Christmas on Raleigh Avenue

Blake and I recorded a little Christmas album last week. Listen here.

Missouri

Not for the fact that we're playing them this week...

An original of Blake's.

Missouri

Last week

making wallets, bro in the house, dave at pinkberry

Console Cabinet

Found it on the side of the road. Almost threw out my back lifting it into the car as the previous owner watched from his porch. Tore out the old turntable, wiring, speakers, and amps. Built new speaker frames from the trusty pile of fence scrap wood and covered them with a houndstooth remnant piece. Re-secured the legs. Cleaned and polished.

Total cost:

3 hrs

3 Advil

$5 for hardware

$5 for fabric

...

...and the shame of going to Jo-Ann Fabrics on a monday morning....

...and waiting with a quilting group for it to open.

minus 40 lbs

Old Covers

Some would call it boredom, I'd call it... well boredom I guess.

I finally spruced up rack-mount case; added casters, handles, and built an attached box on top to hold a hard-drive and other equipment. Luckily it only cost me the wheels and a few hours since Grant had everything else leftover from the fence he built.

This was more out of necessity than anything else; I could see the concern growing in Lindsey's eyes as all the gear began to pile up in her living room corner, and I guess it mine as well look good if it's going to be used so infrequently... and yes I will get to the Taylor Swift covers soon, enough with all the requests! You think this is easy with Blake 4 hours away?

Lights

These are from a light fixture project I did recently: rewiring, new sockets, cleanup etc. There are about 20 or so total but these are a few of my favorites. I'm terrible about getting before pictures. I always think... "Why would I want a picture of that?" also they remind me of the cheesy part of all those shows where the couple comes home and says something like, "I can't believe this is the same room," and then the star of the show stands there with a look on his face like he just pulled a kid and his dog from a burning car.... that being said... I included a few...

cause I'd rescue the kid

and probably the dog too if it wasn't one of those little ones that yip all the time

O.H.I.O

Me: What did you do on your vacation?

Joy: What didn't I do?!?

Me: Well, you were in Ohio... How long do you have?

Moto Guzzi update

Blake bought it from me a few weeks ago and we updated the bars, mirrors, and grips last week. It actually inspected! Which I knew it would* and Blake finally got it registered making it street legal for the first time since 08. All the anticipation led to Friday when we set out to ride into Austin to get some lunch.... And the battery was dead. Perhaps a kickstart should have been included in the upgrades. It's charging now. We'll try again today.

Do I love milk?

Joy this week at work, as I look at her with a glare, as she excitedly prepares to down a very large glass of nonfat milk:

"Don't look at me... you're ruining this."

A half-court shot should count for 5 points... Just sayin'

"Hey Man! Are you coming to that predestination conference next weekend?"

------"Can I say no?"

"What?"

------"We'll see"

"When will you know?"

------"Right now it's a no... but I'll let you know if have a change of heart."

The slow one now will later be fast...

I sold a guitar this week; It made me a little sick to do it. It doesn't matter which one, just that it was a good one. I have another one, a better one; I'm spoiled in that way, in most ways really. Will says I'll regret it, but I probably won't. This is different for me because I keep most everything that I might need again, not like a hoarder but more like a guy that gets a little too nostalgic, or rather like a guy that thinks he might feel nostalgia for things like this one day. I don't want to miss something. Truth be told though, it feels really good. I never played it and I just sat there as a really expensive piece of wall art for years.

When I got my other acoustic in 2007 it immediately became the only guitar I ever wanted to play. I used to go into shops all the time, since I was young, playing everything I could, even the one's way out of my price range. I haven't done this in the last 4 years. I can't imagine wanting to do this again... and that's because I can't imagine one I'm going to enjoy more completely.

It's freeing when you can't fathom a more pleasing shade of green and you finally get to stop looking, and I'm blessed to have many things in my life about which this is true. A career is not one of these things for me. I'm not unique in this. I've talked to a lot of people with similar backgrounds that have the very same problem. Between a comfortable upbringing, the constant encouragement to "be whatever you want to be," a liberal-arts education that promotes well-rounded individuals with lots of options, and teachers that tell you how, "you'd be good at anything," we're forced to sift through quite the perfect storm of options and second-guessing. I realize that the above description refers to the majority of my peers, but many of them either didn't believe what they were told and became content the their "fate"or did believe it and felt confident enough to set off doing that "anything" that they were able to do.

I know there's no one perfect or holy system of discovery in this, and truth be told I let on that I'm a little more stressed about it than I actually am. God seems to have a way of waiting until I throw helpless, frustrated hands in the air to give me anything that I perceive as help. I can only imagine that this is because someone who believes they can do "anything" can tend to have trouble citing outside sources. Asking for help early and often however, along with forcing a bit more patience than I'd prefer, has actually made for a very enjoyable (though of course still stressful) search.

So I sold my guitar because I found something better... something perfect for me. It just took me awhile to realize I didn't need to try anything else. Now I can stop the search and focus on other things. Now I can really enjoy what I'm doing.

...As the present now will later be past.

picture credit: benjamin evans

Joon 30.11

You need wings to get to Maine.

Lindsey and Grant

My other car is a...

I saw an old Datson today with a sign on the door that read,

"WE BUY JUNK CARS! ANY KIND! ANY CONDITION!"

I was tempted to go over and write underneath...

Obviously.

Getting Together Tennessee

Best Wheaton Mag article ever?

Well the Shade Partnership Fund got together for it's forth annual meeting last weekend in Tennessee. For those of you who don't know, the SPF is a group of 21 friends from Wheaton College who direct a fund that supports different organizations. We pool our resources and ideas about giving in a way that addresses needs according to our common passions and concerns. Once a year we get together to discuss various topics, direct the money, and sing the Doxology...

Doxology (streaming)

I could write for hours on the SPF and the guys that are a part of it, but for now I just wanted to note the groups that we've supported so far and encourage you check them out:

These Numbers Have Faces - South Africa

Agua Viva Children's home - Guatemala

International Justice Mission - Guatemala

By the Hand - Chicago, IL

ICDI - Central African Republic

Thanks guys. I'll try to get two of Blake's original songs up on the page tomorrow. I know! Originals! I'm excited too!

Why not?

Why not?

Dan Rickwood

And when I opened the curtains they were taking the set away and packing up for the day, the cameras and lights turned off. The darkness replaced with striplights and and the grey skies the blind whirring of machinery.
I'd like to write a beautiful story about love:

another door changes everything

Walking out of a restroom is fine...

Walking out of a restroom to see a door across the hall clearly marked "Men's"...

worst moment of my week....

...

and apparently her's too.

It's Science

Getting honked at because you failed to notice your green arrow sets off a chemical reaction in your brain that forces you to immediately test your car's "acceleration while making a hard left" capabilities...

It's Science.

Next Stop

What is the average amount of time that passes between...

"I'm glad I shaved my head, now you can barely even tell that I was going bald"

and...

"I think I might look good with a goatee."

Meanest gift ever

Getting Rosetta Stone as a gift is like receiving a two-year-long errand to run.

And for the next few years when they ask how it's going, you get to remind them of how much you hated their gift.

-----

"Hey Jim! Merry Christmas! Ever wear that sweater I got you last year?"

"Hey Aunt Doris! Yeah I actually wear it all the time."

"Prove it. Say something in sweater."

-----

BMW R50/5

Before the 5 of you who read this start to get concerned that this is becoming a bike blog, or that I've run out of Nick-a-Likes, or that I bought a leather jacket, or that I listened to Springsteen on the way to the coffee shop this morning... ok that last one is true, rest assured that there is more cheap humor to come soon. But I've been getting alot(2) of requests for some pictures of the BMW. So here it is...

notice I said "it." Had I said "she" I would see how your concern could be warranted.

It's a 1970 BMW R50/5. A previous owner installed R75 barrels on though so it comes in around 740cc and weighs about twice as much as the Guzzi. I got this from a guy in California who put on the dunstall pipes and the shortened magura bars. He also cut holes in the breather box to allow for more airflow, but in reality its more for show (when you have the seat and battery removed and you can actually see it... its a joke) Im not above smilies but when one happens to fall at the end of a phrase in parentheses... it just looks awkward : ))

He also had the tank and fenders painted by BMW and they used the smoke gray found on their cars in the early 2000s. I chopped off the rear fender, added new hardware to mount the plate and rear brake light, and did some electrical work to get it to inspect (handbrake light switch, horn, and blinkers which I later removed) Chris at Limey rebuilt the carbs, added a master cut switch, and fixed a few gasket leaks. It really does run well. Other than having to get a bonded title, I couldn't be happier with it. Like I stated in the previous post, this is my 3rd early 70s /5. Christian drives one around Nashville now and the other sits in my Mom's garage (in multiple locations). I'll try to get some pictures for a later post. Thanks for looking. I'll get back to the jokes later this week.