Hertzler’s Outpost

Yesterday I borrowed a friend’s motorcycle and did some more learning-driving. He has a Kawasaki Concours (an older model), and it had plenty of power. After a few trips across the CCCI Lake Hart campus, I ventured out south down Moss Park Road and around Lake Mary Jane. Really fun. On the way back I opened it up on the straightaway to several miles an hour over 55. It rode as smooth at that speed as it did at 35.

We sold our gray van today! It feels great to own one less vehicle, and it feels even better to have sold it to a young family that looked like they could really use an affordable family van.

This time I remembered to visit the tag agency with the buyer. A few years ago I simply gave the title to the buyer, and they failed to transfer the registration. They got in an accident and had an insurance dispute over it. Since my driver’s license was still tied to that vehicle the state of Florida suspended my license! They never notified me either. It wasn’t until six months later when I went to write a new auto insurance policy that my agent told me my license was suspended. It was not difficult to resolve, but it would have been easier to have done it right the first time.

New Motorcycle License

Yesterday afternoon I got a new driver’s license; one that has a motorcycle endorsement. And we made reservations for our complimentary one-day Harley rentals for next Friday. I reserved a V-Rod. “Are you sure you want that much horsepower?” was the Harley salesman’s question. So now I’m shopping for full-face helmets since the Harley store only rents half-helmets. Maybe that will make up for the extra horsepower.

And the “shocked” license photo got shredded yesterday, too. It went out with glory. I asked the license clerk who took my new picture if I could see it before she printed my new license. “My last one got comments for ten years,” I said. “Ya, it’s the eyes,” was her comeback. “I saw your license and wondered what you’d look like in person.” D’oh.

This week was an experience. One that I would not want to repeat anytime soon. I certainly don’t feel anonymous at this point. After finishing my duty, I went and did some Internet research and decided it is best to move on and not discuss anything here. I’ll be spending more time with my family…

About ten minutes after I wrote my last post about being able to work like normal, they called my number. Seven hours later at the end of the day I was seated on a jery (mispelling intentional to prevent searches being associated with my name). This means I must be incommunicado until it’s done.

But here’s my observation on EVERYONE who commented about my jery duty. No one wants to do it, and everyone seemed to have an angle for getting out of it. As I went through the process myself, though, it developed more into an act of God. That is, responding truthfully to each stage of questioning resulted in the outcome I now must live with (being seated on a jery). Had I put an angle on it, I may have found an excuse, but I couldn’t do it with a clear conscience.

So now my American Government class will become more than just book knowledge.

Here I sit at the Orange County Courthouse doing my civic responsibility of jery duty (mispelling intentional). More than 300 people showed up mostly AT THEIR OWN EXPENSE today to provide a pool of jery candidates. The suspects we are to try may have stolen $500 of merchandise from a store (I have no idea which trials are on the docket this is just an example), but I guarantee you the value of what he/she stole from the rest of the county in lost work hours is far more. I was initially happy to serve my jery duty, but now that I see what this costs, I sure hope this is something more grave like a merder trial.

Meanwhile, I can keep working today as though nothing but my immediate surrounds were different. They called out a group of about 100 people already and marched them off for duty, and the remaining 200 of us wait like prisoners for our next instructions.

[After getting some instructions, let me clarify that nothing above constitutes the expression of an opinion based on any information about any trial. I have no knowledge of any detail of any trial on the dockets today. I could have written the above comment last night. I wouldn’t want this whole batch of people dismissed because I expressed an opinion.]

Ready for Class

Ever since moving back from Budapest almost two years ago I have wanted to get a motorcycle. Maybe it was all the big American cars around that made me want something opposite that; maybe it was that I owned one too many of those big American cars myself. Either way, when I found out that the local Harley dealership offered classes I decided to do it and got a few friends to join me.

We had classroom instruction last night and parking lot maneuvers today for six hours. Today was really fun! I get why people like riding motorcycles so much - and we never left the parking lot. This class includes a free one-day rental of a Harley. We plan to terrorize our neighborhoods on that day and are looking forward to it. (Not sure our wives are ready to be Harley chicks quite yet.)

Partly scary about the whole thing is that we fell right into the demographic they sell to: 40 - 60 year olds. Ouch. All the Harley promotional videos and safety films had middle aged men and women in them.

Anyway, we look cool in the photo above, but we looked like goobers most of the rest of the time.

Ben, Ted and me, CCC 5K Compatriots

Campus Crusade for Christ fielded a team of 326 (or so) runners and walkers for the IOA 5K tonight. It had been 8 years since my last 5K, so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to run it well. While I posted my lifetime slowest 5K time, it was good enough to beat my other 40 year old friends. Best of all was simply being able to run it and finish without injury. It’s been over a year since I’ve been able to run, and I thought I would have to give it up for good. But cross-training on my bike, weight lifting and chondroitin for my knees seems to have done the trick.

1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager

We’re selling our van. This affordable family vehicle is a great value! Now that we have a third working car we’re ready to find another owner for our second van. If you live in Orlando and want to take a look, send us an email and let us know.

More photos here.

• 153,000 miles
• Everything in good working condition
• V6 3.0 liter
• 7 Passenger
• Power Windows
• Power Steering
• Cruise Control
• Air Conditioning
• Power Mirrors
• Power Doors
• Tinted Windows
• $2300$2100 (less than kbb.com ‘private party’ value)

Last week Andrew’s friend invited him to a gymnastics class where Andrew discovered he could do both a back and front flip from the standing position. We were all impressed.

Block Party BBQ

Easily one of the most enjoyable things we’ve done since moving back to our old house in Orlando was the block party we had tonight with our neighbors. Of the 15 houses on our cul-de-sac, we had 26 people join us for a barbecue and bring-whatever meal. Many of our neighbors met each other for the first time, and we all got to know each other better than before. Most of the families on our court have lived outside the U.S. at one time or another, so we have more in common with each other than just our current residence.

Restored Escort

Frame is straight. Bumper is attached and painted. Owner is happy! Almost as good as new.

Another Junkyard Escort

Our trip to the body shop last Friday for an estimate gave us hope that we can get Humpty back together again. But we needed another key piece of the front-end puzzle, a header panel. On Saturday we went to a nicer junkyard across town and had a much nicer experience. We got our header panel, and we’re now experts at taking apart the front end of Ford Escorts, having done this four times. Next Thursday we have an appointment to get the frame bent back into place and our replacement parts installed.

European EveryStudent.com Leaders

A meeting room with people, not very exciting except for what we accomplished.

[Later I realized this post was completely out of context. Dan (standing) and I organized this meeting in Paris to get our European EveryStudent.com leaders further ahead in how to get students to their language version of EveryStudent.com in their countries. We gave them a general overview of why to use the Internet to communicate with students (as apposed to spending your time on a university campus trying to meet students in person) and how to use online advertising venues like Google to get students to these sites. And other things. Everyone left with a renewed motivation, a better understanding, new relationships, and good examples to make EveryStudent.com a priority in their campus ministry plans.]

Junkyard Parts

Today was junkyard diving day. We got up fairly early and hit about 5 used auto parts yards in Bithlo. (Local impresson of Bithlo junkyards being redneck country didn’t prove true at all. There were more Americans-with-accents running them than Americans with Florida accents.)

Good news: Junkyards are a free tutorial on how to work on your car. You can disassemble a vehicle just like your own and walk away at no cost, leaving it unassembled.

Bad news: After returning home with a bumper assembly we discovered, upon trying to install it, that the frame of our car is bent and the new bumper won’t fit.

Not sure how to proceed at this point.

[Update on how to proceed: we’ll take it to a body shop, put it on a frame machine, and hope they can straighten it out for cheap.]

Either way it’s been fun working with Andrew on it.

Audrey’s Incredible Chewing Fish

This one falls into the category of causing me to question the meaning of things in my life when things like fish are interesting. But actually there are too many other meaningful things going on in life, so small things provide comic relief.

Ok, so a few weeks ago Audrey got rid of her parakeets. Annie kept eating the parakeet poop and getting sick, so either the birds had to go or the dog. Annie had seniority and edged out the birds.

On Monday Cathy brought home a new pet for Audrey, a beta fish. (Cathy’s Kindergarten class took a field trip to the pet store and each got a fish, including Cathy.) A couple days later Audrey claimed she heard the fish chewing its food.

I didn’t believe it until today. The house was quiet, I’m working from home today, and I dropped one of the fish food pellets in. And I heard the fish crunching on the little pellet. I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t heard it myself.

Stuck in Ocala

It almost made it home. Just south of Chattanooga the alternator started to fail. I replaced the battery in Atlanta and limped along until it was dead. The alternator then failed completely just north of Ocala where I rolled into this repair station. The engine had begun cutting out, so I rolled down the nearest exit ramp, lurched around the corner and coasted to a stop in a vacant lot. I looked up and saw “Auto Repair” on the building next to me. Sort of like dying and finding yourself in heaven, but not so much.

I thanked my good fortune for landing at a repair place, and this repair place thanked their good fortune that some money rolled in off the highway right to their doorstep.

When I finally got home just before midnight everyone was excited to see the car. Best of all, Andrew surprised me by clearing out the other half of the garage, so we parked it inside for the night.

Our new Escort ZX2

This is the new ride. It runs well but looks ugly. “Body work is easy,” says Andrew. We’ll see just how easy it is in the next few weeks as he and I work together to get this one fixed. It will replace our second “loser cruiser” (minivan) and also give Andrew and Audrey the chance to learn how to drive a manual transmission. I just hope I don’t get pulled over on the way home for having non-regulation headlights. At any rate, the price was right; free. (Thanks, Mom!)

Sleet Covered Streets

Ironically, most people in St. Louis would rather be in Orlando right now, and Cathy, in Orlando, would rather be in St. Louis. All because of the bad, sleety weather. She might feel differently if she had to drive around all day in it like I did yesterday (at a constant 20-30 mph), but she’d probably tolerate the driving if it meant spending some time in the snow. I’m counting on it to melt off by tomorrow when I drive back to Orlando in my NEW CAR!

Well, new to me. It’s really a TOTALLED car that runs fine and which Andrew and I intend to fix together. I’ll post photos of it later today.

Westminster Christian Academy

Today I am speaking at the Westminster Christian Academy chapel service. It would be fun to tell stories on my friends who are now teachers there, but I won’t. I’ve been back to my high school before, but going back to speak in chapel is a little different. It reminds me of the chapel services I sat through, some incredibly boring, and some that I remember to this day.

Here are some places I intend to mention:

Meant4More.com - a place to find out more about a relationship with God.
EveryStudent.com - the site I help produce
EveryStudent.com promo video - this is a variation of what I played in chapel.

No Braces!

After four years with orthodontics, Audrey’s mouth is free again!

Snow Burst

I’m in St. Louis this week telling people about our work with EveryStudent.com. The cold air here is a refreshing variety from the warm weather that has been hanging around Orlando lately. This morning we had an instant blizzard. One minute it was sunny, and the next minute you couldn’t see across the yard from all the blowing snow. Then five minutes later the sun was back out melting all the snow that just fell. Nice entertainment for someone who doesn’t get much snow in life.

Audrey’s walking cast

Audrey got her cast off today, but now she has a walking cast-boot thingy. So far it doesn’t quite feel like freedom to her, especially since it hurts even more to put weight on her bad ankle. But next Monday her braces come off, too, so before long she really will be free again.

After my last post I was surprised at how long it had been since I’d written anything. Then it occurred to me that I hadn’t really stopped writing, I’d just stopped writing here. Before I ever started writing a blog I wrote a journal, and my entries were at roughly the same interval as what I usually write here. My journal has been a good way for me to process thoughts over the years, and I’ve been writing that way for over 20 years. During the recent long span between posts here I have been writing quite a bit in my journal, as there has been a lot to process internally. I’ll start writing about it here when the time is right.