I think we should stick to houses

We bought a 2005 Grand Am to take to Michigan for Matthew to drive after the Impala was totaled on Matthew's drive to Calvin Seminary in Michigan. Seller told me it needed new front brake pads.

Now I have never claimed to be a mechanic, but Micah had changed the brake pads in his car a month or so back so I thought I would get him to help me. By help me I mean I would watch him do it. The first sign things were going south was when Micah said, "these aren't like mine." Next thing I knew we had the passenger front wheel off, the front brakes off , and were not getting the new pads to fit back in. Now I do not need any of the real men out there commenting on "use a C clamp to press the brake cylinder all the way back and the new ones will fit right in, but be sure to remove the cap on the brake fluid reservoir first or you might blow a brake line". Shut up or Micah and I will explain to you exactly how all of your ideas of investing are wrong and you have no idea how economics really work.

Did I mention we were doing this at my Father-in-Laws shop several miles from home and we had wisely driven out there together in the car we were going to fix and no in-laws were at home? So of course in my mechanical non wisdom I thought I would start the car and maybe the cylinder would retract. Ok guys stop laughing and rolling around on the floor. Although when I started the car put it in neutral and closed the door, who would have guessed that car doors would lock. Yes that is right, only three wheels on the car, keys in the ignition, car running, all doors locked, and we are miles from home and another vehicle.

Micah rummaged around in his grandfather's shop until he found a long thin rod. I hunted up a heavy duty screw driver. And there we were, me prying open the top of the door and Micah pushing a rod in and trying to tip the toggle switch in the door. It was a lovely sound to here that click of the doors unlocking when he finally hit the toggle switch. Not quite such a lovely sound when the rod hit the toggle switch back and re-locked the doors immediately. Well try again I guess and low and behold this time the door unlocked and stayed unlocked. 

Well now we had the doors unlocked and the car shut off but we were still stranded out in the country with a car with just 3 wheels attached. I'm thinking OK, can we get a wheel attached to this thing and get it on a trailer and into a mechanic or are we looking at getting a tow truck. Of course the whole trailer thing would mean we would have to have the pickup and we did not have one of those. A tow truck would have worked if we were not parked front end of the car up against the shop. Not sure how a tow truck would have gotten in front of it to pick it up.

We started giving it another try. Up to this point we had not been able to get the line loose on the back of the brake assembly to bleed out the oil because even with the C clamp (yes smart phones and google are a wonderful fount of information) the piston would not retract. We put the the brake assembly back on and were able to put considerable pressure on the brake line bleed to allow the fluid to bleed out. Of course while trying to loosen the line with the assembly unattached the rotor fell off and left me with a nice open cut on my ankle. Still smarts as I write this sad tale of woe.

I won't bore you with the rest of our fun times except at this point Micah says "I think we should stick to houses" Amen, preach it son. We got the brakes back on sort of, the car was drivable but when you stepped on the brakes it made a nasty grinding noise. We drove it to our mechanic and asked when he could fix the brakes. Yes I did tell him we had tried to be mechanics but had failed. He took a look at it and even though we only live ten blocks away told us he didn't think we should drive home and back as we would damage the rotor more than we already had by driving back into town, so he had his wife deliver us home, Thanks Cleo!! We were not really up to a nice long walk at this point.

Yea I think Micah is right we had better stick to houses and let the mechanics earn their keep. Just one last admission.  Every time I got out of that car after the locking incident Micah would yell, "Dad take the keys". Yes we should stick to houses.

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to.

The title is misleading I am not thinking about crying on my birthday, but you want to talk about a day that did not turn out like I though it would. I had a plan. It was going to be a cool day for August and Matthew and I were going to put new shingles on a roof.

We did get some on between 10 am and 2 this afternoon. The pallet did shrink some but not much. We did not get started till 10 am because I first went out and checked hogs in 3 hog buildings. I was doing the chores for some people who will remain anonymous. They evidently felt it was more important to go to a nephew's wedding than it was not to ask me to check a few hog buildings on my birthday.

Below is the 13th building we have shingled this year and if we buy no more houses we would have only 2 left (I don't see that happening with Micah on the hunt). Matthew and I were ready to go at 10 and I figured less than 4 hours later we would be done. 

Problem was when we started up the air compressor for the nail gun. (compressor plugged into outlet in garage) we blew a fuse in the box in the garage. Plugged the compressor into another outlet fed from the other side of the 220 current and blew the breaker in the basement. No current and the tenant was off having breakfast with a friend.. Called him and did a few odd jobs waiting for Steve to get home so we could get into the house and get current back on. He graciously connected us into an outlet in the house and we were off and running.

For a bit that is, we finished one side which was the most difficult and went for lunch. Were rolling along after lunch and I got a phone call asking if I would come down to the police station. (I did have to ask where the police station was because I had never been there before.) A tenant and friend was asking if I would come down for moral support. He was bringing a couple of women in to file a complaint and I think he thought if I was there, they would be taken more seriously. I went. I thought it was more important to help someone in trouble than getting a roof on. It was kind of surreal though to be introduced as Reverend Spoelstra to everyone we met. Usually I correct anyone who calls me that but today I just let it slide (its my birthday remember?). To most of the people I deal with on a daily basis I am the closest thing they have to a minister and they really don't care about the CRC rules of who is a preacher and who isn't. So I spent my birthday checking hogs and sitting in a police station playing moderator and pastor. Never would have guessed that would be my day. But I got to talk to a man in the police station about Jesus and eternal life and that may be the best birthday gift I could ever receive.

I am thinking I will light a fire in our fire pit this evening and just sit for a bit counting all the blessings God has given me.

God has blessed me with Sharon. Here we are eating in a greasy diner in southern Illinois. And when I write greasy I mean the floors the walls and even the ceilings. The place was packed but I don't think they had cleaned in at least 10 years. But yea! neither of us got food poisoning.

Our three sons and daughter in law, Joshua and Casey on the left and Micah and Matthew on the right.

One of the biggest blessings of all is it seems that almost every week I get to share the gospel with someone. God just throws people into my life and believe me there is no greater feeling than seeing someone accept Jesus as their savior. I had a man who came to know Jesus in January, come up to me last week and stick out his hand to shake my hand and thank me for turning his life around. I didn't do anything, but show up and listen ( Ok maybe I said a few things, but nothing that was going to make anyone see they were a sinner in need of a savior) I got to watch God at work handing out free grace. I am blessed indeed.