Month: December 2007

Happy Birthday!

We have rolled around to that time of year again. I am another year older.

My wife bought me two books off of my Amazon Wish List. She got me Running Through the Wall and Hal Higdon’s Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide. I have no idea when I will actually get them, but they have been purchased for me. She gave me two envelopes with a picture of the books she bought.

I also was handed a package that was squishy. I had a pretty good idea what was in it. I had been looking for a short sleeve white shirt for a few months. I finally found one. Why it was so hard to find I am not sure. I picked it up Thursday and threw it in the shopping cart. I told my wife she could wrap it as a birthday gift since she was having trouble picking out something for me. I was a little surprised that she actually did.

I don’t think I am going to be going out and stuffing myself like I did last year. I mostly took care of that last night. We had some friends who had an open house type party. Lots of candy and such. I had more than my share. Tonight we have an activity at the church where we will be eating more candy. If I have any caloric deficit, it is being made up this weekend.

While running this morning with my friend Jeff I told him it was my birthday. Then I got a big laugh out of it. I was thinking about being 38 years old. That means that in less than a year my older brother turns 40. hehe

New steering system and alignment

Typical of anything I do mechanically, it takes way more time to accomplish than it should. When my uncle (my mechanical adviser) tells me that a project will take a certain number of hours, I usually triple it and get close to a good guess on the amount of time it will take me. I was told that to replace my steering linkage in my Suburban would take about 4 hours. My estimate of 12 was pretty close. It may have taken me a bit longer than that.

I pulled it mostly apart on Monday. There was some time lost due to trying to find a couple of specialty tools I needed. I got the tie rods and relay rod removed. I tried to get the pitman arm and the steering idler arm to come off, but they needed another day to be convince they were going to come off. Finally on Tuesday morning I was able to get those removed with a little persuasion from a bigger hammer and lever.

I took the parts that I needed to replace with me to the parts store. With new pitman arm, tie rods (inner and outer) and steering idler arm in hand I was ready to start the installation. I got it all back together by late Tuesday evening. I even took the time to fix (I hope) a brake squealing problem I have been having while I was at it.

I was not quite satisfied that my quick alignment job was good enough to take it to the alignment shop this morning. I did a few more measurements and determined that I was quite a bit off with the passenger side. I took a few more minutes to straighten it out before going to the shop.

At the shop I was told that it would take an hour to clean up my mess. I stepped across the street to a store to waste a bit of time. I also took a book to help me out. Having spent about 45 minutes there, I wandered down to a convenience store to get a drink and do some more reading. I returned to the tire shop and they were still working on it.

Thinking it would be just a few minutes longer, I sat down in the lobby. As far as I could tell someone was working on my truck the whole time I was there. The management staff was coming and going in the lobby and I would have expected them to tell me if it was going to be much longer. Nothing was said, so I just enjoyed my book and read the newspaper. After an hour more of waiting I asked if it was going to be much longer. The man went and checked and told me it would be about 20 minutes more. “Any problems?” I asked. I was informed that because it was not a compact car, it would take more than the standard hour.  Didn’t they know when I brought it in that it was not a compact car? Is it possible to confuse a Suburban with a Jetta?

It ended up taking 2.5 hours for them to do the alignment. There were no problems, it just takes longer on that type of suspension I was told. Then why did they tell me it was going to take an hour? I would not have minded that it would take 2+ hours if I had known up front. I could have gone home and done something productive. I voiced my concerns to the man who originally took my work request. He asked me if I was going to be late for something because of it. I told him it did not matter. The point was they took two and a half times longer to do the job than what they told me.

When I took the truck in last week to have them look it over and tell me what needed to be replaced, they gave me a price of $16 for the alignment. Then when I dropped it off this morning the price was $17. No big deal, I was not going to argue over $1. When I picked it up the price was $23. Huh? When they told me the price this morning (along with the statement that it would take an hour) they did not know that the vehicle would be so difficult. What idiot at an alignment shop can’t tell that a Chevrolet truck is not a Nissan compact?

One of the workers asked me to fill out a complaint form. He said that a manager would call me.

I remember in the back of my mind that a little over a year ago I took something (I think it was to have a flat fixed) to this same shop. They told me the job would take 2 hours because of being busy. That was fine, I had plenty of time. It took almost 5 hours which then made me late for an appointment. I remember complaining heavily at the time for the stupidity of not being able to do a simple job in the time alloted. Of course, I did not remember any of this until I was standing there this morning stewing over the delay.

I knew when I started this project that it would take me, an amateur without good tools, three times longer to do a job than a real mechanic would take. But when the real mechanics tell you it will take an hour, then it should take about that amount of time. I told them I was more upset that when I returned at the alloted time that they did not inform me then that I would be waiting at least an hour longer.

Just another example of how people don’t look out for the customer. When I find a place that puts me (the customer) first, I will frequent that establishment.

Running update

I have 3 weeks left to hit my goal of 621 miles for the year. Right now I am sitting at 565 miles. Until today I was right on track to easily make the goal. I was sick this weekend as was my running partner. I ran to his house this morning and needed to run almost 3 miles with him to make everything work right. Because we had both been sick, we decided to make it a short run, but do it fast. We ran 1.06 miles at a 7:25 pace. That is a great speed for me. I was really pleased to be able to do it. But, that means I did not get all the distance I needed today. Theoretically I could have made up the distance on the way home, but instead opted to just do the 1.6 miles straight home.

I will try to make up a little of the deficit on Thursday and then pick up the rest of my distance on Saturday.

I am only running 3 days a week right now, but doing at least 4 miles a day. The weekly goal is 6 on Tuesday and Thursday with a longer run of 8ish on Saturday. I am behind, but not out of the game by no means. I am glad to have a reason to run. While I am not training for anything, it is a help for me to have some goal.

I have 270 miles on my New Balance 857 shoes that I bought in April. My Saucony Hurricane 9s that were bought in June have 137 miles. I should be good for a while on shoes. I may look at picking up another pair in February when I am in the US, but only if I can find a really good deal.

Philosophy dictates rules; Rules define philosophy

When I was taking the class that Larry Franklin taught, I noticed something that I have seen often, but wonder if some people “get.” Their presentation was very much based on a philosophy instead of a bunch of rules. If you could capture the philosophy, you can figure out your own rules. Many people don’t understand that though. I noticed some in the class who were very careful to write down the rules, but when they went to practice teaching a class they had no concept of the philosophy. You could see them mentally stepping through a list of rules and correcting their actions. If they could grasp the underlying philosophy then the rules would take care of themselves.

Another example of philosophy dictating rules, is living godly. Many people look at the Bible or church and only see the “do and don’t,” or the “can and can’t.” When you can capture the concept that living godly means that you live in such a way as to please God with every action and decision, you no longer need to have a big list of rules. This is because every action gets filtered through the philosophy.

Of course, rules are necessary. They are what help define the philosophy. You have to start with a set of rules or you won’t know what defines “pleasing God,” or “living godly.” But once you can capture that set of rules and philosophy, you will be able to make decisions that aren’t dictated, or spelled out in black and white, in the Bible. You often find people wanting a “chapter and verse” reference for everything that we say defines godliness. Those are people who have not matured enough to look past the rules and live by philosophy.

In the Bible Paul deals with this “chapter and verse” thinking. He says that while things may be technically legal and permissible, they are not always helpful to others (1 Corinthians 6:12; 10:23). Paul uses the example of eating meat offered to idols. He asks if the the meat was offered to an idol does it change the fact that it is still meat? The obvious answer is, no. If it is still just meat and nothing inherently wrong with it, then it should be edible. But, he says, though technically it is still just meat and it won’t do any harm in any way to eat it, does it look wrong to others? If so, then don’t eat it. If by eating the meat offered to idols it appears that you are living less godly, then don’t eat the meat. You don’t need chapter and verse for that, you only need to use your brain.

Philosophy will help you build your own set of rules. But rules are a start to helping you define your philosophy. If you focus on the rules, you start to see all the things you can’t do. If you focus on the philosophy you see all the things you are free to do.

I worked for many years at a camp. We had a huge set of rules for the workers. Huge! One thing they required though was that the workers turn in their rule books at the end of the summer. They did not want the rules being taken by others and used at another camp. Seems selfish on the surface of it. But the deal was that they had a philosophy that dictated those rules. Without the proper philosophy, they were just rules. You could implement the rules, but you would only have rules for the sake of having rules. You had to have the philosophy or the rules were cold and harsh. Did we hate working under all the rules? No, because we understood the philosophy and therefore the rules were only there to help polish and define the philosophy.

Does that make sense? Don’t just see rules as rules. Try to find out what the philosophy is that dictates the rules. That may mean that from time to time the rules change, but the direction and thinking do not. One example of that is we were not allowed to wear FAMU t-shirts at camp. Is there anything wrong with Florida A&M University that makes it wicked? No, but the philosophy is whatever you wear needs to have a clear meaning and people should not have to wonder what you are promoting. If FAMU won the national championship in football and everyone in the world became aware that FAMU was a university in Florida, then the rule would change and you would be able to wear the shirts without any problems.

Rules can change based on circumstances, underlying philosophy stays the same.

Philosophy dictates rules; Rules define philosophy.

Missionary Talks 40: Larry Franklin

This was a very enjoyable interview. I was attending a three day seminar that the Franklins were teaching. Their subject was on how to teach children’s Sunday School classes. It was informative. Much of the stuff I already knew from my years of experience and having taken classes such as this before. What I liked about their presentation is that it was very much based on a clear philosophy.

I had hoped to get my William Carey biography done this week. I did finish writing the script, but ended up with a cold this weekend. I was planning to record on Sunday night. Since my voice does not sound the best right now, I will hold it till next week. It will end up being two parts about 15 minutes each. It was not as easy to write and the David Livingstone one, but will be easier to record. There are no big quotes in this one, therefore I will be doing all the reading myself.