Everyone was so nervous, but there wasn't a lot of flubbery going on. Perhaps some "improvisational adjustment". But the audience was responsive and everyone did well.

Friday was not quite so energetic; the kids looked really tired, and there were some pauses that hadn't been there before. But the audience made up for it by being more responsive and appreciative of the humorous lines, so it worked out.

Saturday, the kids were still tired but not quite so tired as before; perhaps it helped them to get a little extra sleep Saturday morning. The audience was really excited, though, and that helped a great deal, so it was even better than Friday night.

My favorite, though, was still Thursday night. Something about the raw, nervous energy just lit the stage up.

:::

The play "Almost, Maine" is a series of nine vignettes about Love. It attempts to address a number of different types of romantic relationships, reflecting some of the "modern" societal viewpoints concerning the pursuit of romance. Mary's scene was comical in that her character, who recently lost her husband, believes that the spirits of the dead appear in the Northern Lights, carrying torches to light their way to heaven. Or something like that. She attempts to camp out on the lawn of a northern Maine repairman, carrying her "broken heart" in a bag, so that can see her husband off on his journey and apologize to him for inadvertently causing his death. She meets the repairman, who wants to know why she pitched a tent on his lawn, and he proceeds, via a series of hilarious dialogs, to obtain the bag with her heart in it so that he can repair it.

Mary had an incredible amount of dialog in that scene, and she rattled it off like those kids who can recite a thousand digits of pi. I have no clue where she got the ability to do that. But the the most amazing thing about her scene was that she got to kiss the exchange student from New Zealand! With the way cool accent! And it was her first kiss! Ever!

(By now her old Dad is hoping she's tired of that whole kissing business and will avoid it for the next ten years or so...)

Naturally, ol' Dad had to have a talk with the boy to find out if he's worthy of his daughter's affections, even the play-acting variety. He's a nice enough kid: tall, handsome, talented, well-spoken, polite. A runner. And Dad was impressed to discover that the boy's dad, a civil engineer, moved his family to Christchurch to help rebuild the city after the earthquake back in 2011. Appears to come from a good family.

Too bad he has to go back to New Zealand in January (which is their summer). Oh, well, I'm sure Mary will find plenty of other things to do in the meantime. Like study. And read. Which is just about all there is in life for her at this point.

::

Saturday was James's 20th birthday, so we had our traditional birthday dinner followed by ice cream and cake.  But we had to do it early because we were heading over to the school to watch the play. Well, at least Cheryl and I and Adam were going; James and Deb had already gone on Opening Night.

Hard to believe he's already 20 years old. And that he'll be moving back to Germany to be with Tabea as soon as possible, probably late February. Meanwhile, he's working third shift at the grocery store stocking shelves to build up his cash reserves for the big move. Once he starts school over there, he doesn't plan on coming back. Which means we'll be needing to save up some money so we can go see him over there!

::

With all the play attending lately, the basement has been getting the short end of the stick. But I tried to make up for it on Saturday by devoting most of the day to it. Didn't get very far, though. Only got to work til it was time to head over to the school again. And that wasn't nearly enough time to finish up what I had started -- rewiring the bathroom after the plumbers had made me take it all apart. I made a few design changes now that I had the chance. Simplified some of the wiring. Fixed a few little things that had been bothering me. And took my time because I didn't want to have to go back and do it again.

Didn't have much energy on Sunday afternoon, not after dealing with two classes full of high-energy children. My first class was only six kids, but they were all full of questions about the Bible lesson and it was a lot of work to keep them on task without going off on tangents. We did some Bible trivia games and then they got down to reading and answering questions about the text (Genesis 27).

The second class was a bit younger, and there were sixteen of 'em, so the energy quotient shot up exponentially. Just me and one of the elders, and boy! did we have our hands full. It didn't help that they all decided it was time for a bathroom break at the start of class. Well, you know how it goes: one says they have to go, and then suddenly they all take up the call, and before you know it, the entire classroom is echoing with the plaintive cries of, "Mr. Meyer! I gotta gooooooo!!"  And with some of those kids, you just can't take a chance they might be faking. Because some of them can fake themselves out to the point where they'll lose control just by their own power of suggestion.

Good thing the preacher upstairs was going long. The kids needed the extra time to replenish their liquid reserves after expending it all. So the last ten minutes of class was spent cycling the kids through the water fountain before sending them back upstairs to their parents.

One of these days, I'm going to convince the parents to make sure the kids take care of their potty breaks before they bring them down for class.

Right.

After church, I was so tired I didn't even bother to try to work on the basement. Just had some lunch and then took a nice, long nap. Man, that felt good! By the time I got up again, it was time to head out the door to the Writer's Group dinner, which was over at the Twisted Rooster restaurant. One of our regular attendees had suggested it; nay, she had demanded it. So we showed up.

We had a wonderful time with the other writers who were there. It had been a few months since last we'd seen each other, owing to the unfortunate demise of our group. One of the group is now a famous author; the rest have become so busy in one fashion or another such that maintaining a semi-weekly meeting is too difficult to fit into the schedule. But we still maintain contact through Facebook.

Oddly enough, the young lady who had made the arrangements to meet at the restaurant failed to show up. As I found out later, even though she had put it on her calendar a couple weeks go, she forgot about it. That's how incredibly busy her life has become. Which explains why she was having difficulty attending our semi-weekly meetings!

We missed her (and the famous author), but we enjoyed the company who had come. I look forward to the next time we're able to try to meet up again. They are some very fascinating folks!

Dress Rehearsal ... for Life?

Let me tell you about the keynote to my day, which was actually very near the beginning of my day, which is when blood sugar is low and hope is high and everyone is in the right mood (on a Wednesday) to receive all manner of news, especially of the 'doom & gloom' variety.

My boss's boss, the man who controls the purse-strings (or at least pleads for the money from the people who have the purse), called me out of the lab and told me that my last day on the contract would be November 30th. Which was a few days earlier than I had been told previously. Which means that I'm now in a mad scramble to find work. Right before Christmas.

This does not sit well with the CFO, as we have numerous plans for completing the basement and getting the kids in college and a myriad of other goals which require monies which we don't have.

On the good side of things, there are companies hiring around here and I have lots of contacts with people in various industries, so it is highly likely I'll find something soon.

On the other hand, I hate looking for work.

:::

The Fall Play had it's Dress Rehearsal tonight, and I was the only parent in the auditorium. This surprised me. I would've thought many parents would take the opportunity to come out and see the kids and take pictures because there aren't a million other people crowding the stage and everyone is more relaxed than during a regular performance and Dress Rehearsals can be so funny! because something always goes wrong and it's not a big deal and everyone can laugh about it.

Mary did an amazing job with her scene. She had her dialogue and blocking down, and it was funny and poignant all at the same time, and the fact that I'm her #1 fan had nothing to do with it. And she was so cute in her costume! Which was really nothing more than a warm winter outfit: hat, coat, gloves, scarf, boots. The kind of outfit we're going to be seeing a lot very soon around here.

The entire play was done well, given the hiccups that normally occur during a Dress Rehearsal -- like loud noises offstage during quiet moments onstage, long pauses when lines are not as well memorized as one would like, slightly missed lighting and/or sound cues, and occasional loss of focus by the actors. But it was highly enjoyable. Even if I had to watch my daughter getting kissed by some guy onstage! She took it all in stride, of course. She's practically a professional.

:::

There's this nurse where I got to get my allergy shot who is an expert on giving shots. She's such an expert that you don't even feel it when the needle goes in. (Of course, you can feel it when the allergen cocktail starts to swell inside your arm before it starts getting absorbed by your system, but that can't be helped.) I love it when she gives me my shot. Getting a shot from her is like getting a lollipop from the dentist.

But this other lady - whoo, boy! She's a killer. When she takes the needle in her hand, it's wincing time. Because she jabs the needle in hard, and I swear she twists it around a few times searching for just the right angle before she pushes the plunger and injects the poison beneath my skin. After she's done with my arm, it feels like Bluto has just hit me with brass knuckles.

So guess which nurse was on duty this week? Let me give you a hint: I was desperately looking around for a can of spinach while sitting in the waiting room...

It didn't help that this last injection gave me a bit more of a reaction than normal, either. I had been feeling quite fine up til the point when I went in for the shot, and immediately afterward, it felt like a cold had flew up my nose and settled in for a long winter's nap. Itching, sinus pressure, sneezing, drippiness, aching. It felt awful for a couple days, and today my arm is still sore!

I'm hoping all the effects will be gone tomorrow so I can finally get some good sleep.

:::

Tomorrow is Opening Night, and the play goes through Saturday. I'm planning on being at every performance because I'm a theater geek, and this is my last kid in school, and I'm going to make the most of the opportunity to hang out in the auditorium with Dave the Sound Guy and Mel the Director Guy and all the other Theater Geeks because I've never gotten over the bug I picked up in High School and secretly hope that some producer from New York will spot me in the audience and say, Hey! You look like an actor, how about helping out with a Broadway show? To which I'd modestly say, When do I start?

Not really. I have too many responsibilities here, and, besides, I can't remember the lyrics to The Happy Birthday Song, much less the lyrics to A Little Night Music (although I can do Hotel California and Bohemian Rhapsody quite well, thank you!). And my prop- and set-building skills still leave a lot to be desired.

But one can always dream...

What the Future will Bring

The end of my contract is five weeks away and my mind is starting to turn to the topic of What Happens Next? because it takes a while to get new jobs lined up and there isn't a lot on the horizon in the local area and my LinkedIn account hasn't been updated in a long time and I've been having so much fun with my current job that I haven't been in the mood to look elsewhere.

Plus my brain, when not engaged during the normal working day, is completely obsessed with trying to get the basement done. So there hasn't been much time to think about it.

Maybe 1% to 5% of my brain.

I've been trying to get a few things done downstairs but it's one of those things where I need an entire, solid day of nothing-but-the-basement in order to get anything done. I can't start anything unless there are hours and hours available, because there's no point in starting something and then getting distractions every two hours because it takes me so long to get re-started that nothing gets done before the next distraction comes along.

Thursday was a sick day; lots of body aches and lethargy that didn't allow much of anything in the way of accomplishment. Friday was exhausting at work so there was nothing left by the time I got home; we had Papa Murphy's and watched Fury Road and then it was time for bed.

Saturday was the final wrap-up of the season for the Marching Band Pit Crew. We met at the high school parking lot and winterized everything (putting the podiums in the big trailer, pulling the batteries out of the tractors, putting stabilizer in the fuel lines, cleaning up all the trash / debris, getting the vehicles ready to be parked for the winter back in the bus barn). Then we went out to Bob Evans for breakfast (my favorite meal!) and talked about the season, what went right and what went wrong. Man, those guys can really get yapping when they get the chance!

By the time we were done, it was nearly 11 and time for lunch. But I was anxious to get started on the basement, and James was willing to pitch in, so I gave him a few assignments and he got right to it. He secured the fence around his mother's blueberry bush (to keep the deer off), then fixed the basement wall where the plumber had "stolen" a stud. While I finished up the basement shower wall supports and then worked on the electrical, trying to figure out how I'm going to break up one circuit (which has too many loads) and wire in two additional circuits.

Today, Sunday, was one of those all-day headaches. Probably sinuses. The temperature outside was a bit unusual for mid-November, but very comfortable. I taught Sunday School and then Children's Church, and then was going to work on the basement but first had to go out to the store to get additional circuit breakers and by the time I got back, my head was aching too hard for me to get anything done, so I took a fifteen minute nap and then suddenly it was dinnertime and Cheryl and I had to go out to our Bible Study group, which was meeting back at the church (owing to the fact that the host couple was sick; and, besides, two of the children of one of our small-group members were getting baptized at the church after youth group, which meets from 6:30 - 8:30). Actually, when we got to the church, we found that our small group had decided to just attend the youth group worship service, so we did, too; and then we went into the big auditorium and witnessed the baptisms; and then we went home.

This coming week is the final week for Mary's play. Two nights of Tech rehearsal, then the Dress Rehearsal, then three performance nights. I'm hoping to attend all the actual performances, including the Dress Rehearsal, but we'll see how things go. Once that wraps up on Saturday, she'll be moving on to her Second Session of Driving Instruction, which is only three days long (mostly dealing with how to parallel park), and then she'll be getting ready to take her driving test. And become a full-fledged driver. And maybe even get a job. Although with the number of AP classes she's taking, it would be preferable if she waited a while on that.

James has his job at Meijer now, working 3rd shift (stocking shelves), so he and Deb will be time-sharing Ruby. Can't wait to see how well that works out! Eventually, I'm hoping to get Serenity working again so Deb and James can take Serenity II and Mary can drive Ruby.

It's nice that at least two of the kids are working. I really enjoyed the time when Adam was working, too, and hope he finds something else soon. He was so cheerful and confident, and even though it didn't appear that he cared about making money, it was fantastic to see him smiling again. Ah, he has a lovely smile!

Not too long from now, we'll all be smiling again, because it will be Thanksgiving and there'll be lots of yummy food to eat! With pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes and gravy and whipped cream and biscuits and all sorts of other delectibles. Oooh, I can't wait.

New Tires, Still Tired

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Just when I got the cars all running again, and starting to get caught up on the basement work, Deb's laptop decided to die.

Starts to boot up into Windows, then dies. Claims that the Windows boot-up files are missing or corrupted or something. Tried to run the "Repair" utility, but it didn't accomplish anything.

So I took the drive out of the laptop and hooked it up to my Linux box using a SATA to USB converter, essentially turning it into a pseudo-flash drive, and ran a virus checker on it.

Seven viruses. Oh, joy.

Removed the viruses, but the damage had already been done. The Windows files were gone. And I don't have the original DVD installation disk because I purchased the laptop second-hand at the PC Recycle shop. Supposedly there's a way to re-install Windows by going to some website -- it was on the paperwork they gave us when we bought the thing -- but I can't find any paperwork nowadays because everything has been stored away while the basement is being finished, and, besides, I'm too lazy.

I have a Linux Mint CD and I'm not afraid to use it.

So some time in the next couple days I'm going to install Linux on her laptop (after backing up all her files off the hard drive) and get it usable again.

After I start feeling better.

:::

I've felt lousy all day long. Probably because everyone else is getting sick with colds and flu and whatever else is floating around in the air. Deb took the day off school today, coughing and aching. A couple of guys at work have been hacking and coughing, too.  Thanks for coming in to work and sharing, guys!

It was such a beautiful day today. Even if I had been feeling better, I might've taken the afternoon off anyway. There's a storm coming in tonight with forecasted winds of 50 mph and the temperature is going to plummet, so it might turn out to be the last few warm days before real winter, and who wants to spend all that time indoors? As it was, though, I was feeling very ill and just wanted to sleep, so I took off around 2 pm and napped until nearly 3:30,

James and Cheryl cooked up a fabulous dinner tonight, coming up with a very tasty sauce to go over some delicious spinach ravioli; and a spicy cucumber salad. Yum! Then they went to the grocery store after dinner to pick up a few things. Like chocolate donuts and ice cream. Because we here in Michigan have to pack on the extra fat during the fall in order to make it through the winter months.

Or at least that's what we tell ourselves.

:::

Got some new wheels and tires for Deb's car. So lately she's had a new radiator, new exhaust system, new wheels and new tires. Now all she needs is a new main seal and she's all set! But we're not going to do that unless we absolutely have to. Right now, the car is running very well and we wanted to make sure it had adequate traction for the winter. The old tires were OK for spring and summer driving, tread-wise, but they just weren't going to provide the safety we wanted, so I went to my good friend Kevin, one of the pit crew dads, and he set me up with a full set. Including wheels, because I'm going to take the old wheels and put them on Serenity, and put the snow tires & wheels (which are currently on Serenity) in the garage. So when the snow gets deep enough, we'll put the snow tires on Ruby.

Ka-ching! Ka-ching!  -- is the soundtrack of our life lately.

Don't ask if we're spending too much money on an old car. We are. But I'd rather put money I have into a car I know than money I don't have into a car I don't know.

Next up (unless otherwise noted) is a new parking brake for my car. So the kids can drive it. And then I can get back to my original Serenity and get that engine working!

(After the basement is done, of course...)

Sunday Afternoon Shower Construction

Saturday was going to be my big day to work uninterrupted on the basement. Which it was. Mostly. Except for a few distractions here and there.

The biggest accomplishment was rebuilding the shower wall. It really isn't that hard, except for all the plumbing that goes inside. And the fact that the valve has to be centered properly in the hole which has already been cut in the shower enclosure.

It took just a few minutes to detach the old wall from the ceiling & bathroom wall, then haul it over to my "workshop" in the soon-to-be den/family room. I was going to try to re-use as much of it as possible, except for the parts which were too full of holes. Like the top plate. Our should I call it the Swiss plate?

Monty Python and the Search for the Holey Top Plate

The two inner studs were in bad shape, too. One was so twisted that it would not align with the top and bottom plate at the same time. Both had been chiseled to make room for the valve plumbing. They looked horrid.

The top plate was garbage, so it came off.

Then the inner studs. Off! One of them still had some good parts to it, so I cut it in half and used it as my new top plate. Lo and Behold, it was then that I discovered where that missing stud from the bedroom went: it had been used as one of the inner studs for the shower wall! And the original screws - the ones that had held it to floor of the bedroom - were still there in the wood. At least, half of them were still in the wood. Cut right in half.

Cut-off screws and Weird Gaps

Still makes me mad to think about it.

Since they were cut off right at the surface, I had to use my Dremel to notch the tops so they would come out with my handy-dandy screwdriver. Then I attached the new top plate to the sides, and cut some new inner studs from a couple boards just purchased from the lumber store.

The New Wall - Before Inner Studs Added

The New Wall - After Inner Studs Added

The Pexx routing holes were cut with a regular drill, then channelled with a small saw.

Buenos Notches

Then it was time for a fit-check. The important thing during the fit-check was to make sure the shower side panel fit nice and snug against the wall and was also snug with the other side panels. And that everything was level. That took some doing, adjusting the side wall and the back wall and the panels ever-so-slightly until they all came together just right.

Fit-Check without Side Shower Panel

After that, it was time to cut the fixture supports from 1x4 stock and secure those between the inner studs. That'll keep the pipes from moving around. I hope.

Shower Head Support Plate

Shower Valve Support Plate

Top Plate Pipe Cutouts In Action!

Top Plate Pipe Cutouts In Action (Backside)

Shower Head Support Plate (Front View)

 It looks so much nicer than before!

All Done Now ... Mostly

ReTired

My friend, Kevin, was able to get the tire patched up. Well, not exactly "patched" up, since they didn't put a patch on it, "Plugged" is more like it. It's a radial, after all.

But it works, so Deb's car is back to normal. Sort of. So now maybe I can focus on the basement instead of the cars.

First, though, I took some time off this afternoon to take James and Deborah to the movie theater to see The Martian. [Adam and Mary weren't interested, and Cheryl was at work.] The movie theater had recently undergone renovation; all the seats in the little 48-seat auditorium were electric-powered recliners! It was almost too comfortable. Luckily, the film kept things moving right along, even at two and a half hours long.

On the way home, Deb dropped by Old Navy to get some paperwork filled out, then we had to get James home so he could pack for his exciting weekend at the Movie-Making Retreat. After all that fun, no one was in the mood to cook dinner, so Deb called in an order at the local Chinese takeout place and we stuffed ourselves silly.

Fat and happy, we sat in our own recliners and watched Finding Normal, a cute little movie which is recommended for family viewing. Not content with that much inactivity, we sat and watched Enchanted April until our eyes were too weary to watch any more.

And then we ate brownies!

Tired

The countdown to winter has begun. Today is the next-to-last day of warm weather before another cooling trend. Which means I'm in a panic to get everything ready.

Flat tires don't help.

Especially unrepairable flat tires.

I'm not really sure why the guys at Firestone say this tire is unrepairable; it was only a little screw that got stuck in-between the tread. They said something about it being too close to the side -- but it wasn't stuck in the sidewall. It was on the bottom of the tire!

Nonetheless, they can't fix it. They were ready to sell me a replacement tire for $70, but I didn't go for it. I've got a friend in the used tire business who can get me one cheaper than that. I'm planning on pulling all the tires off Deb's car and putting them away for the winter, and getting her a new set of All-Seasons, so there's no reason to spend a lot of money on a new tire. These are OK for summer riding, but definitely not ready for winter primetime.

Meanwhile, Deb and Cheryl took a trip out to GVSU to check out the campus and the programs (and the cafeterias!), and Deb was quite impressed. Not quite sure whether it was the programs or the food, but the school has an excellent reputation around here, and she could save some serious dough with in-state tuition.

Just Flat

OK, that's just ridiculous. After all the work I did on the car to get the coolant issue resolved, it turns around and ...

No, let me start over.

It was a very busy day. Work, work, work all morning, then I had to run home at lunchtime to take care of a few little house chores (blowing out the irrigation lines so they won't freeze up this winter) and do my civic duty (voting for a school millage). And I was on my way home to take care of these things ... when suddenly ... a text from Deb!

She was at school with a flat tire.

A flat tire.

Really.

Cheryl, who got the same text as me, called home to send James over to the school to pick up Deb because the tire was too flat to drive on. He went and picked her up and brought her back home. I got home just about the time they did, whereupon I grabbed a couple pumps (one manual, one electric) and dragged both of 'em back to the school so we could pump up the tire and get the car home. Which we did.

(Although since neither of the accessory power ports on the cars seemed to be working, we had to resort to the manual pump. So both kids got their workout for the day.)

Once we got home again, I used the compressor to pump up the tire and then took care of my other chores and then had to go back to work (after voting, of course!) to finish up some lab work. Stayed there til nearly 6 pm, then raced home, arriving just in time for dinner. Took a look at Deb's car out in the driveway as I was heading inside and ... it was flat again.

Harrumph.

After dinner, James and I pulled the bad tire off and put on the 50-mile spare, which will work for tomorrow.

So ... the car doesn't leak coolant any more.

Just air.

And I'm very confused.

What is the deal with these cars?? Why does it seem like they're just teasing me??

Are there gremlins in my cars?!?

November Begins

It is the first of November as I write this, and that means that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, as is the beginning of the winter weather. We don't normally get snow before Thanksgiving, but we also don't normally have such balmy temperatures as we have had these last few days. The forecast indicates we will be back into the 70s (or low 20s for those of you using the Metric system) during the first part of this week. That's just a teaser, though, a mind-trick to make everyone think that it is going to be a mild winter.

I expect to be body-slammed with sub-zero temperatures any minute now. Because I'm a pessimist.

Speaking of pessimism, Ruby is working fine ... so far. Most of my repair jobs are of the baling-wire-and-duct-tape variety, so it is never a surprise when something goes wrong after an entire weekend has been spent trying to fix some problem. No matter how thoroughly the repair is accomplished, given my skillset, there's always something that wasn't quite kosher, something that had to be kludged. For this latest repair, the auto parts store didn't have the correct coolant hose on hand (each piece is a pre-shaped, reinforced hose that fits in a very specific place), and there wasn't time to do a special order (which was also very expensive!), so we made do with some reinforced fuel line instead.

As mentioned previously, there was no obvious cause, but the hoses were generally in bad shape and it seemed prudent to simply replace them all. In fact, one of the air hoses (the one from the engine case to the PCV valve) was choked with debris and also hardened to the point of brittleness. In fact, it cracked when I attempted to pull it off!

It was a pleasant surprise when the car started right up after everything was put back together, and even more pleasant when nothing started dripping, even after the car had been warmed up. My paranoia prompts me to continue checking the coolant levels every evening when Deb gets home from school, of course. But so far, so good.

Deb has a job interview tomorrow. Now that Marching Band season is officially over -- oh, did I mention that our football team lost the game last Friday, so there will be no more Marching Band performances? -- she has a teeny-tiny bit of extra time available and wants to use it to make some money. So she can have a nice pile of money by next June when she graduates. She's still not quite sure what she'll be doing afterward. She's thinking about college and she's thinking about road trips and she's thinking about getting out of the house and being on her own, living in an apartment far away from overbearing parents. But at the moment there are no definitive plans.

James interviewed at a local grocery chain for a 3rd-shift job and will probably end up working there. He worked for them last year before moving to Germany, so he's already in their database. That'll probably help. What didn't help was not having a driver's license. For some unknown bureaucratic reason, the German government took away his Michigan driver's license when they issued him a German one, and he neglected (or was unable) to get it back when he returned to the U.S. So he needs to go to one of the Michigan Secretary of State offices (where Michiganders obtain their driver's licenses) to get a copy so he can legally drive here. Then he's going to work long, ridiculous hours in order to obtain a huge pile of money with which he can fund his non-extravagant lifestyle when he returns to Germany (and Tabea) next March/April.

Meanwhile, he's sleeping downstairs in the still-unfinished basement.

Speaking of the still-unfinished basement, it's still a sore point with Cheryl. She was expecting it to be done before her parents showed up, and the progress is glacial. She's been extremely patient about the whole thing, but the patience is wearing thin, and it occurs to me that if I don't hurry up and get it done, I'll be the one sleeping downstairs in the still-unfinished basement!

Of course, all I need in order to finish it, is infinite time. Or infinite money. But given the current circumstance, that's highly unlikely. Marching Band is over, so there is a bit more time ... but as in all my projects, it is extremely difficult to get anything done with two- to four-hour windows of available time. I need entire days (weekends, really) in order to take care of the pre-requisites and move into the actual work. And those have not been forthcoming.

I get weary of it all. Exhaustion is the order of the day, not only physical, but mental, emotional and spiritual as well. There is no energy left in my body, my brain doesn't work as well as it used to, my mood swings rapidly from anger/frustration to extreme depression, and all the sources of joy are drying up.

Maybe it's time for a bit of "light" reading...

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Ah, now I feel better!