A Car and a Washing Machine

The last two weeks have been an adventure for us to say the least. Martha’s car had developed a leak in the power steering pump or hoses and was scheduled to go in for service on that. As you will see, that service never occurred.

It was two weeks ago today, Martha had gone to Wal-Mart for some things and I was preparing to leave for a board meeting. The phone rang and I answered it. The caller identified himself as a sheriff’s deputy and then asked “who is the woman in your car?” Well that was a strange question so I said “what do you mean?” Finally we got to the point. There was a fire in a vehicle (ours) and they could not locate Martha. The officer called it a little fire but when I arrived there at the Wal-Mart parking lot it looked like a pretty big fire to me. By that time they had found her and the fire was out. No one was injured and no other property was damaged but the car was destroyed. We cleaned it out and they towed it away and it was sad to see it gone forever. We have owned it for 12 years and it was a good old car.

That led us to begin the search for a new car, well not new, but new to us. We looked mostly on the internet at dealer web sites and Craig’s list. We eventually settled in on a Chrysler PT Cruiser. We liked the body style and a lot of the comments from owners were positive. Chrysler even offered original owners a lifetime limited power train warranty, whatever that is, but alas it is not transferrable. We found a couple that we would like to see but they were in Ft. Worth so we had to schedule a day to go see them.

In the meantime, the washing machine started acting up. I had a guy look at it and he didn’t know if it was the water valves or the timer. It still worked so we put off that decision until we dealt with the car. Last Friday was the day to go to Ft. Worth and we found a car we liked and we bought it. Since it was an out of state car we needed to get it inspected and on the way to do that we almost got smashed by someone who ran a stop sign right in front of us. On the way home we came upon an accident that had the road closed and we had to detour around it. Through all of this we give credit to God for protecting us.

We went to bed that night pleased with our “new” car and looking forward to a nice Saturday. About 3:30 am I was awakened abruptly by Martha yelling something about the washer flooding the house. Sure enough that was the case and after a bit of chasing around we got the water off. She cleaned up what had gone on the floor and we went back to bed. It had just started and somehow Martha was awake at that hour and heard it so there was no real damage from the water. The problem turned out to be the hot water hose that connects to the wall. In the process of fixing that I found that the other problem was a bad valve so I was able to fix all of that at once. So again we praise God for waking Martha up and her hearing the water leak. We are blessed and we are grateful.

The Builder Chapter 5

Airplanes again


I think I mentioned airplanes in the second post of this series but this post will be about a few more airplanes that were prominent in our life in the 50’s. As I said, my dad was a prolific modeler and sometime in the early 50’s he got into flying control line airplanes. We had two acres and the back half or more was mostly open. We mowed a circle of about 140 foot diameter and that was where we flew. Mostly dad and I did the building and flying, I don’t remember my brother getting into it much. These planes used a glow plug engine and flew in a circle with 60 foot control lines that allowed the pilot to control up and down as the plane flew. The rudder was installed in such a way as to drive the airplane to the outside of the circle and keep tension on the control wires. Dad built many airplanes and flew them all on Sunday afternoons and occasionally at other times if someone wanted to see them. I remember 2 particular models that he built that were twins. He built them from scratch using plans from a magazine and he labored on them for months. Parts were cut from balsa wood and glued together and the plane was covered with a silkspan paper and then painted with airplane “Dope”. This was a special paint that would resist the alcohol, nitro and castor oil fuel mixture used in the engines.

These planes were finally finished and were perfect. Dad invited some folks to watch the maiden flight. My job was to mow the flying circle and viewing area. I did that and on Sunday afternoon all was ready. The engine was started, the controls were checked and all was ready. As the plane started the takeoff roll it encountered a weed about a foot high that I had missed in my mowing. The control wires caught on the weed and the aircraft swung around and headed straight for the pilot, who was Dad. Of course with no tension on the control wires, there was no control so the airplane was pretty much in free flight. Dad stayed out of the way but soon it began to climb and then from an altitude less than 50 feet it dove for the ground on the other side of the circle. I don’t know how fast it was going when it hit but it was totally destroyed. There was not much to identify the pile of balsa as an airplane. Dad was a bit upset to say the least and I was well scolded for leaving one weed in the circle.

We did remove the weed and were able to successfully fly the twin airplane and in fact it lasted several years and endured several crashes that were more violent than the first plane had encountered. I think I finally did it in by running into an asphalt parking lot at a fairly steep angle.

These were memorable times spent with dad around the model building table and learning to fly them. Dad flew these airplanes for only a few years but I kept at it and even owned a hobby shop for a while in Austin Texas.

There are a few more of these stories and I will get to them as time goes by. Thanks for reading.

Retirement busyness

Retirement was supposed to be slowing down but it seems that since I began this retirement thing life has been speeding up. I have wanted to go to the creek and work on the house for a while but there seems to be something that keeps me here. I am on the board of a local non profit and two committees at church so there are periodic meetings. The non profit held a fund raiser recently and that took time. I am working on a backdrop for the stage in the children's worship room at church and HPU will celebrate homecoming this weekend. A couple of weeks ago was the Brownwood reunion where I drove the train in the parade. So I am staying busy. The trike is mostly done and has a few miles on it but I really should be riding more. I need to make a couple of repairs on it but haven't taken the time to do so. Oh, and the house needs painting and the camper needs some repair on the roof and... I think the list goes on forever. I am sure it will slow down someday.

Fall is here and we are enjoying the cooler weather. Nights have been in the 40's and days around 80 or sometimes cooler. It is much better than the hundred degrees or so of a month ago.

I do hope to post another story from the series I started on The Builder. Maybe I will find time to write that soon.

Growing up?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

If you are reading this (not many do) please comment with your answer.

This is our big question on Sunday as we continue our study of Ephesians.
I'll post more on this subject next week

Have a great weekend and be sure to worship on Sunday

Living with power

Last week our bible study took us to Ephesians 3:14-21. This passage is a prayer by Paul for the Ephesian people. Paul prays for them to be strengthened in the power of the Spirit in the inner man, that is that Christ would indwell them (and us) with His spirit. He then prays that we would be able to comprehend the vastness of the Love of God and be filled up with the fulness of God. This causes him to break out in the following doxology of praise. 

20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Most of the time we focus on the first part of verse 20, the exceedingly abundantly beyond what we ask or think part, but the second half of that verse is what is exciting. We have that same power dwelling in us and working in our lives. We are not weaklings in the faith, but we have the Power of God within us.

I finished a book this week, "Fearless" by Max Lucado, which I highly recommend. In this book he reminds us that we should not be afraid of life and what it brings nor even death that comes to all, because Christ has promised to walk with us and His grace is sufficient no matter what valley we are in. This passage in Ephesians reminds us also that the same power that can do exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or think, resides in us and is available to us in every situation. Here is the question,

Are you living in fear, or in Power?

In the eye of the storm

Last night the eye of tropical storm Hermine passed right over Brownwood. Even after 500 miles of crossing land it was still pretty impressive. The winds were gusting to around 30 mph and we had over 3 inches of rain. We may get more but not like the Austin - San Antonio area. Some parts of that area have received 10 or more inches and areas along some rivers have been evacuated. More rain is forecast for that area today and tonight. This storm was in the gulf only a short time but was very powerful as it swept across Texas. It is forecast to reach into Kansas before dying out.

We lost a peach tree and our garden was nearly flattened but that can be fixed easily. We are thankful for the rain. we hope some fell near the lake and replenished our water supply. We were desperately in need of rain in this part of Texas.

VBS in Uco Park

Have you ever tried to do VBS in a park? Believe me, it is an experience. Those of my readers (not many) who are from or know about Del Rio, TX will probably know where Uco park is but for the rest of you, it is located near downtown Del Rio, adjacent to the railroad track and directly in the landing approach for the airport. The trains are frequent and often have armed border patrol officers on top of the cars.

The folks at FBC Portland used to go to Del Rio each year for a Mission VBS and we did it in Uco Park. There was a small Hispanic Baptist Church about a block from the park and we lived in their facility while we were there. We always arrived on Saturday and the whole neighborhood would be there to greet us. The first time I went, I was amazed. The women of the church cooked the best Mexican food ever and we always ate way too much. Sunday we worshiped with them (in Spanish), usually one of our leaders preached in English and their pastor would translate. Sunday afternoon we got ready with last minute details and usually took our big blue bus around the neighborhood to advertise. It was a ton of fun.

I taught 2nd grade and we usually wound up with 20-30 of them and a few younger siblings that would not go in the preschool area. Most of them spoke English OK so we were able to communicate. Our problem was the heat at the end of July, and the noise from trains and airplanes. These were very distracting and made evrything more difficult. The first year that I went along (probably 1980), there was girl in our group named Esmerelda. She was one who had a brother who was 5 and was afraid to go on his own so he hung out with her in 2nd grade. Esmerelda could never pronounce my last name, I can't either sometimes. She finally named me Father Goose which was as close as she ever got. I had that name for quite a while after that particularly where VBS was concerned.

We went all week long and we would make gospel presentations in the big blue bus for those above 3rd grade. Many a youngster heard about Jesus for the first time in that old bus. Our opening assembly each day was in a ball stadium again with the accompanying trains and airplanes. Those were memorable days for me and I often wonder if anyone still ministers there in Uco park. I'm sure there are still plenty of kids who need to hear the word.

Oh, and there was always the raspa at refreshment time to cool us off.