So Long, My Friend

Today I sold the good old green Jeep. I purchased him in 2000 making him the longest I've ever owned and drove any vehicle. We are now purely a Honda driving family. You will be missed, old friend.

Its a Jeep Thing

Yesterday I was trying to work on our cars with little luck. Seems I actually made the Jeep worse. Trying to open the hood, I broke the hood latch cable. I've been trying to figure out a way to close it safely so the hood doesn't fly up when driving. Here's what Cara suggested:

I think its going to work.

We celebrated Craig's 40th birthday last night by going to Fasika's Ethiopian food for dinner (which is right next to Big V's which I popped in to say hi to BJ but he wasn't working yet). One of the dishes they served was goat meat. This was the best I've ever had at Fasika's.

After that we had ice cream cake at Cara's folk's house. Craig, Tracey, Nathan and Aaron are staying there while they are here in the US (they live in Kenya while Craig works his ministry working with the environment).

Today is a rare time of getting things caught up. I've been looking at different ways to promote my business and at the same time save money on the cars. Both of our cars have the engine light on. For the Honda its been determined that there is a misfire going on. Jeremy and I spent Tuesday morning replacing the plugs and the wires with no progress. I'm wondering if the same thing is going on with the Jeep. We're going to get auto repair manuals from eBay today so they can be worked on soon (by me!).

Wednesday, I spent my birthday money on the new Battlestar Galactica RPG book. I wave my geekflag high. This is a very well made game. Margaret Weis Productions improved their production since they released the Serenity RPG. This book seems more conceived and clean. The rule system has been refined as well. Great product. Its been a fun read and has gotten me back into the franchise. Too bad there won't be a DVD for season 3 until Spring next year.

Snow and Baby Sonar

I finally got my Jeep up the driveway and into the garage!

This started yesterday after work. Work was stressful because we got more snow than I remember ever getting here in MN. And driving a 30 foot big yellow vehicle all around St. Paul with trying to keep to a schedule is just not relaxing.

It took an hour to get home. Its ironic that the bus handles better in this weather than my jeep. Its probably all about weight. Getting home, the driveway was nearly a foot deep with snow. NO WAY this jeep is getting up there.

Took over an hour with my neighbor's help- Mike and Amy, they came over with shovels and a snow blower! Mike even tried pushing my Jeep with his Jeep. No go.

Cara and Leesha weren't home last night. They stayed at her folk's house so they could make it to the appointment this morning, ok. So I went to sleep all by myself.

Before I went to sleep, I did get the news that St. Paul closed schools for today. Thank you, Lord.

Got up and immediately started shoveling again. This time because a plow trapped me in.

Here's the REAL news.
I met Cara, Leesha and Darlene at the clinic to see Bopper! We had a scheduled ultrasound. Everything looked good to the tech and it was hard to recognize anything without her help, but what a fascinating thing!

COLD

-14 degrees today. What this means is while I'm parked out at home with the bus every 12 hour I have to go out and start the bus and let it run for 10 minutes. Not as much fun as not doing that.

On the way in to work my Jeep didn't warm up at all. That's not normal.

Had to do a load count for the Wellstone Route. Bad day to have me count the students, quite possibly the lowest total number of students I've ever hauled.

No one was home when I arrived tonight. Kind of had me worried for a minute. Leesha had to go strait to bed as soon as they did get home, which was very shortly after I did. She kept getting up out of bed to 'go to the bathroom' (testing boundaries is what she was really up to, stalling going to bed). Had me thinking of guidelines for Grounding.

• No iPod
• No Gameboy
• No Radio Disney
• No Friends house or Friends over
• one week duration- if she does something that would cause her to be grounded while she is already grounded, add one day to the duration.
• Duration = 1 week.

Cara thought this was a bit steep. Then I thought

• 1st offense = 3 days
• 2nd offence = 5 days
• 3rd = one week
• adding a day beyond the one week

Watched a South Park episode dealing with the Nentendo WII and Atheism. Fantastic stuff. Also watched an episode of Torchwood. Interesting episode. Kind of slow.

The Further Adventures of My 30 Foot Yellow Car

They washed my bus last night!

The timing of my route went too well, yesterday. Plus I forgot to hand in the results. So I figured I could do it today to get more accurate results, but today went just as well- if not better.

Dah is back to school. She had a birthday present for Leesha. Then I had to explain what generous meant.

This computer is starting to die, I think. It took almost 15 minutes to boot up. This started me off in a foul mood for my 1.5 hours at home. On top of that- the phone ran more than ever in this period of the day. Grumble grumble. Oh, I have it so bad.

The Noon route went rather well which brought be back around. Those kindergartners are so darn cute.

Then I went to the Source for comic books. I was happy after that. I picked up an old AD&D comic from DC from way back in the late '80s and a new comic for Leesha.

I have been selling a YTB company profile document on eBay for $.01 for the last few weeks just to get company information in the hands of people. I sold many. Most people purchased them for the sake of trading feedback, unfortunately. That wasn't my motive, but it was a nice side effect. It caused my account to surface on eBay admin radar and they pulled the remaining auctions off. Then they removed every feedback I received for selling those. I guess that didn't work out. I thought I was onto something there. BLAST!

Today I had a stupid song stuck in my head. I cannot recall what it was and I'm not putting any effort into trying. It had been irritating me so much that I figured programming KTIS into my Jeep's radio, on the way home, would help. It took 1.5 songs before I was searching again. Then I found Solsburry Hill by Peter Gabriel and right at the beginning of the song, too! That was the best way to see the day out.

Bugs, Buses and Bombergs

I believe there is some sort of spirit that influences one's day. It may manifest in small ways- like stop light timing. Today has a good spirit. Everything was falling into place as it should today.

Some drama on the elementary school route this afternoon. Dequan is a kid with some self esteem issues. Somehow he sets everyone against him. This kid ends up in more arguments and fights than anyone else. He is so hungry for attention that he saps my energy more than any other kid on any of my routes. Today, he decided to take Dah's seat on the bus- the seat directly behind my seat. When Dah got on the bus and she saw that her usual spot was taken she went back further and got real quiet. It was difficult to tell, but she seemed more upset than I think she should have been for just a seat.

About half way through the route we ran into trouble on University and Dale. There were maybe 8 police cars in that area with crime tape and all sorts of action. They were redirecting traffic so I altered the route and took the remaining kids home all out of order which caused all sorts of questions and complaints about going home from them. I enjoy deviating from the route sometimes.

Cara picked up my check today.
My CD player in the jeep is pretty much dead.

I was in a mood when I got home. Hadn't even stepped in the house when Leesha unloads on me all about some bug in the basement. After I unloaded all my layers and stuff, used the bathroom, kissed my wife I went into Leesha's room to tell her she might want to give Dah a call to make her feel better. Leesha's reply was something about that stupid bug. I asked if she even heard what I said. She said she did, but then continued about that bug in the basement. So I gave up trying to talk to her. She's obsessed with it. Shortly after that her dad came to pick her up.

Very soon after Leesha got picked up Cara and I went to the Bomberg's house for dinner and just to hang out. What can I say about this visit. We've been with them before and had a really good time. This time didn't measure up to those visits. Kristin threw a mini fit while playing Phase 10 when Matt tried to point out she was playing incorrectly. It was awkward. After the game, Cara and Kristin went through a HUGE collection of maternity clothing while Matt kept nodding his head back and forth in some strange attempt to act not sleepy while I channel surfed. We had been trying to get together with them for a long time and maybe this was too short notice or something, but it just felt forced to me. And we didn't leave till after midnight. It was nice to see Sadie (I'm horrible).

Tomorrow we see the Jankoviches.

Comic Book Day and The Voice that Relaxes

We had a Safety Meeting at work today so I was unable to go home. This disrupts my routine which is good and bad. I love to go home and relax turning the heat and the radio up, but I am also a fan of change.

Since there was no work or postal service on Monday, that makes today Comic Book Day!

It's usually on Wednesdays, but not today, that I go to The Source and chat with the guys working there about whatever- usually Hans. Hans and I trade music a lot. We have many similar interests which go beyond just music. Today we talked about The Gunslinger series by Stephen King and how Merlin/Randall Flagg (of the Stand) was very similar to Tolkien's wizards and even Lewis's version of Merlin in That Hideous Strength. He lent me another album by Transatlantic. In turn, I gave him a copy of Ayreon - The Human Equation. Transatlantic was a lighter prog band that featured Neal Morse who left the band and went on to do solo stuff as a christian musician.

I got gas for the Jeep today at $1.86 a gallon!

Dah is a young girl on the elementary school route I work. She has taken a liking to me and always sits right behind me and chats away about whatever. One day Leesha ended up riding the bus with me all day. She and Dah became friends, but they can't seem to connect by phone since. Today, Dah wanted to sing songs that she made up right there on the spot. I allowed her to go ahead. The odd thing about it (and what makes it blog worthy) is that when I would allow myself to focus on her voice, I found it very relaxing. It only worked on the songs she made up. The only other song she knows (that I recognize) is Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All and I found that that song doesn't relax me at all- even if its sung by Dah.

As soon as I got home dinner was served. As soon as dinner was done, Leesha was on her way to bed. Our schedule is brutal. Seems like there isn't much time with her.