here's life

So, this weekend I went to Missouri to see my family. It was an enjoyable time, and helpful to just relax.
Friday we textured a basement. Texturing is pretty cool because you start with a wall, and totally change how it looks using a little mud and even less effort. We had to hurry and finish up in the afternoon because we had a party to go to.  We invited all our friends over for an evening of talking and eating.  A few of them made it, so there was only 109 people there.  I got to talk to a guy about why the sun is not just a ball of incandescent gas, but actually has rocks in it.  I talked to some other people about making a house out of tires and other easily found material. We prayed for Simeon and Janelle and their future, as well as Jess and Robert and Moravia. Eli brought his bicycle-powered ice cream cranker.  There were a bunch of people I didn't know, but many didn't know each other either.

Saturday we just sort of chilled.  8 of us got haircuts, and I came away much less shaggy.  I need to get shorn more often. Jeremy and others worked on a railing in the Upper Room, to keep kids from walking off the edge. It looked really nice, and will look better when it is done.  We talked about me and my future, as well as the futures of the rest of us and how they all could fit together.  I realized that maybe the goal in life wasn't to progress up the corporate stairway, and make more and more money--that has only a scrap of usefulness if you use that money for good, God-glorifying stuff.  Also, it seems that I could look at a broader picture and see many options for my life and work.  While learning to live with less-than-optimal-situations can be helpful, there are alternatives. And I'm not doing much learning. So, maybe I should start taking classes instead of building a house...but I want to build a house!  But maybe later would be better, especially since I still have planning to do.

Sunday we went canoeing after seeing half the crew off.  We didn't paddle very fast, and found an excellent tree to jump from.  The water was just the right temperature, and the sun was shining.  The log was about 15 feet off the water at the top, and the water was about as deep.  We stopped at Paddy Creek for lunch. It has changed alot in the last dozen years. We got home a little later than planned, so I had an excuse to stay another evening, rather than try to make the drive home that night.

Monday I got up and left.  The drive was uneventful except for as I was whiffling down the interstate I suddenly heard this loud whine. It was pretty constant, even as I decelerated and killed the engine as I pulled off.  Ahh, the horn!  So, with it blaring it's woes to the passing cars, I attempted to unplug the wire that fed it.  I could just barely reach it. I hit the steering wheel, and it stopped.  That was helpful, but if I bumped it, it would start going again.  So I found some tools to try to pry off the connection, but to no avail. Eventually I pulled back the cover on the steering wheel and unplugged it from that end.  I continued the drive.  This car needs help.  It is slowly losing pieces of operation, and unless I fix them, eventually I won't have a car anymore.  Actually, it is amazingly reliable. I got it over two years ago, and one time I ran out of gas. Another time I didn't put in water, and it overheated and I had to let it cool and add water. Other than that, it hasn't wavered in carrying me and whatever else, tens of thousands of miles.

After I got back here, it was too late to go to work, but my small group was going to a pool, so I went and hung out and jumped off the diving board. One of the guys was really good, and I made some bad landings trying to copy him.  I think the high board was shorter than the log in the Big Piney, but it bounced better.  After eating, we talked about Hebrews, and prayed for one another. It was a good evening.

Today it was back to work, but I had stories about my weekend for my coworkers, and got some parts dug up that I need to change.  It's not finding parts that is hard---it is narrowing it down to just the parts you need that gives me trouble.  I am coming to the conclusion that often I am looking for problems so I can say "I told you we were sick!" That isn't very healthy. I just need to figure out how to be ok with my life, without becoming delusional. And nerve, I need nerve. Because status quo just ain't good enough.

So, that is what is happening here and there. I enjoy being around my family, each one of them is cool and unique.

It is actually pretty common in RC. Something happens and you end up with pieces of a plane instead of a contraption that flies. Sometimes it is a large emotional and physical loss---a couple weeks ago, Bob's plane disintigrated onto the ground.  Sometime it can just be pretty annoying---a few days later a ~12 year old was making a second pass at landing after a round in an aerobatics competition, and he had too much advise, and cart-wheeled it into the tall grass. The diagnosis was that it may be salvagable.  That seems to be impractical on mine.  But let's start over.
I got a new engine, and ran it for the first time yesterday---after some prodding from experts, it ran quite nicely. Ran much of a tank of gas through it, and we got my radio hooked up with a buddy box so I could fly copilot with someone more experienced.  Two experienced guys took it off and were getting it all trimmed out before handing me the buddy box. It flew well, and it was cool to see something I had worked on take to the skies. Then as it was coming upwind, the copilot said, "I don't have it!" and so the guy holding the transmitter took control and dropped the throttle...but it never responded.  It came down at a slight angle, mid-throttle and disappeared among the trees along the river.  Not really sure what to do, I acted upbeat and it seemed going and getting it was best, so I took off across the field toward where I saw it last. 



Soon I had beat through the tall grass and could see the muddy water-path that passes as a River here.  Ah, there it was, near the head of the sandbar, not floating anywhere, which was good. The others arrived in a vehicle and I waded across to the sandbar--up to my knees--and gathered up the pieces. It was in 6 inches of water, the wing was broken in half on the fusilage, and the engine had wrenched off the front of the plane and was lying in the water, still connected by control linkages. Pretty easy to recover. I drain the water out of the wings (now plural) and bring it back to shore. After we get back to the field, we assess the damage. The battery seems to test good. One servo has stripped gears, and the receiver doesn't seem to work right. Maybe it's the battery. So they charge the battery. Still, it just moves the servos a little when first plugged in, but gives no indication that it cares about the signals it is getting. Maybe the transmitter needs charging. That doesn't help. So, it looks like the receiver failed, and that is why they lost control of the plane, and so it just flew heedlessly into the river. Water, especially muddy water isn't good for an engine. So Bob told me how to take it apart and wash it out with fuel when I got home. He took my transmitter and receiver home to test, and offered to get it fixed, which is rather kind of him. Today he brought me another receiver, and is going to send mine in, having determined that everything works but it. He is pretty eager to see me in the air again. I feel somewhat hesitant, but try not to show it.
When I bought this plane it had an old radio, so I replaced it. The engine subsequently died, so I got a new one of those too. Now the airframe is gone, so all I need is a kit (and some servo gears) and I can be back in the air! Reminds me of the old ax that had been handed down for generations--the handle had been replaced 7 times, and the head twice, but it was still a good ax.



For what it's worth, here's a poem from last night:


I so recently found you
I gave you new life, new energy, new spirit...
and now you are gone.
I had a hand in making you live,
but I had no control over your death,
No one did.
Goodbye,
It it no longer you, even if I continue on with pieces of your life.
What died was all that defined you.
I lost you, goodbye.

  

Well, I figured if I was going to design a house, I should get some help. There are alot of things I'm not too good on, and plenty of stuff I just plain have bad ideas on. So, I created a wiki (a webpage that you can edit) where I am keeping track of my ideas and designs, and I would invite you to head over to http://house.on-wiki.net and see it. Here are some sketches I've got:


This is an idea of how the foundation will be.



Some calculated values for the overhang for optimum solar gain in the winter, while keeping out the summer sun.

Here's a picture of my airplane after I had flown it. Notice that it seems to be in one piece and all!

Work has taken a turn for the better.  My constant negativity was pointed out to me by a coworker, so I released my grip on "there has to be a better way" and just was positive about the System.  Now, the little nuances make my life interesting.  No longer do I have to keep up my "new guy/idealist" views, but I can see how all the other people get away with seeing the processes we go through and systems we use as quite helpful and really advanced.  Now, rather than comparing them to an ideal, I can just see how much better it is than if I were using a slide rule. The paradigm shift needed to happen sometime; I was slowly losing my "edge" for foreseeing improvement, and didn't really have any more good ideas.
So, I was enjoying just doing the work. Sure I have to push "Enter", (wait   ) and then "Yes", but amazingly, that makes it search for a drawing and then I can pull it off of a tape drive somewhere and put it on my computer with another click and a few more Yesses!

This evening I went to a Health Fair my company was hosting. I found out that my weight is a little high, but my blood pressure and Cholesterol are good. And I should exercise more, raise my HDL levels, and lower my stress.  I was going to walk a mile to get a tshirt, but I needed to go to a radio control meeting. So, the shirt will have to wait for tomorrow. The RC meeting was good.  We watched a video about the design, testing and flying of SpaceShipOne.  It was amazing what Rutan did with a budget and a short time frame.  They took risks, building a spaceship more quickly and probably better than any government. Previously, manned space flight was limited to three of the largest governments in the world. Rather than spending huge amounts of time and money on wind tunnel tests, they used the Land Shark---strap test sections to a frame on the front of a pickup truck.  Their main engineers didn't look much older than me. Now granted, they were probably brighter than any of the geniuses I knew at college (no offence, guys and gals). But here were people doing what no one had done before---and the thing flew, and came back down in one piece. It used some pretty nifty tricks too---the wings folded on the way down so it would slow down and not burn up.

What does this mean to me?  Will I ever get a job doing amazing things?  Maybe I already have one---since I've been here, we have shipped out over 200 airplanes. Every time I make a fix---unless it doesn't work---that new design will show up on every airplane until 37's are no longer made. Pretty cool, although usually I brush it off as almost worthless because the changes are so small. But even if I did do something amazing---have a huge part in designing the next breakthrough in transportation---it really wouldn't be of value compared to what Bolt and Fjord are doing.  When it is all said and done, the earth and it's works will be burned up---all the composite sky-taxis, all the tin-cans-with-engines will be ashes in the wind---but the people who come to know Jesus because of what you or I do, they will last. "Well done" will be more fulfilling than all the people's accolades for flying higher, faster, farther, or building some combination of cloth and glue that does what no one has done before.

I wandered out to put a letter in the mail and found a pair of mallards picking their way across the lawn near my building.  I spoke to them in their language, but there may have been some small nuances that I was missing because they didn't pay much attention to me.  On my way back I saw them slipping into our recently-refilled pool.  I don't think they will find much that ducks really like in the sterile waters. Poor dears.

I am feeling a bit under the weather.  My nose runs unless I am sleeping, and my voice is going hoarse.  I should eat something and go to bed. 
Tonight's menu: Uncle Charlie Pizza
Classically, Uncle Charlie Pizza was made by spreading ketchup on a piece of white bread, laying a slice of American cheese on top, shaking on some oregano, and cooking it in the microwave or toaster oven.  My neo-gourmet Uncle Charlie Pizza will consist of homemade white bread with pizza sauce on it and mozzarella cheese. Then I will melt the cheese onto it in the microwave.