Hitting the Road Again

Tuesday morning was kind of a crazy day. The grandparents were wanting to hit the road again so they could make it to Oklahoma City by Wednesday night, which required that they get going by noon or thereabouts, so we had a kind of rushed morning as they prepped all their stuff and we tried to fit in as much visiting as possible in a very short time.

It's a shame that Dad couldn't hang out longer, as there are enough projects around the house to keep us both busy for a long time -- but then he has plenty of projects of his own to keep him busy! He's always eager to stay busy, as you know, so sometimes it's a struggle to get him to relax a while and just hang out. But I understand the feeling; it's hard to relax when there are so many things that need to get done. Is there really such a thing as 'retirement'? It obviously doesn't mean the same thing to some people as it does to others. I have friends who talk about it like they're going to spend all their time walking around a golf course or touring all the wineries in Italy, but that would drive me completely bonkers. I want to spend my retirement doing what my dad does - hanging out in my shop, making things, helping people get their projects done (although I'd rather focus on cars and electronics than cabinetry, since we all should work on what we know best!), traveling around the country to see my kids, and watching old movies while Cheryl does her craft stuff.
It's always a lot of fun to sit and chat with Mom, although we didn't get nearly enough time on this trip as it was rather short and I was at work some of the time, but we'll have another opportunity in a couple months at the Downs family reunion -- and I'm hoping we get to do the same thing we did last year and get there a couple days ahead of time to get in a nice relaxing mood and hang out longer than we usually do so it doesn't feel rushed. But we'll have to see -- since we're heading out to Germany in August and my vacation time is going to be limited this year. But visiting with Mom just isn't the same unless we get to sit around yapping about this, that and the other thing for hours on end. While eating.
Cheryl bravely hooked up the Grandparent's phones to steal borrow their pictures, especially the ones of James and Tabea's reception last Christmas, which if you have been reading this blog lately, you know that I didn't get any good pictures so I've been going through other people's archives in order to have something meaningful. The "brave" part wasn't the act of "borrowing" -- it was hooking up electronics to her laptop and figuring out how on earth to get them to cooperate. Some days computers just drive me (and her) crazy. Some days I long for the old times when we had Polaroids and Kodaks and had to wait for weeks to get our pictures back! It was far less frustrating.
Deb didn't get to hang out with her grandparents for very long, as she is one of those incredibly busy people (school, job, etc.) but she came over right before they left and was able to get in some family time with them.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

We had been looking forward to Sunday for a long time because Grandpa and Grandma Meyer were coming up from Indiana after attending Mom's Nursing School reunion to pay us a visit. And it is Dad's birthday! Party time!

We really appreciate that they took the time (5 hours) to extend their trip just a little bit further to this part of the North Country -- and we were quite thankful that the weather was very cooperative. It's almost warm! The winter this year was far too long for my taste.

It wasn't quite our normal Sunday, right from the start. Cheryl was still having trouble with her eye on Sunday, and since I'd already gone early in the morning to get ready for my Sunday School class, she opted to stay home rather than trying to drive with a wet towel over half her face.

Two of the kids in my Sunday School class shared a birthday on Saturday, so they brought in donuts, which blew my sugar ration right out the window. Then one of the kids from my other class, the one I teach once a month, was baptized during the worship service. Woo-hoo!

I got home feeling kind of tired (probably on the backside of a sugar rush) and made the mistake of lying down in my recliner before we began our weekly Skype session with James and Tabea -- and promptly fell asleep. Well, I sure hope they didn't mind all the snoring...

Afterward, it was time to finish cleaning the house (I swept the floor) and getting the cake ready (Cheryl's department), and then suddenly they appeared in the driveway, right in time for dinner!
We had just enough time to catch up on the latest family news and hear some stories of the nursing school reunion, and then it was time to eat! Afterward, of course, we had some cake and ice cream.

Setting up for the camera shot	Getting a second opinion
"Smile for the camera, birthday boy!"	"But I want to eat the cake...!"

After we had yapped for awhile, Mom and Dad went on to bed -- which is no surprise, considering all the driving they've been doing lately! -- while Cheryl and I stayed up for a bit longer to review an essay that Mary was writing for school.

Saturday Work

Saturday is typically the busiest day of the weeek, aside from Sundays which are absolutely crazy due to the numerous activities associated with church and Sunday School and Children's Worship and Skype-with-James-and-Tabea and Small Group Study, not to forget the all-important nap (without which all the other activities would be completely impossible!).

Saturday is dedicated to the more mundane aspects of life, like getting the yard work done (when the yard itself is not covered in snow) and the house work done (when we can figure out where on earth to begin the mountains of maintenance that need to be climbed) and the garage work done (which should slow down considerably now that we have gotten rid of a few cars).

Today's list of "things to do" included the following:

• Cleaning the front porch
• Removing clutter from the second floor landing
• Moving old engine parts from under the deck, and
• Building a mirror frame

Number one was cleaning the front porch. By cleaning, I mean scrubbing. Over the course of the fall and winter, a thin-but-gross layer of mildew had settled on the vinyl siding and the wood trim, and even though we have arranged for the house to get a full-blown high-pressure wash later in the season, I just couldn't wait any longer, so gathered up my buckets of soapy water and scrub brushes and got to work.

After that was done, it was up to the second floor landing where a huge pile of computer CD/DVDs were sitting around in boxes (and boxes and boxes) waiting to be sorted. I had to take them downstairs to the living room because there were so many of them. And it was like a trip back in time; most of the CDs were pre-2004 computer games that the kids haven't touched in a million years. Plus a bunch of backup CD/DVDs from back in the day when you could actually back up 740 megabytes (or 4.7 gigabytes for DVDs) and consider your data safe. Now it takes at least a terabyte drive.

That took a long, long time to go through. The hardest part was realizing that there is no reason to keep most of it because it is all outdated. But it took me a while to convince the pack-rat part of my personality of that fact. You know how low-level and instinctive such a feeling can be! But in the end, most of it went into the trash (or recycling) and suddenly there was a lot more room in the landing.

In fact, the only thing left on the landing was ... the mirror.

And thus it was that one of those nagging little jobs I've been wanting to take care of finally got the attention it so richly deserved: our old bathroom mirror, the one that hung in our Master Bathroom, stretching across her sink and mine, but was replaced a long time ago (last year??) by two singular mirrors (his and hers) such that its services were no longer required, has been sitting in the second floor landing for a very long time, and needed to be moved elsewhere ... but with the caveat that it must be moved very carefully so as not to break it, because no one wants a broken mirror.

We're hoping to find it a good home, after all. A good new home, that is.

So in order to move the mirror carefully to avoid breaking it, a framework must be built around it, either in thick cardboard or in wood -- and since I got rid of all my thick cardboard several months ago in a fit of pique (or recycling fervor), building a framework seemed the thing to do.

So...

A Framework was built	And the mirror was 'framed'

I never did get around to moving those engine parts out from under the deck. The mirror frame actually took up most of the afternoon.

But that's OK. There will be another Saturday soon. I hope.

And I'll be ready.

April Winters

Many, many years ago when we first came to the wondrous place that is the state of Michigan, we experienced our first real midwestern winter, with freezing temperatures that lasted months instead of weeks, snow that measured in feet instead of inches, and it was fun and fascinating and exciting.

Fourteen years on, the excitement is kind of wearing thin, especially in this very off-kilter spring which is holding on to winter for dear life. We're ready to move on to (literally) greener pastures, with temperatures more appropriate to light jackets rather than scarves and woolen hats and four or five layers of padded shirts and coats (not to mention the thermal socks and boots).

I know the warm weather is coming soon ... but it just isn't coming soon enough. 

We're ready now.

The front yard is there ... somewhere.	I really was hoping to avoid any more shoveling of snow. But I'v got to get to work, and Adam has school...
See that rust along the bottom of the car? That's caused by the salt they keep throwing on the roads so we don't slide off. The extra snow is not helping.	Most of the time, I don't even bother shoveling. It's good enough just to brush off the cars so we can see to drive, and worry about the driveway when we get home.

So Long, Sapphire!

"She was a nice car while she lasted."

Cheryl and I took a nice, long drive down to Gary, Indiana, on Friday, to deliver Sapphire to her new owner. Whose name, incidentally, is Gary.

Weird.

::

The craigslist advertisement had only been up for less than a day when emails started coming in. Not a lot, but enough. By the end of the week, seven people had expressed interest.

Several of them offered me half of what I was asking. I had to go back and modify the ad to specify that the price was firm. Silly me -- it was my impression that unless one uses the phrase, "or best offer", the advertised price is set in stone. No haggling. This isn't Life of Brian.

I had been thinking it would be picked up by someone local, but several of the potential buyers were from out of town. One was from Detroit but apparently made lots of trips to Grand Rapids because he was in real estate.

Another one was from way down in Indiana, but in the beginning I didn't think much of it because he was just looking for a parts car, and Sapphire has so much more to offer than mere parts! But the more we talked about it (over a week of emails), the more interested he became. He requested additional pictures; I sent them. After that, he was the most positive about the car.

Unfortunately, he was in Indiana.

Due to the known mechanical issues with the car -- a small camshaft oil leak and a mysterious noise in the driveshaft (probably a bearing) -- we weren't sure if the car was going to make it all that way, so for a while the buyer was considering driving to Grand Rapids and then towing it all the way back. But that seemed like way too much trouble; and, besides, Cheryl and I were in the mood for adventure, so on Friday we decided to head down right around lunchtime. She took her car and followed me as I drove Sapphire.

Amazingly enough, we had no problems with the car. In fact, she drove like a champ! Kinda made me sad, thinking if only there were more time and money to spend on her...

But -- simplify.

When we arrived at Gary's house and turned into his driveway, we saw a whole line-up of Subarus, of all colors and vintage. It was, in my own words, "Subaru Heaven!"  In fact, he was working on one of them when we arrived. And he gave me a tour of all his cars. And the pile of engines and transmissions in his garage. Made me want to open my own Subaru garage!

We learned that Gary had worked in the trucking industry and in cabinetry, but since he moved to Indiana, he had worked up enough of a reputation to make a living as a "private" Subaru mechanic, buying, fixing them up, and selling them. (Dream job.)

We enjoyed our visit with Gary and his wife; he even expressed an interest in the remaining green one, once he gets through the backlog. So we might end up making another trip down in a couple of months.

Meanwhile, we got the money and jumped in the car and drove back up to Grand Rapids, stopping by GVSU to see Mary (and pick up Cheryl's debit card which had accidentally been left in Mary's possession after the last shopping trip).

Simplification success!!

Easter

Easter time is always a special time because we celebrate the most remarkable event in the entire history of the world by participating in an ancient ceremony which our Lord and Savior knew very well.

The Passover seder is an ancient ceremony which was celebrated by the Hebrews since the final days of their time in Egypt, in memory of the miracle of their salvation from slavery; we have made a few adjustments to the original ceremony (as did the Jewish people through the years since) to accommodate our own release from the slavery of sin. Instead of looking for the coming of the Messiah, we look forward to his eminent return; instead of closing with "Next year in Jerusalem!", we close with, "Next year in the new Jerusalem!"

This has always been a special time for our family. Cheryl and I have celebrated it since before we were married; we once worked together to prepare it at one of the church retreats at Camp Casey. It was one of the experiences we shared which convinced me that she was the one. Her heart for Jesus and her desire to explore that relationship is precious to me. I look forward to this time more than any other during the year.

What is this? Some kind of box sitting on my plate! I must investigate to find out what it is...	Oh, look! Cheryl has one, too! It's yummy chocolate! With nuts!
Here is our seder plate, with all the items for our special Passover meal: the shank bone, the bitter herbs, the haroseth.	Here is our dessert spread, which includes cake and bread and nuts and fruit and chocolates!

I don't know what Mary is doing here, but she is dressed nicely for the occasion. Too bad I didn't get a picture of her from the front so you could see her face. I never said I was a photographer!	Adam is sitting on the couch relaxing, wearing his knitted slippers, waiting for the call to dinner.

Cheryl, our Master Chef, is looking through the cookbook to see what other delightful things she would like to make. She's amazing!	Is there a recipe in there for apple-peach-cherry-lemon-meringue pie? With ice cream?

Then there's the cat...