Done Shingling

A lot of my summer seems to have been spent on roofs. I remember one 90 degree day a tenant asking me how it was going and my reply was it is hot. They said yea but you can get a good tan up there. Hey I am old I don't care about a tan, I realized years back looking handsome was a lost cause, I just want air conditioning.

Yesterday I finished our last roof for the year.And when I say I finished I mean "I" finished. Matthew went off to Seminary and Micah has been busy the last 2 weeks, seems to think he has a full time job he needs to show up at. Micah and Matthew did a roof this size one Saturday morning and we were home early for lunch. I think we woke a lot of tenants up on Saturday mornings a lot earlier than they had planned. Someone on your roof with a nail gun early morning has to be an eye opening experience. It took me 2 and 1/2 days to do this one. I like to think I am more precise instead of slow. The boys might disagree with that but what do they know, they are still in their early 20s. I knew it was time to end when 2 weeks ago Micah said, "I sure hope we do not have as many roofs to do next year." This from the guy that told me earlier this summer he would rather roof than put on siding. I told him if you stop buying houses we will not have to roof so many houses. (he is still looking).

So I am on this side on Wednesday and think I feel my foot starting to slip just a bit. Natural reaction was to put down a hand to make sure I was steady. Problem was that was the hand I had the nail gun in, problem was I had my finger on the trigger. Now the problem was I had this neat line of nails running down the roof poking out of those new shingles I had just put on. Yea great fun to tear those back off and redo. I really need to take my finger off that trigger, I am just thankful that line of nails was not in my leg.

This is about roof 14 for the year, we got a total of 18 finished, I think this is both my favorite way to roof and the boy's favorite way to roof. Me not on the roof. Do you see a ladder? Me neither, wonder where they put the ladder when I was not looking so I couldn't get on the roof.

This was one of the more memorable ones. We had finished another roof early on a Saturday afternoon. I said to Micah lets start on the next house and see if we can get a few shingles on. Micah set up the ladder and told me the roof was missing some shingles. I said "yea, I know there were a few blown off and I patched it a couple of weeks ago so it would hold water until we got to it." Micah replied "No dad there are shingles gone." I am thinking what is his problem I patched it up and put on some tar for good measure, we will get back to the tar in a minute. Micah wanted me to get up on the ladder and take a look. I did and said "I patched it right there what are you talking about." Look up to your right dad." Oh boy, about a 3 foot by 4 foot section of shingles was completely gone must have blown off in a wind storm we had that week. I was looking at bare sheeting. Our easy short afternoon turned into a mad rush to get the roof buttoned down and covered before Sunday. It was still April and it actually rained back then and there was rain in the forecast. As we worked on the roof the tar I had put on a couple of weeks earlier got on everything. Micah kept grumbling under his breath and sometimes quite audibly about ignorant people putting tar on roofs. I am sure he in no way was referring to me. 

As you can see there was no tear off on this roof. Just a shingle over. When we started doing this 2 years back the boys were adamant that the roofs needed to be torn down to the sheeting before we put on any shingles. I told them they could do a tear off, no problem, but I was not helping. Shingle over works just fine once, that is why we never buy a house with more than one layer of shingles. They patiently explained to me how much harder the tear off would be with a double layer next time the houses need to be shingled. I again stated they could tear off any shingles they wanted, but I was not concerned about the next time the roof needed shingling. I was 57 at the time and 20 years from then I would be 77 and I would not be shingling anyway. Your problem then boys. Funny thing, I never saw them tear a single shingle off, boy are they going to have a lot of work in 20 years.

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. 

2016 flies away

     2016 is quickly becoming just a spot in the rear view mirror. Every year seems to go speeding past faster and faster. It is getting to the place where I barely have time to enjoy the years. They are past before I can do something really crazy, but I do struggle not to conform too much to the rules.
     I kinda like to do things when told you should not do them. I guess that is the juvenile refusal to grow up.

    When Sharon and I were in the Mojave Desert we came across this sign.  Sure the sign says heat warning, hiking is not recommended. What a good reason to go for a little jaunt on a 109 degree day.

You don't have to worry about fighting the crowds when out for a hike in the "Valley of Fire" in July.

     Sharon and I took the family up to Northeast Iowa for a few days because this was the year we have been married for 30 years. Sharon wanted to celebrate last year already. I wonder if it seems it has been "longer" she has had to put up with me than real time can measure.

     Micah was leading our exploration of a trail when he and Matthew decided we could just cross the fence where the sign was posted DO NOT CROSS and continue walking, and sliding down the rock face, and being lost. We finally were able to scramble back up the bluff about straight up and get back on the trail. I do wonder where those boys get the idea they can just wonder off the trails. There was a certain justice here though. When they were younger there was a time or two when they were in tears asking "will we ever find our way back". Ha, now I could ask them the same question.

     When Sharon and I visited Dordt, we went to see Matthew at work. The above scene was what we saw. Ah, yes that old Spoelstra work ethic kicking in. Put your feet up and read. (by the way I just misspelled Spoelstra and spell check thought I was trying to type strapless,hmm.) 

     Tony is in his second year at Dordt. I am starting to remind myself of my father. "Tony you need a haircut". Wow! we were never going to be those old staid people that our parents were, were we? When Sharon and I are in Cedar Rapids we visit with one of Matthew and Tony's professors. We get a kick out of it that she tells people she teaches our sons (plural). I bet people would be surprised to see the lack of family resemblance one of our "sons" has to the rest of our boys.

     We spent a lot of our spare time working on houses this year. As you can see from the above picture I am best at leaning against something while supervising. I find the work is much easier if one of the boys does it, although I reserve the right to say "you did that how?" in that kind of disgusted parental voice all children know and love..

Yep, your right, neither one of those pictures is me working either. 

     They do good work though. Here is a picture of the kitchen of a house we bought that had been rented by an owner who lived out of town and was not watching his property. We had torn out the broken cabinets and broken ceiling, but that was the condition of the floor. I am pretty sure there was a little recreational medication going on by the former tenants. We met a boy about 11 years old who had been living here with his extended family. He said "my uncle isn't right in the head." Wow we figured that out even without a psychiatric evaluation.

     Same area finished and ready to rent. It's our little bit of reformation in a broken world. While the boys slave away I think of myself more as the purchaser. I find the house to purchase they do the work.

     See, here I am asking the age old question of life, "is that floor solid". I do believe some day after jumping on one of these floors I will find myself in the basement bleeding going "help I've fallen and I can't get up."

     God has blessed our family greatly in the past year. It is my prayer that God is deeply involved in each of your lives as well. May 2017 be a year of rejoicing in our Lord and Savoir.

Learn from History

‘Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The quote is most likely due to George Santayana. i think the problem today is not that people do not remember the past but that they have no idea what actually happened in the past. There were stricter gun laws in the " wild West" than we have today. The shootout at OK corral was over the law against carrying a gun into the town of Tombstone. The Earps were deputized to stop the Clantons from carrying loaded weapons into town. 

Today everyone wants to have the "right to bear arms" I would like to have the right to live without reading about another mass shooting of innocents. If they could ban the carrying of weapons in the town of the old west, where guns had to be checked at the stable or the Sheriff's office when you came to town why can't we have the same laws today over 100 years later. it seems to me that having to hand over your weapons on entering a town in the wild west did not bring an end to freedom.
I am so tired of hearing the phrase " only a good man with a gun can stop a bad man with a gun". Ask the families of the dead police officers how well that is working out. The police officers were trained to handle and fire their weapons but the bad guys with a gun still killed them.

I am so tired of hearing the phrase "guns don't kill people, people kill people". Yes people with guns kill people. 
I am not opposed to hunting. I am not opposed to target shooting. I am not opposed to owning guns, but let's get them off our city streets where they do not belong. If we were not a nation where guns were in everyone's hands the counselor in Florida would not have been shot by the police. No one would have called 911 because they mistook the toy the autistic man was carrying to be a gun. Yes criminals will still get guns, I know that, but almost all people can not protect themselves against a criminal by owning or carrying a gun. 
Let's return to the sanity of the wild west and ban guns in our towns. Let's allow the law enforcement officers to know that most of us are not armed and let them arrest everyone they find with a loaded weapon. I am willing to give it a try because what we are doing now is not working.
I think Albert Einstein spoke eloquently about our situation with guns. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 

Waiting for Jesus

Wilma Spoelstra broke her hip on Friday. Her right hip broke January 23 and then in March she had a stroke. Life has not been the best of times for Mom in 2016. 

She survived the surgery yesterday to replace her hip. I am not sure that is what she wanted. When she broke her hip in January she had a moment of clarity just before the surgery to replace the right hip and said, "if I die on the operating table, it would not be the worst thing." Later when she was in skilled care for therapy she could not understand why she could not walk. One evening I said "mom you broke your hip, you may not ever walk again". This really sad look came over her face and she looked down for a bit, then she got a smile on her face and she looked back at me and said, "yea, but I am old so it can't be for long".

Here Mom is surrounded by some of her grandchildren at Emily's wedding. 

She has survived so much it is almost hard to image something could actually end her life. She survived brain cancer, almost bled to death from a polyp bleeding in her colon, Broke her sternum and several ribs in her 70's, Has had high blood pressure since she was 50. Her heart is a mess and has been for 20 years, suffers from A-Fib and has been shocked a couple of times to get her heart back in rhythm. She has COPD and at times has trouble breathing. I am sure I am forgetting a few maladies she has survived.

When Dad died 3 years ago I think she spent 6 months just looking at the wall and wondering why she was still here.

Mom as a teenager

This is Mom and me back in the late 70's. 

         I don't know how long God is going to leave Mom here on this earth, but I do know that she knows God has a place prepared for her forever. She is just waiting and sometimes impatiently for Jesus to come get her. It has been painful to see Mom in pain, frustration and sorrow this year, but it has also given me an opportunity to ask several people, " Mom is assured of her place in heaven, are you?" God does things His way and in His time Mom will get to go home.

She will healthy and happy when she gets there.

End of a Year

Sometimes it can be rather painful to see yourself through the eyes of others. At Pella Christian High School they have the pictures of all the graduates up on the wall by class. One day when Tony the international student who lived with us was at the school early for an activity, one of the teachers asked if he would like to see the picture of his host parent.

Sure said Tony, and he and a couple of the girls who are also from china went down the hallway to view the Senior picture of Me. Now I have never been very fond of my senior picture, but have never really cared because who is going to look at it now 30 years after the damage was done by my idea of "looking good" back in 1976. Well the sad part of this tale is when these teenage girls from China saw my senior picture one of them said, "What happened to him? He used to be handsome." 
Well, I am pretty sure that was not a compliment. Its not like I am still living in some fantasy where teen age girls would see me as looking good, but I am not sure I want their pity or maybe just a tinge of disgust either.
     Micah and Matthew put shingles on a couple of houses we bought this year. Tony even helped them shingle a couple of days.

Boys shingling. Thanks to Russ for the equipment

The first day he helped to shingle was right after school was out last May. I think he had heard a lot of roofing stories from the boys and thought he was missing out on a grand part of life. I always say it is not what happens that matters but how you tell the story. Anyway when Matthew and Tony came home after a day up on the roof in the sun I asked Tony, "so what did you think of shingling?" He looked at me and said, " that is not as much fun as you would think it would be". Ah, isn't that how much of life is. He did go back in August and help the boys again for another day. A little time must have dulled the pain.
     I also had the opportunity to shingle a roof this year. I did it almost all by myself. Do I sound like a 3 year old there? Old age sets in and you do regress you know. Micah was helping me work on a house and there was a storm rolling toward Oskaloosa. We were hurrying to get everything under cover and cleaned up before the rain. We had just picked everything up and made it undercover in the garage when the rain came down in buckets. Just as the deluge was begining to let up one of the tenants stuck his head out the door and said "Hey, there is water coming through the living room ceiling and plaster is falling." Those are not some of the words I like to hear. I like to hear things like "wow this house is in perfect shape", or "we had a leak under the sink so we just fixed it ourselves because we didn't want to bother you". ( I can dream of a utopia can't I?) Anyway Micah and I went in and looked at the water dripping from the ceiling and pieces of plaster slowly drooping down and then going splat on the carpet. Oh Yea!!

Room where the ceiling fell

     We went up on the roof to look for where the water was getting through. Now I do want to explain that before we bought the house I had climbed up and did a quick look at the shingles. I am not saying here that I actually got onto the roof and walked around but I had at least looked at the shingles. OK, did you get that? I had at least looked at the roof. Well, when we climbed up on the roof after the leak Micah walks over to a valley in the roof and points at some tar the previous owner had put there. Micah then looks at me and asks " Did you even look at this roof before you bought the house?" I said "yes I did". He points down and says "there is tar in the valley and you didn't think that was going to be a problem?" Snarky youth if there ever was one. I answered " OK, I said I looked at the roof I never said I actually got on it." Jeepers what does he want from me perfection?
     I was at the bank the other day depositing some cash and feeling rather small about it. All I had to deposit was a down payment of a rent payment in the amount of $60.00. It was one of those days when there were no other customers in the bank. Why do they call them customers? They take our money and we walk out with out any merchandise. Oh sorry I digress. All three tellers on duty were watching me and listening as I deposited the whole $60.00 in our checking account. I was sort of feeling guilty for taking their time for a small deposit when a woman came into the bank and walked up to one of the other tellers.  She carefully dug around in her pocket and laid a quarter on the counter top. "I want to deposit this quarter in our account." What did I hear that right she was putting a whole 25 cents in her account? Hey baby I got 60 bills here, do you see that Mrs. teller? 60 dollars in paper currency, you got a big depositor here, not just a coin but greenbacks baby. WOO HOO. Amazing how one's perspective can change. Mr. money bags me can strut with pride out of that bank after a huge deposit like that.
     So just remember this year hang around the people with smaller houses than yours, older vehicles than yours, and smaller incomes than yours and you will always feel like a big shot. 
     If I start looking now I might find someone who doesn't fit those qualifications for me by next December. Happy hunting for you this year. If you are looking for someone poorer than you to compare yourself to you can always use me..