Notice to Ducks

A notice to any ducks out there that don’t have a home.  You can come and live in my driveway.  I don’t mind…I might even throw you a breadcrumb or two.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Since my wife was at the homeschool conference in Richmond this  weekend, I took Thursday afternoon and Friday off and declared Men’s Weekend 2009.  We wrote up a list of things that we wanted to do over the weekend, which included trying to fill a gaping hole called “Friday.”

The fear is that somehow, if you don’t keep the troops entertained/engaged somehow, they will attack you, tie you up and take over in a bloodless coup.  That was not going to happen to me.

I had a flash of inspiration during a 6 1/2 hour meeting on Wednesday, when someone was displaying their computer screen on the projector to help debug a customer issue in Saudi Arabia (don’t ask).  Their back ground was that of a waterfall in a green forest.  And the idea came to me.  We could hike to The Cascades.

The weather turned out pretty iffy–50% chance of rain, but instead of being a wimp, I decided that we’d go for it.  The worst that could happen is that we would get wet.  A pretty good assumption, since we’d probably get wet anyway.  So we set off.

When we got to the trail, we had to wait 15 minutes until the rain stopped, but then it looked like it was going to clear up.  The first thing that we noticed was the almost deafening roar of the nearby creek which led to the falls.  It was swollen from recent rains and threatened to overflow its banks in some spots.

When we finally got to the falls, it was the biggest I had ever seen it.  When we usually come, it is not nearly as much water, and “cascades” down the face of the rock.  But this time there was so much water coming over the falls, that it was causing a misty breeze to blow over the entire opening.

Our planned eating spot was under water, so we had to find a place on higher ground. And the boys also decided not to wade in the water, because the wind was so cold and the current was really too strong for them.

All in all, it was a fun trip, and the boys were pretty tired when I got home. So I was successful in wearing them out: A primary objective of the day.

The swollen creek

Whitewater

The flooded trail behind us

More whitewater

A falls, but not THE Falls

A friendly snail greets us on the trail

The Cascades

New Header

Time for a new header–this one came from our trip to the Cascades yesterdays.  Details forthcoming…

Random thoughts

I guess it is time for my monthly post.  I guess I haven’t been doing much on the blogging front lately, but no apologies: you’ve heard it all before, anyway.  I got the idea of this post from Rick, who I’ve been following for several years, has recently come over to WordPress.

The idea here is that instead of a “single-theme” post, this consists of a series of random, unrelated thougths.  Here goes:

• We recently got a Roku player to stream Netflix, and love it.  It is much better than hooking up our laptop to the TV, and it works great, even over Wifi.
• It’s a guys only weekend at our house, while my wife is at a Homeschool conference in Richmond.  The boys are quite excited that they can burp and slurp at the dinner table.
• I just recently installed Vista x64 at work.  I’m liking it more and more…and it runs pretty snappy on a Quad Core with 8GB of RAM.
• More and more people we know are bringing the Wii (or some other game console) into the house.  We’ve thought about taking the plunge, but have held back for some reason.  I really don’t have a good reason why, but for the voice in the back of my head that says not to give in.
• Tomorrow, the boys and I plan to go hiking to a waterfall, and maybe play in the creek along the way.  With all the rain we’ve been having, the falls should be pretty spectacular.  Hope it doesn’t rain.
• We’ve had some real trouble with ants lately.  Not only are they in the kitchen, but for some reason have found the master bathroom and seem to enjoy the toothpaste.  I’m not a happy camper, and am at a loss of how to get rid of them.
• My wife had 4 scoops of much delivered this week.  I recently threw out my back, so she hasn’t been pushing me to get it spread over all our flower beds. I think I’ll try to milk the bad back thing as long as I can.  (Oh, hon, don’t read this one.)
• For ~D~’s recent 12th birthday, my folks gave him a trip to Maine to learn how to sail.  Wish I could go too.
• I claimed recently (ok, a few months ago) that I was going to post more on balance.  You’ve been waiting patiently, and I haven’t come through.  Sorry.  It just hasn’t happened.  I try to go there, but…nothing.  I got nothing.

Oh, and no promises on any future blogging.  I’ll just let you down. (Hmm, that sounded like a promise…but it wasn’t.)

Good night!

Earthquake

Saturday morning, I was awaken by a jolt. A big jolt.  It felt like a big dump truck had hit the house, or like the water heater had blown up.

But that was it.  No aftermath, no diesel noises or running water from busted pipes.  I couldn’t place the event, so I went back to sleep.

I was talking to some friends that afternoon, and someone asked me if I had felt the earthquake.  I was about to say “No”, when the bell went off.

And the 4am experience now made sense.

It turns out, that it as a little 3.0 earthquake that caused no damage (thankfully). But not a common event in South west Virginia.

Off

I’m taking the last two days of this week as vacation. My wife and kids have been on spring break this week, and now I am too.

We’re going to go see Monster’s vs. Aliens today and even spring for the extra $2.50 to see it in 3-D.

And then tomorrow we’ll go on a family bike ride.

So for all you who had spring break last week and having to work this week:

Neener, neener.

Ten M&Ms

I woke up and walked into the dining room and saw them there. 10 M&M’s…unbelievable!

The M&M’s were last night’s dessert from dinner and each person got a small handful to “eat before bedtime”.  My wife said this because ~D~ is the slowest candy eater you ever saw. Instead of crunching the M&Ms, he lets them melt in his mouth, to savor the chocolate and make it last as long as possible.

But this can make a simple handful of M&M’s last for hours.

And so, when ~D~ came up to me to kiss me good night, there were still 10 colorful candies left uneaten.

“I guess you and mom will have to share them,” he said.  “I couldn’t eat them in time.”

It was astounding to me.  I’m a sugar addict and would never leave a single piece uneaten.

But even after ~D~ went to bed, I left the candy where it was.  Somehow I felt that I was stealing from him a pleasure that wasn’t mine, and so I left them there.

And so as I got up this morning, rushing around and getting ready for work.  I had squandered my quiet time (again) reading blog posts. I saw the 10 M&M’s again, and marveled that my son could walk away from the treat, wondering why he had left them. Wondering why I hadn’t had the heart to eat them.

And then my Heavenly Father whispered in my ear and I wept.

The M&M’s were a parable to me for all the times that I have an invitation to dig out the delights of His Word, the secrets that He desires to show me in the quiet stillness of the morning.  He wants me to savor the morsels of Truth and Life.  He wants me to enjoy…Him.

And yet I walk away and head for work, barely acknowledging Him.  I get distracted from His savory treats and the sweetness of His presence…And I wonder about my son?  I do the very same thing.  How foolish I am!

And yet, in His Grace He offers again, waiting for me, not wanting me to miss Him.

Calling Mr. Fix-It…Anyone there?

Early in the week, my wife discovered that the dryer wasn’t doing its job.  After hours of spinning around, the clothes were still wet, without any sign of drying going on.

Immediately, I had a sinking feeling in my gut.  After my previous success with our washer, I was on the hook to fix the dryer. But with a busy week ahead, I was dreading the task.

And there was another wrinkle–this was a gas dryer.  Worst thing I could do with an electric dryer was curl my hair a bit, but a gas dryer?  I could blow up the house.  With fear and trepidation, I made the decision to punt on the task.

“Hon, call the repair guy.”  I said.  And she did.  Next Tuesday was the earliest that he could come, and it was $65 for him to walk in the door. Ouch.

So my wife and the boys rigged an extensive set of clothes lines in the basement, and every load of wash had to be dried overnight.

After surviving the week, I woke up on Saturday with not much on my plate.  The day was clear with only a few things to accomplish.  And then the thought popped into my head, “What if it’s something simple…”

So I went back to applianceaid.com and took a look.  (BTW, Kudos to the guys who built that site.  It isn’t the prettiest on the ‘net, but it has just about all the information you need to repair your appliances–all different brands and models.)  It didn’t look that bad to trouble shoot the dryer, so I took a shot.

Turned out to be a blown thermal fuse, which basically opens up when it gets too hot. A quick run to the appliance part store (real quick–I made it minutes before they closed for the day), and $17 later, I had a new fuse.

And we were back up and running…with heat even.

Thermal fuse

Close up of the thermal fuse

Back of the dryer

Dryer guts

I don’t know if this sound ridiculous or not, but after fixing the dryer, I felt like I had slayed a dragon, like the hero at the end of the story (and that’s how my wife treated me).

And it felt really good to call the repair guy and cancel the appointment. I’m gonna keep my $65+, thank you very much!