I am moving
The blogs are moving off of RLCC site so here is the new link for my Blog. All two of you can set the changes in your RSS reader. Mike and my Mom
http://weebeedoo.wordpress.com/
The blogs are moving off of RLCC site so here is the new link for my Blog. All two of you can set the changes in your RSS reader. Mike and my Mom
http://weebeedoo.wordpress.com/
A few months back Tim found a stash of VW's hidden in a backyard. There was two sitting in the backyard waiting to be completed, fighting the elements. This VW was behind the Garaged with animals making a home in the engine and back seat. In fact it has been there so long that a tree sapling grew by the front bumper, quickly becoming a 10 year old tree and fused around the bumper.
Often when Tim see a project knows that he is too busy to add another project that will suck money. As you know I already have a Westy project that is slow going. The hard part about this project was the fact that it is a 1957 VW with an oval window and original W engine lid. For those that know VW bugs, that is a gem! As Tim and I were scheming to figure out what to do with this gem. Mike, a muscle car gear head type jumped in and said " my wife has always wanted a Bug!" That was the end of it, Mike got his truck and he picked up a new project.
Welcome to the world of VW Mike!
I am sure he will always go back to a muscle car, but there is nothing like an ugly VW.
Oh about the other one, Tim found a new owner for that too. A cool VW but I have no pictures on that story.
I can remember when I had a summer vacation. It was great at first and then towards the end of the summer I was ready to go back. Now I still hang on to the idea of having a summer vacation, but really not much changes when it comes to things I have to do. But it is that time again and summer is finishing up, school starts and fall is now a foreseeable thing. When school started when I was a kid, I always remember telling what I did on my summer vacation. So since I am still hanging on to summer vacation here is what I did this summer.
Camping: We did go camping this summer. It was early in the summer and we took everyone camping. It went okay, but Jack was sick and he cried the whole weekend. He was the first to get up and started crying at 6 am. The only thing that stopped him was a car ride. When he wasn't crying it was fun. We cooked popcorn over the campfire and roasted marshmallows too. It was fun, but we never camped again this year.
I went on a mission trip with the teens to Panama City Beach. It was a great experience! HOT, fun, Challenging and had a great time with the teens. Highlights: Fixing a side of a house, The boys that I was a counselor to at camp are still slobs! Big ole shrimp! On the shell island tour I got the biggest shell ( I started out really freaked out looking in the sand for them) Great talks with Mike and Rich.
Great America with the family. We went on a Sunday in August. Dang it was hot. We went to the water park and then to the ride area. This year was the first year that Max could ride some of the coasters. I will never forget the fear on his face as we rushed down the "Viper" I used to hate the falls and now I was more worried about Max breathing that I never had time to fight the fall. It was great!. Janet is pregnant so she stayed with Jack. Jack was wiped from the water park, but after a 2 hour nap he drove us all in the wiggles car. We all had tons of fun.
We finally painted Max's room the green he has been asking for. It is now ready for him to enjoy with his brother Jack, when the new baby arrives at Christmas. :)
Last Janet had an ultrasound and we found out if we are having a boy or girl and we found out .........A girl! Man I think I am as nervous as I was when we had Max. More stories to come
For Summer not bad, but still have lots I wish I could have done. Maybe next year or even this fall!
Some have asked if I was going to get an iPhone. Very good question, because I am a tech gadget dude, mixed with the fact that I am easily distracted by shinny things. Tempting as it is, I probably will not get an iPhone soon. There are several reasons:
Cost The iPhone is $499 for a 4gig and $599 for a 8gig. Man, that is painful especial for a new design that has not been proven. Tim McGuire did reminded me that people paid $500 for a red LED watch when they first came out and they are are $5 now. That my friend is the reason why I will not pay $500 for a phone. I do like technology, but I am cheap and can't afford something that isn't useful in my everyday life.
No Real Keys No matter how you slice it we all need touch! It is a human need. It is a great attempt by apple to make the whole phone a screen. It is quite efficient! Yet, in my experience I use my phone by feel. I need a answer and hang up button, and probably a launch button. The text generation can type on phone pad, drive and never look at the phone ( That is wrong and dangerous but true. Don't worry I can"t do that. In fact I can hardly sing and clap). Try that on an iPhone.
Software So far there is little software. It is great to see MAC OS on the system. Very innovative and past due for smart phones. Treo is talking of Linux, but haven't seen it yet. The best part of my Treo is that I can find just about any program to help me do what I need. Games. documents, calculators, trips, maps, video and more. The iPhone has just the preloaded software, but has potential. I am sure that it will change, but for me I want stuff that i can use now.
There is no Removable Memory That is one of my favorite things with my Treo. I use memory like water. Videos take a ton and I am sure that Mac OS programs will use huge amounts of space, when the programs arrive. I love my SD cards, they are the new floppy and they are standard for phones, cameras and computers. Many times I throw a program or pictures from my camera, documents or even videos on my SD and jump between my computer, camera and Treo. For the iPhone when it is full you have to decide what to kick out.
No Removable Battery I am sure the battery is great, just like most of apple's stuff, but I often forget to charge my phone. That is such a bummer not to have an "extry" "battree." Also, Not a biggie on my list but, if the battery goes bad you will have to send it in for a price. Not to mention without a phone! iBad
For me I am going to stick with the Treo. It is cheaper and useful for me and I know how to use it. However I am waiting for Palm to step up to the innovations that Apple has come up with! It should move the smart Phone industry up. Like Thin, cool designs, web browser that are for real, easy to use and more... In the late 90's Palm was the apple of PDA's and they have changed little since. Very disappointing to say the least. We just need Palm to throw in wifi or a real web browser. If they don't iPhone will stomp over them, even the company exec phone users will make the jump! For now I will have faith that they will..... until the price and the feature combo is right.
Here are some links that I have found that may be useful for you, if not just a good read:
Palm Info Center: They have done a side by side comparison of the Treo and the iPhone. I think is it well done and as fair as a Treo supporter can be.
Consumer Reports They have looked at how the iPhone rates as a phone.
Thought I would give an update on my Westy project. Up until recently there was little progress and I was really thinking about selling it. Two factors played into this. The first was that it has been sitting around while I spend time with my boys. They are young and I want to spend as much time as I can while they still think I'm cool. The truth is that I was waiting for Jackson to get old enough to goof in the driveway without jumping in front of cars or drinking paint. The second is the fact that Janet is expecting in January and that will reset the time clock with the new baby. I am cool about having another baby, but it also meant that it was going to push kids playing freely in the drive a few years back.
I had two buyers for it and was just about to dump it, when I had a conversation with a trusted and wise friend. He offered that it really is only taking up some parking space, has cost little to nothing so far to own and I have 8 years to fix it up before Max is old enough to Drive. He offered that is important because that is the time I might need three cars when Max turns 16. What caught me was the fact that I could never get another one for the price I paid. So I have decided to keep it. My goal this year is to get it running this summer.
So Earlier this year another friend took the engine to his work and cleaned it. We took it apart for inspection, because was leaking oil and the clutch was full of oil. I left it in pieces because I needed a clutch, gasket kit and a set of rings. I was waiting for some cash to free up so I could afford the $250 price tag.
Last week I ordered the stuff. When the parts come in I will be moving again! Before it arrives, I have to sand and paint the engine cooling tin and check the end play.
Once I get the engine running I will move on and check the brakes and get them working, then work on the body and finish with paint. I think that i am going to try and have it painted by Maco. Can't beat the price! I would love to totally restore it, but reality is that nice looking will have to do for now.
Summer is offically here! Yippie! Here in Northwest Indiana we have had some great summer nights for the past few weeks. We as a family have enjoyed last week with FamJam and just playing out side this week. Last night Jack wanted to walk the Dog. He stood at the back door holding the leash and collar saying "Outside Darci" I was tired but who can resist such a plea? We went out to the field and Jackson did a great Job, until he noticed a orange milk Jug lid. He dropped the leash and looked at the lid. Luckily Darci never knew she was free. After that he found a rock pile and stood on top and tossed the rocks around till dark.
Don"t let the summer pass you up. I know that I need to be intentional about when and where I spend my time or it will pass me up. So ENJOY IT on purpose!
I was thinking the other day, why does God always seem to do things different from what we would think ?
Okay here are my thoughts:
Adam and Eve: Why didn’t God just spank them? He kicked them out and began to work on a plan to save them.
Moses and the Israelites: Why didn’t God let Moses create a great army of Israelites and just kick Pharaoh’s and the Egyptian’s tail? Why did he bother with the plagues?
David: Why did God call David and then make him run away from the King? Why didn’t God just use David’s personality and friends to stand up and straighten out Saul?
The Easter Story: Why didn’t God just Make Jesus the King of the Jews like they wanted and had he be on the thrown today? Why couldn’t He show his love and do miracles? That way everyone could see how powerful and strong GOD is.
I think I can make it all work and things might even be better if that were done that way!
Right now you probably thinking of all the holes in my plans . Most likely you are probably correct.
Two reasons why I think God did not do things like we would think.
1. GRACE
2. PERSONALITY TYPES
GRACE: God does not make us do anything we are not willing to do. I can threaten my dog to sit, but she will not willingly sit unless she wants to. Anything other than that is forcing. I can threaten to hit her or toss her out, but Positive reinforcement is what works the best.
God does not have to prove he is powerful! God wants us to follow him and go his way because he loves us and he knows things can be so much better. To have power and not use it speaks more of love than to have power and force us to follow because of love. There are exceptions that end the game which then makes force needed. Those examples are when it might kill or hurt us. At that point if we were out of the game it wouldn’t matter. God Chooses grace because it allows us to follow without being forced to worship. We Worship and follow because he loves us.
PERSONALITY TYPES: Each one of us has a unique personality type. We have tendency’s to be or react a certain way. Carl Young
Looked at people and noticed that there is four pair of ways of seeing our world. Those areas are Extroversion or Introversion, Sensing or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling, Judgment or Perception. Nobody is the same. Find out your personality type We naturally think using our personal preferences. And it is these preferences that cause us to think a certain way. We can think we are right, but the truth is we apply truth in accordance with these preferences negating the opposite ideas. Often the opposite of our personality type can help us make sure we are thinking without prejudice. God does not have this problem, He can see every angle.
The big question is what do I do about this?
Philippians 4 says
“4 rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Let’s go back to my examples. If things would have happened the way I think, People would have submitted and seen God’s power, but they might not have seen God’s Compassion and love. They might Follow God as my Dog sits on my command when I use force, but they would not trust that God is able enough to do the impossible. In all those situations God made a way in which both sides saw the Grace and Love of God that was available only through God making the way.
He could have done it different but He chose Grace instead. Through God everything is possible! We or I need to listen to people and their ideas and even let them say it is impossible. That is the time that God comes through! We can rejoice because God is near and is making the way!
