the art of the epistle 2

i receive an e-mail trail involving church stuff.

one person closes his e-mail with, peace. the next person closes, blessings. perhaps the next will say, joy, or comforts. i am sorely tempted to jump on the wagon and close secularly, cheerio!

two things i should stop doing

1. do my grocery marketing when i am hungry. i return with irrelevant stuff high in sugar and little else.

2. get caught in a traffic jam on the highway with a faulty gas gage waiting for the orange light to appear.

spiritual aptitude test, or snake oil?

a popular 125-question survey that promises to help identify my spiritual gifts sets me thinking.

the biggest question of all, i figure, is this: are these questions validated? which is to say, is this similar to the which mood are you / what is your love style quizzes on fb? sometimes we forget to distinguish between pretty trinkets and prosaic tools like common sense and wisdom.

art & craft

J1 has an epiphany regarding his sideline. i write better songs, he muses, when i write about what i know...

duh. that's why this blog is not about alien abduction or world peace.

this posting is in honor of my favorite song so far: to a friend.

car maintenance 3

following HOM's dalliance with youtube-guided car maintenance, my toyota now has:

new tires
newly adjusted rear brakes
new alternator belt
new radiator belt
newly flushed braking system

all professionally installed.

youtube

i am painfully subjected to two youtube videos of the self-trumpeting variety, which inspire some thoughts:

1. some topics are fine, e.g. how to change your brake-pads, or how to remove your appendix.

2. the majority is forgettable; pity the hopeful soul who produced it.

3. some topics really should be proscribed, specifically discussion of bodily functions, as bad taste does not improve with exposure.

4. some people sound better than they look; these people should not be on youtube.

5. children should be off too, because immortality can be embarrassing when you grow up.

ode to my jalopy

the cons:
the gas gage is dead.
the seatbelt sensor is dead.
the check-engine-light has a life of its own.
the brakes were dead but now resurrected.
the tires are near expiration.

the pros:
nothing you do could dent it further, short of a total job.
this includes being driven by two sets of raging teenage hormones.
we need a battered workhorse to tolerate Dog and his hair.
i only have to wash it in the rain.
it'll do, quite nicely.

the green years

a bittersweet time this, having emerged from the wilderness of childhood with its incomprehensible fears into uncertain years of daunting dependence to the thunderstorms of developing autonomy, to now, a much gentler time, and i realize this is the final season before we bid adieu to adolescence and family life as we have always known it.

car maintenance 2

it goes.
it stops.
the strange squeak is gone.
yess. heroes.
next: tires.

the art of car maintenance

HOM and i have spent the day trekking the car mechanic trail. our final stop is the auto parts store, where we meet an enthusiastically helpful fellow, as a result of which, we are no longer shopping for a mechanic. instead, over my absolute reservations, we have shopped for the brake pads and rotor as well as brake cleaner grease tools and halogen lamp.

HOM and J1 are now in the garage, fully seduced into the d-i-y brigade. with youtube at their side, they are attempting to give my toyota new brakes.

update: HOM and J1 are making our third trip to the store tonight, for another missing part. update 2: we are back from our fourth trip.