Year / 2010

by Greg

There’s a Swamp in our Basement!

Thankfully, we have been here before. But, sadly… we’ve been here before.

We discovered yesterday morning that our basement once again has about an inch of standing water. This time it’s coming in from every side of the house (usually it comes in from one, or maybe two.) Strangely, the water is actually entering from the side of the house that it has never entered from before. (So, that side was less protected from such an aquatic invasion…)

But basically, there’s an inch of standing water in our basement.

Because of the strange source of the water, I did a little investigating yesterday. I was exploring outside when I noticed that the front sidewalk was full of water. That could have been bad enough, but there was more. As I looked up the small pond where our sidewalk used to be, I noticed that the water was flowing—fairly rapidly—toward our house. Yes, toward.

It would seem that our house is the lowest spot on our block, and that our front sidewalk provides a nice, easy path for the water flowing from the top of the hill a few hundred feet to our south, now apparently ending right at our front porch, our piece of property, and eventually… our basement.

Ah, the joys of home ownership…

So, our basement of two centuries ago clearly needs some help. When it’s flooding in the winter time (this is the second flood this winter) I suppose that’s a sign something needs to be done.

Any suggestions would be quite welcome.

Until then, we have boots.

by Greg

The Hours – Ali In The Jungle

The Hours: Ali in the Jungle EPI posted a video here a few days ago of a Nike commercial that we really liked. (Still do, in fact.) But, the song that we bought from the video—Ali in the Jungle – The Hours—needs to not be missed. (Just in case you did.)

The song was picked up by Nike for use in that commercial because of it’s inspiring lyrics, and it’s true, they are. I mentioned that in the previous post. But then we got to hear the rest of the song, and it’s equally cool. The chorus of the song mentions seven people (well, one might be a boat)* who overcame extraordinary odds to accomplish some incredible task or goal. I’ve linked each name in the lyrics below to a page that tells their story, so be sure to click the links in this post!

Just how are you gonna get up?

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish
And it’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at

Everybody gets knocked down
Everybody gets knocked down
How quick are you gonna get up?
How quick are you gonna get up?
Everybody gets knocked down
Everybody gets knocked down
How quick are you gonna get up?
Just how are you gonna get up?

Like Ali in the Jungle…
Like Nelson in jail…
Like Simpson on the mountain…
Well with odds like that, they were bound to fail
Like Keller in the darkness…
Like Adams in the dock*…
Like Ludwig Van, how I love that man,
Well the guy went deaf and didn’t give a damn, no

It’s not where you are, it’s where you’re going
Where are you going?
And it’s not about the things you’ve done, it’s what you’re doing now
What are you doing now?

Everybody gets knocked down
Everybody gets knocked down
How quick are you gonna get up?
How quick are you gonna get up?
Everybody gets knocked down
Everybody gets knocked down
How quick are you gonna get up?
Just how are you gonna get up?

It’s the greatest comeback since Lazarus,
The greatest comeback since Lazarus
It’s the greatest comeback since Lazarus,
The greatest comeback, the greatest comeback

audio clip from the “rumble in the jungle”:
This is the most joyous scene ever seen in the history of boxing! This is an incredible scene! The place is going wild! Muhammad Ali has won! Muhammad Ali has won! By a knockdown! By a knockdown! The thing they said was impossible, he’s done!

* – not actually sure first what they are saying on this line, second which “Adams” they are referring to. Could it also be this ship? Maybe a member of The Hours will see this post and leave a comment… 🙂

by Greg

Three Ways To Homeschool

Watch at CBSNews Online

I’d say there are more than three ways to “home school”, but found this CBS news video to be fairly interesting as we are currently listening to and reading about a “method” called “A Thomas Jefferson Education.” A friend of ours got us a two-hour CD with the ideas behind the book, and then we just ordered the book this week. (You’ll notice it’s in the “currently reading” column to the right…) Will undoubtedly have more to say on that here later this month.

Stay tuned…

by Greg

iPad: Coming April 3rd

iPad - coming April 3rd

I have received a couple promo emails from Apple today, and thought perhaps I’d pass it along here.

The iPad will be shipping April 3rd.

Some of you can’t wait. I am going to wait. I am excited to play with it, but I really think that this will be a bit like the iPhone, and version two will be much improved. Early adopters and tech lovers should definitely pick up the first gen edition (the one coming April 3rd…) but it’s not a bad idea to wait, either.

That said, I definitely know where I’ll be on Saturday, April 3rd. 🙂

by Greg

Wet

As you may recall, I mentioned about a week ago that our basement was beginning to flood. I say beginning because I now know that what I saw last Saturday was truly only the beginning.

Our basement does get wet every now and again (see related posts), but this time it was different. Usually the water recedes fairly quickly on its own (unless there is a ridiculous amount of rain for days upon days) and for reasons unknown, it was not only not receding, it was getting deeper!

The rise was slow, so we kept hoping that once all the snow had melted, the water would all leave and we could begin the clean up. Little did we know, that the melting snow was not the source of the flood!

By Wednesday (March 10th, about five days after we first saw water in our basement) most of the snow had melted, but the water level continued to rise. In fact, it rose so much that it extinguished the pilot light on our water heater. Jen noticed there was no hot water, and figured that’s what it was. She was right.

I waded through the swamp and discovered that the water was just under the place where it would do the same to our furnace, so I went outside to see if there was anything I could do to stop this crazy, relentless flow of water!

As we studied the flowing river that our front sidewalk had become, we just could not figure out where the real source was. Especially since the snow was gone. We figured it was coming down the hill to our south, but couldn’t see the water streaming from anywhere else, and well, most of the snow had already melted. It really seemed like the water was just coming from the ground!

Turns out… it was.

I finally took a much closer look, and discovered a nice little “spring” welling up from the ground. Lovely.

So, turns out, not only was our ground being saturated by the melting of about one foot of snow… it was also being aided by a “faucet” running for more than five straight days.

Lovely.

All of this after I just got back from having some maintenance work done on our van to the tune of several hundred dollars. Not that it was in any way an unfair price, or even a shock … just saying. All I could think was how much the clean up from all this was going to add to our expense line this week…

I made all the appropriate calls, and the appropriate people jumped (well, kinda jumped) to action. The town’s water guys were out and found the problem right away. They shut it off at the source of the leak, but then about 10 minutes later, they turned it back on. When I asked about this, they said that the tenants in the apartment next to us (where the leak was) didn’t want their water shut off, so…

Um… seriously? Meanwhile, our basement water level continues to rise???

Yep.

So, the fire department (who at first was unreachable…) finally got there (actually, was nice to see an old friend was part of the team of guys sent out to respond) and when they found that our basement has no sump pump—or drain of any kind—informed me that they could not help.

Lovely.

So, with the water still running… and the water level in our basement still rising… I took matters into my own hands. I got our 8-gallon wet/dry ShopVac out and started sucking!

50 trips (400 gallons, 3,340 lbs) later, I felt like I had barely made a dent! Really! It was only maybe an inch or two lower! Ugh.

Thankfully, we have good friends. One of those good friends heard of my trouble and offered to bring over his portable pump. (He heard of our trouble because he is also a web client of mine and we were talking about his website being hacked and all the files being deleted that very day! Yeah… fun day…) 🙂

He arrived just after my 50th trip to dump out more water, and was a very, very welcome sight. That tiny pump was awesome! We drained it into the washing machine drain, and within a couple hours, we could see the floor again.

Now that the floor was visible, so was the source of water. I could see the places the water was coming in, and astoundingly, it was coming in just as fast as the pump was pumping out! My goodness! So, I wasn’t sure what to do. It was very late in the day at this point, and I was completely exhausted. I decided not to leave it pumping all night, and would just run the pump again in the morning.

Believe it or not, with the water still flowing outside—yes, the town left the leak leaking all night—the basement had another FOUR INCHES of water in it (on the deeper side). Ugh. Ugh Ugh Ugh.

So, I got pumpin’.

They finally shut off the leak just after 9am. As soon as they did, the pump finally caught up and I had fairly dry floors. Under an inch of standing water (in the lowest spots). A plumber came and repaired our water heater for us. (They gave us a break on the price, too, which was nice. Felt bad for the crazy week we were having. And likely won our business for as long as we’re in this house.)

All was getting back to normal.

BUT… there was still the washing machine.

The day prior, I had tried to empty the water I was pumping by putting it in the washer and running it on spin cycle to pump it out into the drain. When I did this, the washer made some weird noises and did NOT pump anything out. Great! But, now that stuff was beginning to settle down, I got a chance to look at the washer.

I hoped that a sock was stuck in the tubes or the pump or something. What I discovered was that the motor just was not going to work anymore. It was making a strange sound as it struggled to turn the barrel. And then it just couldn’t. I reluctantly chalked it up to one more thing the flood had claimed.

Do you know how important a washing machine is to a family of eight? 🙂

This was not good news.

However, we have good friends. We were heading out that night (oh yeah… it was our daughter, Julia’s, 4th birthday… not the most fun way to spend a birthday…) and asked our friends if we could do a load of laundry (or two), not knowing when we’d get a replacement part, or washing machine. They agreed … and more than that, did two loads for us while we were out celebrating Julia! Even folded it!

We do have good friends. 🙂

We’re still not done with the clean up, but in the “good news” department, there is no more standing water in the basement. There are even dry spots! AND… as I was putting the washing machine back together this morning, I decided to give it one more try…

It worked!!!

Apparently it was just not dried out enough when I was trying to get it going yesterday. That, or God decided to give us something to smile about?

Maybe both.

by Greg

The 2010 Census, The Constitution, and Government

How’s that for a title? 🙂

For some reason, any time I write on things that are purely political, I feel obligated to remind the reader that I generally avoid political discussions, and especially so on this website. However, this particular current events topic relates to something I’ve been thinking about for a long time regarding different ways of seeing and doing life with other people. You’ll see a post here soon titled Institutions and Individuals. Some really interesting stuff (at least to me…)

Now, to the census.

2010 Census EnvelopeSurely by now you have received the large envelope(s) from the US Census Bureau, with the very pleasant greeting—”YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW”—emblazoned on the front in a nice bold font. Makes you feel warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it?

Truthfully, such words make me want to not even open the envelope. When did our government become the boss of us? We the people? Apparently not.

But I think that is the issue. The issue is not the census. Though I do take issue with, as I said, being “required by law” to divulge information about my household. (If they would just ask nicely…) The issue is the powers of the government continuing to grow and extend. The reason people are bristling at this census at all is because there is (and has long been) a trend toward the government being more and more over the people rather than of the people.

The census is used in order to determine the appropriate number of representatives per state in the House of Representatives. The Senate has an equal two representatives per state, no matter how many people reside there, and then the House is based on state population. So the primary and only purpose of the census—according to the constitution—is so that each state has the appropriate number of representatives. That’s it.

Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution is where the census is mentioned:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

(The language of “three fifths” regarding people who were then slaves was changed in the 14th amendment.)

The phrase that stands out is, “in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.” So, one could read that as the congress can number the people in any manner they deem necessary, and require full compliance (by Law). However, if you read the context again, the only reason for this being allowed by the constitution is so that the total number of people (not their race, gender, name, and phone number) can be established for fair state representation in the House of Representatives.

And the biggest issue I see is the view of government. I mentioned it already. We the people are the ones who govern ourselves. The “Land of the free”, remember? It was true. But over many generations we have trained ourselves to think that our government rules over us. They do not. We elect representatives to represent us, not demand compliance.

When we get to the point that we think the government can make laws to bind the people, then we have become a different nation.

The constitution was to allow government certain, limited powers. And to then protect the liberties of the people, the individual.

So we will return the census, as it is part of the constitution, and as it is a good thing for our state to be correctly represented. And, I do recommend that we all do. However, the amount of information included should be up to you. Not “required by law” … that’s not who we are.

We are still in the land of the free. For now.

by Greg

Clean Your Bombilla

Yerba MateSo … I had a “first” experience today, as a mate drinker…

I was drinking “unos mates” for the first time in a week (we were gone, visiting family in Ohio last week) and as I was drinking, I noticed that no liquid was coming through the bombilla, so upon a quick visual inspection, I found the culprit: a big chunk that was stuck at the very tip of the straw. Big meaning, it filled most of the opening!

I chuckled, and thought nothing of it, really… just needed to fish it out.

Then I started to think… Wait… how’d that get there?

Still confused, I went to get a toothpick to fish it out, and when I did it was black, and resembled very fine yerba dust compacted over the years I have been drinking mates! Um…. gross!!

Undaunted, I then tried to clean out the entire bombilla … but, don’t really have a tool for doing that. I rinsed and blew through it and nothing more came out. Satisfied (mostly), I filled up the gourd again and began drinking the mate.

MORE CHUNKS!?

This time, a lot more. I must have loosened them up! Anyway, more and more came out—all the same stuff—so I got a toothpick again and dug in as deep as that would go, about an inch and a half. It was nearly packed full of this black gunk! SUPER gross!!! I can’t believe that I’ve been drinking through it, actually!! 🙂

So… today… lesson learned. CLEAN YOUR BOMBILLA!!!!

by Greg

Where Do You Get Your News?

NewsIn the olden days, Grandpa would read the newspaper every morning to catch up on the latest local, national, and world news. Our parents’ generation tuned their TV sets to the national news from their favorite of the three broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, or NBC. (And of course, just before bed there was the local TV news at Eleven.)

But that’s changing. Or more accurately, has changed.

Cable news networks (starting with CNN) changed how news was delivered. Still using the old medium of the television, the difference was that news was now available 24-hours a day. We were beginning to have access to breaking news as it happened. (I am neglecting radio here. Radio was another medium that was perhaps “closer” to the news prior to cable news. But as this is not an “exhaustive report”, you’ll allow me some wiggle room, I’m sure…)

Once news was available like this, it sort of conditioned us for what the internet would bring us. Dubbed the “information superhighway”—and for a good reason—news is now available not just 24/7, but often directly from the source of the news. And from many sources.

Even better than that, the internet is open to everyone. Anyone can have a website, and now multimedia-rich websites (podcasts) so with so many sources, there can be very specific subject matter. (Like one show on a network, I suppose… but far more “networks” and “time slots”.)

Even better than that is the advent of RSS, a technology that delivers electronic news (article by article, media item by media item) almost like the paper boy brought the newspaper to our Grandpa’s step. It’s fantastic!

This means we can get exactly the news we want to read or hear. For example, I enjoy following the latest tech trends, specifically from Apple, Inc. So I do. As well as my favorite sports teams. And a few other things I like to follow.

As great as this is, the downside to this way of getting the news is that you miss the stories that the news editors would find and “rank” for us by their position in the news paper. While the obvious flaw of this method of distributing news is the influence of the editors biases, there still was at least a broader swath of news available this way.

And so sites like the Drudge Report arose, with links to the latest headlines. But since Matt Drudge (the guy who runs the site) is one person, he obviously is susceptible to the same biases that an editor of a newspaper or media station would have. Perhaps a team of writers like the Huffington Post would limit the influence of biases? Not in that case, as the person who assembled the team of writers has very clear biases. Even a site like Newsvine offers news written by you (with a splash of articles pulled from the Associated Press) but there are biases evident there as well.

So then there are sources like Google News and Yahoo News and other search engines that theoretically pull news from every source, robotically. Even culling “news” from the “blogs” (which are typically more like “opinion columns”) and mixing that in with results from more established, traditional news agencies.

I found a website today, NewsandJava.com, that pulls in the top headlines from just about every source—with every bias—that I know of (including all I have mentioned above, and more.) That seems like a pretty good place to read the morning’s news. It’s always good to hear from every side. The truth is usually—but not always—somewhere in the middle.

And I haven’t even mentioned the social networks. Now Twitter and Facebook (and a smattering of others) are just as likely a source of news (even the exclusive source) for many folks.

Where do you get your news? What sources do you trust? Is anyone still watching TV news for their main source of the daily news? Do you not even care at all?

I would really like to hear from you readers on this one, so leave your comments below!

by Greg

The (True) Fundamental Transformation of America

I am saddened and frustrated today. Not necessarily by what you might think.

We just sent in our census form today, which had me thinking about the role we have given our government (or perhaps, that it has taken) in our lives. Coupled with the passing of the big government health care legislation on Sunday which has caused even “regular folks” to be vocally expressing their opinions … I’m just feeling saddened at the current state of our country.

The title of this post comes from words spoken by Barack Obama just a few days before he was elected president of our country. Listen to the short clip below.

These days the words are being used to suggest that government-run healthcare is the first step toward that transformation. That we are a nation on the fast track to a tyrannical dictatorship. The people (and the states) are ceding more and more control to the growing-bigger-and-bigger federal government.

And there is some merit to that line of thinking. We are the “land of the free” as our national anthem reminds us, and the government established by our constitution is meant to be very limited (especially the federal government) and managed by many checks and balances. So the more power we grant the federal government over our lives, the more we potentially move toward a system that would allow for a dictator. (A centralized ruler (or rulers) over the people, rather than representing the people.)

However, that is not what my title refers to.

The more I think about the various arguments being passionately conveyed by both “sides” of the role of government issue—and, sadly, we’re still not hearing each other—the more I realize that we are in desperate need of a fundamental transformation.

I’m not sure what now-President Obama meant when he said those words. Some say he meant—means—to transform America into a socialist/marxist state that would seek “social justice” by the forced redistribution of wealth, using the tax system to accomplish such a goal. The “power to the people” mentality, which I think is rather oddly named in that the “power” comes as “handouts” distributed by the actual “power”—the federal government.

Perhaps he meant that he truly wants to see those who have been in poverty and in want for so long, even generations, to finally taste the “success” that many of their fellow countrymen have tasted. To have the resources at their disposal that their neighbors have. Perhaps—and I have no reason to believe otherwise—it is truly motivated by a genuine desire to see everyone have the material comforts of life that it seems we could all have in this bountiful, prosperous nation.

However, if that’s true, making that happen via a large, centralized government just isn’t the way to do it. Not at all. An institution is not capable of truly providing those things, nor should it be. Neither is it a good idea to just “distribute the wealth” to people who have done nothing to “earn” the “fruits of their labor.” See… there is value in work. Yes, some people get lucky and get a ridiculous amount of the material resources and wealth. There is certainly an element of luck involved… but it is (almost) never without hard work to get into position to be the recipient of that “luck”.

Free handouts do not help anyone. At least, not really. Temporarily perhaps, but not really. In fact, I’d argue they almost do the opposite.

We can—and it seems we are going to try to—solve our nations economic and social issues through a powerful federal government, enacting all sorts of legislations and programs—and taxes—to accomplish those ends… but in the end, we’ll still be in need of transformation.

The real transformation that America needs—the true “fundamental transformation”—needs to happen in the hearts and minds of individuals, and families, and neighborhoods, and communities. It starts with you.

We are a selfish, lazy, greedy people. We are materialistic and discontent. We lack any understanding of God and his transforming love, and it shows. Divorce, litigation, crime, greed, lust, and so many ways that we attempt to take advantage of each other that I can’t even list them here. Not to mention the dissolution of families: mom, dad, and kids as one loving unit.

We are a broken people.

And human nature requires that we look out for ourselves first. That creates and furthers all of this brokenness. And it can only be fixed—healed, restored—by the Healer. Jesus is truly the answer. He spent his days in his physical body on this planet healing all sorts of hurts. And I believe he continues to do so today.

And I believe he is the only source of fundamental transformation that will have any affect at all on our nation.

Until we allow God back into real life, back into our real lives, we can argue all we want over who is going to provide for whom. But it’s not going to matter. There will always be rich, and there will always be poor. There will always be the powerful, and the powerless.

The founders of this country knew the truth that God created each of us to be free (even though that was not the culture they lived in at the time) and they laid their lives and their fortunes on the line to prove it. They succeeded, and their freedom produced the most prosperous nation the world has ever known.

But today, Barack Obama is right. The United States of America is desperately in need of a “fundamental transformation.” But that is not going to happen on a State or Federal level … at least, not until it happens in our hearts.

Then we will see a true, fundamental transformation of America.