End of an Era - The Final Episode

1999 Grand Caravan (less bumper)

It was inevitable. The car is old. My time is limited. I don't have the space to work on it.

We had to get rid of the van.

The car we had to buy we found out Mary was going to be joining the family back in '99. The car that could comfortably fit all those car-seats. The car we took on many a happy family trip.

It had fulfilled its purpose.

So many memories.

So many good times.

Sold to the junk yard.

I feel as though I must apologize to the van, though. Were it not of the accidental circumstance of the transmission case being destroyed by the evil muffler, we would still be able to use it for various things, like fetching supplies from the hardware store, teaching Mary to drive, ferrying other people's children to various high school events (e.g. Robotics). And we would have used it for quite a while longer, or at least until we found some young family looking for a cheap, reliable means of transportation.

Perhaps it is best that it end up being parted out. It had a good life, but the body was getting worse (thanks to that Michigan road salt!). And it was going to be a pain to keep maintaining it. We had just put new shocks in the back, but it still needed a new sway bar and some brake work; and I'm certain there were a million other little things just waiting for their chance to go bad.

I'm sad to see it go. It was a great car. And I love vans - but it is not likely that we'll be purchasing another one any time soon.

The kids are nearly all grown up.

Driving in four different directions at once.

Not much interested in family trips, anyway.

It's not cool to hang out with parents.

And they probably wouldn't want to be seen in such an un-cool car.

Good-bye, Grand Caravan! It was nice while it lasted!

Shipping a Boy's Life to Germany

James has been in Germany almost an entire month. We just started shipping his stuff to him yesterday.

He has lots of computer stuff. I mean, lots. A big, fancy computer case with fancy computer parts in it. A nice, fancy computer monitor. A way-cool "mouse". A really nice drawing tablet (like the ones professional artists use). A surround-sound speaker system.

This computer setup is so fancy that he didn't want his old man to help put it together. Because the old man is so old, he probably wouldn't understand how these things work. You know, all those bits and bytes and RAMs and CPUs.

(It is a fact of life that every young man considers his father either a genius or an idiot. My father is a genius who taught me everything there is to know about carpentry and automobiles, although it didn't sink in and take hold until I was much older. I am, apparently, an idiot.)

Worse than that, I can't even pack a box.

Luckily for James, he is the son of one of the world's premiere box-packers. His mother has the most amazing ability to pack everything in the world into the tiniest of spaces. She's a puzzle-master! Not only that, she did her research and became the Master of Shipping. All I had to do (and it is one of the things I do best!) was to carry the boxes to the car, and then from the car to the Post Office. Without destroying my back. Because those boxes were heavy.

Well, actually, there was something else that I did. I typed up an Inventory Form for each box with a list of everything that we packed into each box so that he could check the contents on the other side to make sure it all got there. I'm a little paranoid about someone rifling through it and deciding that they want to keep something as a memento.

So we crammed all his computer equipment and quite a few other items into three huge boxes -- they wouldn't fit into anything smaller! -- and took them over to the Post Office and filled out the Customs forms and paid the postage and suddenly, they were gone. Just like James when he disappeared on the other side of the Security gate. Vanished. On the way to Germany.

It'll take a while before he actually gets the boxes. Something like six to ten business days. All that stuff has to be examined by Customs. I hope none of those people have sticky fingers! It would make me very angry to have spent all that time and money getting all that computer equipment packed up and inventoried and shipped off, only to have some Lightfinger Larry take a bit off the top.

I hope he has fun putting it together.

Without his old man asking him, "Hey, what's this thing for?"

FIRST Robotics Competition @ Gull Lake

Way, way back on Christmas day, owing to the fact that Mary is not currently employed and thus not making any real money (for things like Christmas presents), she gave her mother and I a nifty little Coupon Book, full of coupons for things like Giving You A Compliment When You Don't Deserve It, Doing Some Housework When I Don't Feel Like It, Listening To Your Blather About The Good Old Days, and Putting Up With Your Bad Puns. Or something like that. One coupon of each category for each of her parents.

Cheryl used one up a few weeks ago -- something about Doing An Activity With You Without Yawning Too Much -- so I figured it was my turn.

Mine was eminently more practical than shopping or going on a walk or watching a television show.

Mine was Going On A Trip To A Robotics Competition! Yay!!  Total fun!!

See, our Robotics Team had a competition down at Gull Lake, which is only half an hour away (by car), and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to let Mary do a bit of driving, and possibly get addicted to Robotics.

(No one in the house has the least interest in any of my hobbies. Yet.)

So bright and early on Saturday morning, we went out to the car and started our pre-trip checklist: Tire Pressure OK. Fluids (Oil, Coolant, Brake fluid, Power Steering fluid, Coca-Cola) OK. Emergency kit in the trunk. Spare tire OK. Basic tools (including jumper cables, jack, duct tape & WD-40). Map. Cell phone. Snacks. Caffeine (for the nervous dad).

And then we got in the car and she started driving to Gull Lake. With my most excellent navigational assistance. Which meant we only made one wrong turn. I think.

She drove wonderfully. Safely. Carefully - other than a few quick swerves when she had to check out the road kill we passed. (I think we passed one of each kind of animal Noah put on the ark: squirrel, possum, skunk, deer, cat, dog, and something that looked like an armadillo...) And we finally arrived at our destination.

I was so excited! Now she would finally see how much fun it was to stand around and watch oversized remote-control toys ... stacking stuff!

{insert sound of crickets chirping}

She was not impressed.

Nevertheless, being the dutiful daughter she is, she patted me on the head and promised me that she would consider participating in the Robotics club during her Senior Year. If nothing else came up. And can we go home now?

After lunch, I said. Because there is Free Food. And no one should turn down Free Food. (Well, technically, it's not "free" because one of the parents donated it; but from our perspective, it was free.)

Thanks, she said. But can we have Subway instead? I'd rather have something healthy. (Apparently, Sloppy Joe's are not healthy. But these were really, really good Sloppy Joe's! With extra spices and everything!)

So we left the competition after about an hour, and we stopped by Subway on the way home, and then she had more "lunch" when we got home, and I watched the rest of the competition from the comfort of my own home, on the Internet streamcast.

Oh, well. At least I got to use up one of the Coupons!

FIRST Robotics Competition @ EK

The first big competition for FIRST took place at the high school, and I was just not prepared for the amount of work it took to help put it together.

We used the Field House at the school for the "arena"; it's essentially the size of three or four basketball courts side-by-side. First we had to lay down these 60' by 60' tarps over the entire floor, then we had to cover a large section of it with masonite, then we had to unroll red and blue carpets over the 20' by 40' section where the actual competition would take place.

After the floor was prepped, we had to set up the field boundaries and shields, as well as the pit separators.

We were completely exhausted by the time we got out of there, which was just past midnight!

Then on Thursday night, the pits were opened so all the competing teams could come in and get their pit areas set up. We came in and set ours up, as well as taking care of some last-minute setup issues.  Another late night!

On Friday morning, the competition started. As a volunteer, I had to be there extra-early -- around 7:30 a.m. We completed the final preparations and helped the FIRST crew set up for the opening ceremony. I was in charge of handling the microphones for the group singing the National Anthem, for the Kentwood mayor, and for the school district superintendent.

The opening ceremonies started promptly at 10:30, and then then robots started to compete!

The competition went on throughout the rest of the morning and there wasn't a chance to take a lunch break until 1 p.m. We had one team who didn't realize that the break was only an hour and we had to call them (they were at Taco Bell) to let them know that they were supposed to be getting out onto the field for their next match!

It finally ended around 8:30. Everyone was excited and exhausted, so we didn't hang around yapping because we had to be back in the morning, early.

And we were.

The competition on Saturday was fierce since we had to get the Qualification rounds completed by 1 o'clock and then do the alliance selection before lunch. Red Storm (our team) hadn't done fantastically during the Qualification rounds, but we did get picked for the semi-Finals, which was a boost to morale.

Unfortunately, we didn't do very well in the semi-Finals, either, so we didn't make the cut for the Final rounds, which took place late in the afternoon.

But we did win an Award for our Marketing team!

After all that -- three solid days with very little sleep -- we had to stay late again to tear down all the pits and the field and the carpet and the masonite and the tarps, and load it into the trailer so it could be hauled to the site of the next competition.

We didn't get out of there til well past midnight. And the next day was Sunday, time for church.

Hey! When can I take a nap?