Boom! Sledding!

I feel like half of my opening sentences on this blog include an apology for a lack of pictures.  So there is another one, only not so much an apology, because this week I have a video to throw out there.

But first, about this week.  I guess there isn't much to say.  Second shift doesn't really suit me because I'm cut off from my normal evening activities.  Then to add to that, spending the day free tends to involve a lot of languishing.  I tried to make sure I accomplished a couple things in the mornings and early afternoons.

Compassion Kid:  I finally sent a letter to my Compassion Kid.  Sometimes I struggle to get a letter written, which is silly because it takes minutes.  I'm looking forward to receiving his next letter within the next couple months.

Headlight Situation:  My left headlight has been out for at least a month.  I ordered a pair online and they turned out to be the wrong size.  So this week I returned them, which is one of those things that I hate doing and it sits on the floor of my room for days.  Well I received a new light that is the right size.  Every time I went to install it we had snow falling and it was cold and nasty outside.  Since the headlight has a seal to keep moisture out, I decided to leave it for another day.  So then I'm leaving work one night and I start the car with the remote start and can't tell if it worked.  While walking into the parking lot I can't see my car until I realize it's blending in with the other cars with two headlights. So yeah... it fixed itself.  Wow that turned into a long paragraph.

Jobs:  I had that interview and I felt it went all right.  Rough here and there but good for portions.  I think it will come down to whether they feel I'm a good fit or not.  They told me they'd contact me this week about the contract packaging job.  I also visited with a friend that works at Stryker.  He introduced me to his engineering group and I had a lot of fun with this unofficial meet and greet.

This weekend was my first without any plans really and I was happy to chill out.  Hannah Ford (staff kid from camp) close by in Jackson and she stopped in for a visit.  We tried out the "zip" sleds her family is keen on.  I was skeptical but they were a lot of fun.  Several times we hit the jump that was set up, and I felt bad when I smashed right through it.  It turned out all right though as I saw the kids excitedly working to beef it up all over again.

Don't mind the noises I make as I go down the hill near the end.  Hannah easily beat me down the hill every time.  What a beautiful day for sledding though!

So another week has passed by.  Another week is right around the bend.  I'm trying to enjoy the Pro Bowl on tv, but that's hard.  Shawshank Redemption and some other good flicks have been fun to watch.  Just passing time, trying to settle in on this new schedule.

Making Money to Spend Money

I'm working!  It's not permanent, but it's something.  Rob sent me an email about a job that turned out to be a really good fit.  It's a five week temp job that is from 4pm to 1230am on Mondays through Fridays.  The work is scanning.  I start with a box and take out folders, scan the appropriate files, label them so people can find them later, then grab the next file.  

I tried some Hot Chocolate at work.  Not nearly as good as Camp Barakel style.

Boxes generally take over an hour to work on, but it depends on if they're disorganized or stapled. Lots of variation.  The company I'm working with seems to be well put together, and I enjoy many of the people that I'm working with.  I enjoy the systematic nature of it, getting my own rhythm going, and figuring out how to work swiftly and efficiently.  Plus it's nice to have spending money while I'm looking for a permanent job.

One of the reasons I need some money is my car.  The front end was all fixed up by Tuffy, but this week I started chipping away on some other odds and ends.  Beginning with the brake pads and rotors.  Our Youth Pastor, Tim, often helps me with these things and we plugged away at it Friday morning.  It went well at first, but then we figured out one of the calipers was locked up.  Basically it was holding the brake on all the time. One extra run to Autozone and we patched it all up just in time to run to Kalamazoo for work.  Up next... wheel bearing again.

On Saturday I visited Adela in Holland.  She needed some groceries so we went out on a hot date to Meijers.  Even grocery shopping is fun with her!

These groceries tell some type of story.

And here is the story:
Gatorade- I need something to drink as I'm coming and going during my travels.
Oikos (Greek Yogurt)- Rob talks about this stuff.  I hated it.  I love yogurt... but this was too tart.
Mixed Fruit Cups- I might need these for work (I already use yogurt).  Adela knows I might steal these.
Take N Bake Cookie Dough- Half baking these and mixing that steaming hot mess with ice cream is yummy.
Arnold Palmer- One of my new favorite drinks.  I just which they had a mix with more lemonade.
Vera Bradley Wallet- A sign that Adela has been around.  Vera Bradley.

We didn't need to really get much, but it reminded me that I'll be happy to get that paycheck and then I can get all the groceries I want.  I can even eat Twix for dinner!  Cause I'm an adult.  Just kidding.... but seriously.

A lovely bouquet of... something.  Smelled like lemon.  I didn't think to check the name.

Let's see... so it was a fun trip to Holland.  We also watched some Basketball and a movie.  On the way back I was pulled over for my headlight being out.  I thought the cop was going to get blown away in the wind, but he made it all right.  Upon my arrival at home I found my new headlight had come in the mail.

In other news I have an interview with Denso.  They rejected my original applications for lack of "related experience", even though I felt really well lined up with them.  They passed my resume on for a contract job with their packaging department.  Still a good opportunity there.  I'm also working with a contact at Post which could lead to Engineering or Shift Supervision or a transition between the two. Another opportunity in engineering is in the early stages too.

I'm kind of excited, but I try to stay low key because I don't want to be disappointed by possible rejections. I'm trying to remind myself that any rejection is just a step toward the job that God is lining up for me.  I'm thankful for the opportunities I've had.  I was thinking about how I have worked in corn fields, factories, offices, and construction sites of many types.  I've assembled, designed, written, driven, built, chainsawed, improvised, perspired, and tons more.  I feel very prepared for whatever is thrown at me.

Plus there is this....

Not sure how I ended up with a crazy Wendy's kids meal toy.  Who thought of this?  Play dough (Playdo? Plado, Plato?) and cardboard anatomy you can stuff into it.  I was really into it once I got started though.  He's my buddy though.  Frank?  Sure, he can be Friendly Frank.  The Unigargoblin.  Sure.  Sounds good.

Adios!

Fixing

Warning.  One picture and many words.

The car is fixed!  Turned out the front, drivers side shock spindle, ball joint, and axle needed to be fixed.  And it is.  I also had them put on new tires that weren't bald.  Hopefully that will prevent future issues.  They also confirmed what I already knew, that I need to change my brakes.  I still have a headlight to work on and possibly a wheel bearing.  As I work on things we'll see what all is wrong and needs to be worked on.

This week was a fairly normal week around here in general.  Swimming and church.  We met at the mall for a scavenger hunt with the Youth Group.  The theme was to organize a birthday party for our pastors wife with objects we found in the mall.  We had quite a few kids and it was fun to be in the mall that is mostly filled with stores now.  With Buffalo Wild Wings in the food court there isn't much empty space even in there.  

As for jobs, this week was a bit of a let down as my first choice place wants people with more experience in design or auto or something.  They might have a packaging spot available as well though.  It opened up my second tier of local jobs to search for.  So I've lined up some more places I'm interested in, including speaking with some actual people at some of the places.

In the meant time I'm hoping to line up some temporary work for a couple weeks.  Just enough to make some cash and pay some bills.  Substitute teaching is still in the fall back, but they don't want to orient me and throw me into the program unless I'm definitely going to stick with it for a while.  They don't want me to get an engineering job 3 days into training.  

Snow and ice.

We were due for a ridiculous amount of ice over Saturday night, but we didn't get the cold that comes with ice.  So it was just rain.  So everyone got to church if they weren't sick from the Flu outbreak. Since our Youth Pastor, Tim, wasn't there I helped lead the Youth Group through a video about Isaiah. I also gave the announcements, but it was a little rough. I'm used to announcements, but I'm not used to the crazy stage lights in my face.  It was all right though.

The supposed ice storm didn't deter me from running over for a quick visit with Adela in Holland.  I joined in on their Sunday night service on campus called "Gathering".  It was a lot like the Youth Group trips to Tennessee.  A rock/worship concert with a good preacher after the music.

I didn't hang around too long and started the drive back despite the news of crashes on I-94.  I take all the back roads anyways and it was fine.  The road was completely dry until the last half of the trip, then it went from wet to salty and then finally a little messy in Battle Creek.  It looked like it was a slushy mix that then froze up.  I guess the little bit of snow on top of that made it worth closing schools this morning.

Well, that was it.  There was a swim meet in there.  And some Mario Kart and Boy Meets World. Another week though.  Here we go.

New Week, New Year

The week started off with a New Years Eve hat tournament in Grand Rapids.  Ultimate Frisbee can be great or awful, depending on the team.  It's not necessarily dependent on the skill of the players either. Sometimes a group of good players just struggles to deal with each other.  Well our team had a lot of skill, but we had trouble with some of the dynamics.

It's pretty common at a hat tournament to have people stay in the game for too many points, get tired, then get burned.  Then the next step is to get guys that are kind of role players, but they think they should play 4 points, sit one, then play 5.  Messes up the teams dynamics.  Need a good distribution of players, so some are getting rest while others are scoring.

All that to say that we got smoked with 4 losses.  It was still a ton of fun.  Anytime you hook up with some good players and score some points it's fun.  In fact, some of my favorite players were on our team.

After the tournament I headed for Perry to celebrate the New Year with some friends.  Brad, Hannah, and I met up at Emily Calhoun's house where we played nerf darts, Wii, and watched some movies.  I get beat up after frisbee, so I'm usually ready to die to the world.  We celebrated at 9pm so that the young kids could go to bed, then again at midnight, with a quick run around the house.

You might wonder how I got around during all of that.  Well the answer is Caleb Wygant.  My Youth Pastor's son was kind enough to let me borrow his Mustang and drive it around the state.  On the 2nd I decided to have my car worked on, instead of trying it myself.  It was a bit of a chore to get it towed because the front left side can't bear any weight, but I got it to Tuffy Auto.  I've worked with them before and they've taken good care of me for a fair price.  They told me the shock spindle, and axle were broken.  Hopefully they are all patched up even now along with some new tires to prevent this from happening in the future.

In the meantime I already had plans to join Rob and Elizabeth in their trip to Camp Barakel.  They were volunteering but I was planning to be a camper.  We drove up on Thursday though, so I was able to clean some of Heritage, help on the ice rink, and shovel snow before checking in Friday evening.

Mike Baker has this ice thing down.

It was a blast to camp for a weekend.  I wondered if I'd be hyper critical, or if I'd sink back into working or just hanging out with staff.  Wasn't a problem though.  I spent almost all of my time with other campers, and I used a lot of the activity areas.  My team won at broomball, I cross country skiied, along with some fun tubing on some really fast lanes.

Everything looked great in camp.  Lots of fresh snow.

Our speaker was Phil Owen, brother-in-law to Mike Baker.  I've met him several times, but never heard him speak.  I enjoyed his topics, including the simple idea of exploring who God is, and then realizing that we are to identify with him, and that is shown in how we act.

Rob and Kristin playing some music.

I've always loved chapels and feel of the room.  My favorite spot is about halfway back, sitting over one of the heater vents.  It was a good weekend.  I plan to join them up north several more times, but hopefully using my car at least some of the times.

Snow!

Late late Fall is over now that we have some decent snow on the ground.  Just in time for Christmas too. In the meantime I kept up my normal travels.  Although we'll see if I slow down a little over the next couple weeks.

Garrison Hills for Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve I'm usually really busy jumping from church to church.  I like to go to First Wes with my Mom, then my church, and finally to Saint Philip Catholic Church for Midnight Mass.  This year I started at my church and ended up at St Phil once again. It's my traditional Midnight Mass only without Rob this year. We enjoy knowing that through the differences, they still believe in Jesus Christ as their savior.  The music is always enjoyable as well.

St Phil has a very beautiful building.

On Christmas day I opened a couple presents from Mom, then we rolled out to the airport in Kalamazoo.  After that I figured out my friends, Ethan and Liz weren't busy that night so I joined them for some games.  We started with Mario Kart, then played Creationary (a gift from Rob).  It's like Pictionary with Legos.

Can you see my bench?

The day after Christmas I was expecting Adela, Emily Calhoun, and Brad Smith to come out.  While they were on the way I met with Rob and Elizabeth for lunch at T-Bell.  I decided to ride my bike there. It was great... and awful... but also great.  Stinking cold, and the snow started up, beating me in the face.  So I didn't horse around much on the way home.

You can't see the snow in the air in this picture.  It was painful.

When they arrived we basically hit the town.  Around here that means checking out downtown and the Festival of Lights.  We missed some of the indoor stuff, but the ice sculptures were up.  It didn't take long before we were pretty cold though, so we headed back in fairly quickly.  At home we enjoyed watching Youtube and Hulu videos.  Some from Saturday Night Live, Olan Rogers, and a lot of Funniest Home Videos.

I think it's the Denso ice sculpture.  Brad, Adela, and Emily.

On Thursday we met with Hannah Ford to see the Hobbit for my first 3D experience.  It was all right.  I didn't like when they put stuff out of focus jumping out of the screen.  And the glasses are fairly uncomfortable.  I enjoyed going out though, and especially eating Red Robin afterwards.  I was very sad to see them leave, but it is nice to have the house to myself.  Just not for too long here.

The obnoxious curvy bench looks really cool with snow on it.

Here I am.  Living in Battle Creek.  No job quite yet.  I'm pretty antsy to get out of the house, but I'm not really worried about it.  Something will turn up.  I'm still hoping to work close to home, and if needed I'll check out substitute teaching.  There is a small chance that I might pursue full time teaching too, although I'm much more interested in engineering at this point.

Doh!

Here's the bad news.  The roads near my house don't get salted and are slick for days after it snows. So I was on the way home and slid into a curb.  Man!  I stay out of trouble with accidents for the most part, so it really bugs me when it happens.  But stuff happens and it's too late.  So far I'm trying to work on it with some friends that are more adept at working on cars than I am.

After taking the tire off we discovered the mount for the shock is broken right at the wheel hub.  It's something that I might be able to get some help on and figure out, but I still need to buy parts.  I budget well for  things usually, but I knew I'd be tight between working at Camp and getting a job.  This is the catastrophic cost on my budget.  But here I am, and I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out.

To get it parked my friend Jake (who helped me tremendously with all of this) pulled me on a sled.  His Grandpa lives near me and he welded a chain to a metal plate and we put some lumber on that, then dragged the whole deal about 80 yards down the road to my house.  Not too shabby.

I find myself thankful after something like this.  I'm sad because it could have been prevented so many ways, and I didn't even think I'd be making the trip with my car in the first place.  But with all the miles I've laid into this thing I don't feel like complaining about something that I was able to step out of safely.  Especially knowing other friends are having a much more difficult time after a car crash.

Boo.  Have a great Holiday Week!

A Return to Camp

The plan.  I like making plans.  Well this week the plan was to head up to camp with Adela for a couple of days of hanging out, catching up, and hopefully working some too.  And so I headed off to Midland for a night, then Camp Barakel on Wednesday afternoon.  It turns out the forecast was nasty. That sounded great to me though.  I thought it seemed like it would be fun to see some real snow. 

I started by visiting the Haines' new house.  Lots of progress there.  It really looks close to being able to move in.  There is still a lot of work to be done though.  I joined Mike Baker for some cleaning in Heritage Lodge and then for plowing as the snow storm came in.  

I wondered how the trim would turn out and I like it!  Simple, yet very well done.

I love the hardwood floor.  Fun to slide on!

Well the snow chased me away from too much work.  Instead I spent a lot of time catching up with Mike Baker and the Harris', watching Duck Dynasty, and sledding/snowball fighting with the Ford's.  I also enjoyed my first Camp Barakel Christmas party.  I missed the last couple I was around for so it somehow made sense to attend it this year.  I guess it made sense.  It happened anyways.

The snow was spectacular.  8-ish inches I'd guess.

The snow was great.  I had trouble getting around in my car one night, but Luke Harris simply pushed me around whenever I needed a hand.  It felt great to spend some time up there, but I'm hoping to go back about 3 more times this Winter, hopefully catching up with more people.

After camp, I was happy to stack a nice list of events for Sunday.

Tamales with Adela's family.

I joined in on a little bit of cookie frosting and tamale making at the Aguilera's.  I vaguely remember tamales from my Grandmas house I think.  But making them was a little different.  Too bad I don't get to try any!

Later in the afternoon I headed out to see Rob, Elizabeth, Aaron and Karen down near Flint.  We met at Red Robin and enjoyed a meal together.  It was my first Red Robin in years and I was really happy to have it.  Endless fries!  I made our waiter mad I think, but they're supposed to be endless!  Rob and Eliz gave me a gift too, as they usually do.  This year it was "Creationary".  A game like Pictionary only you make the subjects out of Legos.  Very difficult... but very fun here and there.

A gift from Rob.  Can you see my bench?

If this was a movie I'd "zoom and enhance".

Dunno if you can really see this but it's my car passing over 100,000 miles.  All the driving I have done adds up.  I'm thankful for thousands and thousands of safe miles.  There is a lot of fun represented there.

Thanks for following and Merry Christmas!

Ho Hum

These are the weeks where I'm not sure if I feel like blogging anymore.  I've been busy, but mostly with the same stuff I'm busy with every week.  Clubhouse, Youth Group, Swimming.  On top of that, I didn't take any pictures.  At camp I could walk around and take pictures of all our projects.  It's much harder to stop leading a game and take a quick picture at clubhouse.  And you don't want to see pictures of me watching Boy Meets World.

But here I am.  Blogging anyways.  I guess these are the not so exciting weeks.

There was another swim meet.  This week I didn't get the easy job of holding up the I-pad.  No no no. This week I marshalled the 8 and under kids.  That means that as their events approach I need to find all the 8 and under kids and make sure they are at the right lane at the right time.  It was rough for the first relay, but after that I remember some of the strategies.

You can probably imagine what it's like to get 6 girls and 5 boys into their proper lanes at the proper time.  Then there is the matter of keeping them there and reminding them what they are swimming, how to complete that swim legally, and then reminding them of when to actually go.  It's different to marshall the little ones because it's such a rush I have trouble actually cheering for them or noting how well they swam.

The part I really like is remembering the names.  I do all right with names, but it's a piece of cake when you have to round them up four times.  So now I remember Maddie, Maddie, Norgi, Addison, Caleigh, Asia, Aidan, Carson, Luke, Danny, and Adi.  I don't know how to spell them all for sure, but I remember faces and names.  That's a start.

We also had the Barakel Bash this weekend.  The yearly reunion of summer staff.  We get mostly folks from this Summer but there are usually new people and old people that also show up.  I enjoyed seeing everyone, playing frisbee and basketball, and reliving a little bit of those sweet summer moments.  We ate food, bounced bouncy balls, caught up with friends and generally enjoyed this honorary "Camp Zone".

Finally today.  Today I went out to visit Dad at his house near Springport.  It's been a while since I've been out there and it's neat to see some of the changes.  Since my last visit there are been some changes and it has become a sort of hub for the family to work on cars, tractors, combines and the like.  Dad walked me around and we took a look at some of the progress.  Kind of neat to see the family is sticking close to farming and getting into a little more of it here and there.

Ok.  I snagged some pictures really quick since writing in the afternoon.

The combine is new in the farm equipment.  As is the boat.

They keep busy in the barn.  The tractor is hiding back there.

So I guess the end of the week was a little more interesting.  We'll see what I get into next week. Thanks for following.  Not sure why you are, but you are.  So cool.

Adios.