For the lack of something better to write about, here’s my normal workday:
Nothing exciting, but I figured I might as well make it part of the “official” record.
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Back in September, I replaced my 1998 Toyota Corolla with a Honda Civic. I’m quite happy with it, but we never got around to doing anything about the Corolla. We were planning on donating it like we did our 1990 Nissan 240sx, but there have been other things keeping us from getting around to it. As a result, it’s just been sitting on the street.
Around Wednesday, we noticed a note on the windshield saying that if we were interested in selling the car, call. How did he know it was for sale? I mean it was only sitting in the street for the last 9 weeks and had a 1/4″ of dirt all over it.
Well, I called “Mike” and spoke with him about it and he said it was for his wife after then had a baby and wanted to have a second car for her to get around town in. He came by about 30 minutes later, asked quite a few questions while he figuratively “kicked-the-tires”. I originally asked for about 60% Kelley Blue Book and he offered $500 less. I debated about countering, but he really was saving me a lot of trouble and it all ends up as “found money.”
He’ll be coming back tomorrow to complete the transaction (he needed to get the cash and I needed to get the papers).
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Yeah, yeah another WWDC post, but the truth is, I’m stuck in a hotel room alone all week so I get to catch up with my posting backlog. While watching this morning’s keynote I couldn’t help thinking that Steve Jobs was looking really thin. Sure, I was at the back of the rather large auditorium and he was just a speck from my naked eye, but there were two large projections over the middle of the crowd and he looked and acted off-the-mark. Having seen dozens of keynotes over the years, I also noticed that he
deferred to other presenters far more often (and for longer) then
anytime I can remember.
Two years ago, Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which was was caught early and removed with surgery and fortunately, he did not require either chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Technically, he should be in good shape. Maybe, he’s not? Perhapse there is nothing new here and it just looked funny on screen but I hope and pray that his health is good.
Did you see the keynote? Watch the first few minutes and tell me what you think?
My pride is hurt. Quite brused, in fact. You see, my family and I were headed over to a pool party/potluck for our church’s youth pastor who was leaving to work with The Navigators in Arizona. And I pressed the wrong button.
You’re probably confused. Perhaps I can explain. One of the features we really like about our house is the fact it has a rear detached garage and a driveway that goes down the side all the way to the street (like a good driveway should). Since we have dogs, we installed a gate shortly after we moved in at the end of 2001. Being practical and forward thinking, we realized that a manual gate while cheaper would get old really quick (e.g., pull up, get out, open the gate, pull through, get out, close the gate…) so decided to have it motorized. The installers did a really good job and even hooked up the mechanism to the middle button of our three buton garage door opener so that we didn’t have to worry about using two different remotes. Considering that two of the three buttons weren’t doing anything, it certainly made sense.
Flash forward to yesterday. I was pulling out of the garage having previously opened the gate and was backing down the driveway. Since I was clear of the garage I pressed the button to close the garage door. Moments later: **crunch** For a moment, I didn’t realize what happened and even when I got out and looked at the damage, I still wasn’t clear as how it happened. After I calmed down a moment, I realized that I must have hit the wrong button and the gate started closing right as I was approaching it.
It made contact exactly with the rear corner of the car at the edge of the gate. As a result, the turn signal/brake light was cracked, the rear bumber damaged, some small damage to the rear body, and 1 1/2″ steel frame along with two 5/8″ bars of the gate pushed in about a foot. To be honest, I probably couldn’t have done better if I tried.
The long and short is that only bad drivers that don’t pay attention have accidents like that. Me? I’m a good drive who considers himself quite careful and safe and would never have thought I would ever have an accident like that (by my hand at least).
We’re working on getting estimates for the car and gate. I’ll be lucky if I get off for less than $2000 for the both. We’ll see.
As a result, I’ve changed my driveway protocol. Open the door and gate, back out, stop, close the door and gate while stationary, and when completely closed, continue.
Becky and I went to see The DaVinci Code this afternoon with some friends of ours. I had "read" the book a few years ago (in quotes as I don’t have time to read and instead listen to books from Audible.com during my commute) and thought it was decent enough work of fiction. Unfortunately, many have come to believe that the assertions of its author, Dan Brown, are true and based in fact. Read more…
Last night, I was trying to finish up 24: The Game which I had borrowed from work and while I was almost done with only one "hour" (of 24) left (maybe 30-45 minutes of gameplay) it was late and I had a little headache so I went to bed.
About 90 minutes later, I woke up with a very uncomfortable headache. You know, the kind where it feels like your entire head is in a rather large vice. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, so I took two Tylenol and got back in bed. Unfortunately, it was too uncomfortable and my tossing and turning woke Becky up so I decided to go downstairs and wait for them to kick in.
It really was miserable. Even after 30 minutes, I could barely sit still. I passed the time by installing Ubuntu Linux in Parallels and paced the floor sipping water while it was doing it’s thing. Becky checked on me once to make sure I wasn’t dead from an aneurysm and went back up after I told her it was unecessary for both of us to loose sleep.
Long story short, I started feeling good enough to get back in bed around 4 AM. I slept until 8 and then took a nap during the day since I was still feeling a bit wiped out.
If that is what a migraine is, my heart and prayers to anyone who suffers. I’ll presume it was just some one-time thing (maybe a reaction to the sulfites from the wine I had that evening).
Web 2.0 is a buzzword that refers to websites that interactively update their content. A good example is Google Maps. This one appears to be a bible search that provides multiple translations and cross references. Unfortunately, this new service is in private beta so I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but it looks like it will be a good resource.
Of course, if you have a spare invite, please let me know. 
Update: Trevor who is working on the site was kind enough to find my email address (I hadn’t registered on the waiting list) and sent me an invite. Very cool of him. Thanks, Trevor.
Read more…
Today is good Friday and mighty good Friday it is. I just wanted to wish anybody reading this a Happy Easter and that you are able to enjoy it with any and all that are close to you.
Perhaps you will get the opportunity to enjoy a tasty treat! Oh, and as I was told by a very insightful pastor once, God can indeed make something like this good for you. His will permitting, of course.
Becky sent me this yesterday and I just had to share:
The Cost of Kids
I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It’s nice, really nice!
The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140.00 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn’t eve! n touch college tuition.
But $160,140 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That’s a mere $24.24 a day! Just over a dollar an hour.
Still, you might think the best financial advice says don’t have children if you want to be “rich.” It is just the opposite.
What do your get for your $160,140?
Naming rights—First, middle, and last!
Glimpses of God everyday.
Giggles under the covers every night.
More love than your heart can hold.
Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.
A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
For $160,140, you never have to grow up.
You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.
You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disneyland, and wishing on stars.
You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother’s Day, and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.
For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.
You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
You get a front row seat to witness history the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel. You get to be immortal.
You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.
You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.
In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.
You have all the power to heal a booboo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.
ENJOY YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS
Alarm goes of at 5:00 AM just like it normally does during the week. I got ready and headed downstairs to gather my things and start my morning commute. When I went outside to grab the newspaper, I saw the rare but familiar sight of draped swatches of white on our lawn, trees, bushes, and light-post. Yup, somebody TP’d our house. It wasn’t a big deal and I wasn’t even upset. In fact, to be honest, they didn’t do a very thorough job. It took all of 3 minutes to clean up.
Of course, I wonder why we were targeted. We don’t really know anybody in the Jr. High-High School age range and certainly pray that I haven’t offended anybody in the neighborhood.
After I started to drive away, I saw a tree down the road had also gotten hit, so I guess our house was simply an easy target. Interestingly, we’re on a corner that gets its share of traffic so they had to have worked fast. That must be why it was so easy to clean up.
No harm. I hope they had fun.
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Philip Yancey
Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels
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