God Cancelled Church Today

This morning, in the middle of church, the tornado sirens went off. One of the church security guys quickly ducked out out of the service to verify (somehow) and came back in to report that, yes, the National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning for our county. The pastor told everybody to round up their kids from children's church upstairs while they figured out the best course of action. Again, by means I know not of, they were able to ascertain that there were no active tornados in our county and decided it would be best if everybody went home as a preventative measure. I overheard the pastor say that if our church had a basement, we probably would just go down there and continue as normal.

I was talking with the sound guy about this while we were waiting for more information to be gathered and he wished the National Weather Service wasn't so cautious. If he was running the show, he said he would only active the sirens when an actual tornado was seen rather than just when there is rotation in the clouds (as was the case this morning). His point was simple: the high number of "false alarms" encourages people to disregard the sirens when they do sound.

His point is a good one and my complaint regarding the system is similar: our finest level of resolution for warnings is an entire county. There could be a very deadly tornado dozens of miles from me and the sirens will still go off. In fact, the National Weather Service could be virtually certain that there is no danger to all of Wichita but if there is danger to some part of the county, the sirens will sound.

For better or for worse, most people respond to the sirens by first turning on the TV or radio rather than seeking shelter immediately. In a city that deals with dangerous weather frequently, ALL of the "serious" local TV stations have invested a great deal of money in their weather forecasting equipment, sets, and staff. You can be sure that if the sirens have sounded in Wichita, every one of these stations will be carrying a very in-depth and seemingly interminable analysis. It won't take but a few seconds to figure out what course of action is appropriate.

Lastly, one of the things I brought to our marriage was a Midland weather radio which has been serving us well these past few days. Every hazardous weather watch and warning issues by the National Weather Service sets this thing into loud beeping mode followed by automatically tuning in to the continuous National Weather Service weather channel where the cause of the alarm is explained. The radio is great; even if a tornado came late at night, we would be immediately awaken. On days like today, though, when National Weather Service is issuing warning after warning, it can be quite annoying.

The other advantage of having this radio is that we are never in need of the latest weather forecast, current weather conditions, or weather almanac entry for the day. We have "Misty", our friendly speech-impediment prone, computer synthesized voice who is vigilant in keeping us up-to-date and tirelessly, hour after hour, provides the latest in weather related news. Even during slow weather days, we sometimes tune into Misty to hear her mispronounce words; our favorite is "cloudy".

The Mystery Of Ants

Now this is the kind of research paper I would like to write. Check it out. This guy figured the best way to learn about the physical structure of an ant colony was to pour liquid plaster down it, let it set up, and then dig out the casting. Reading into the article a bit, it sounds like molten metal has also been attempted with varying degrees of success. Fun quote from the article: "Pouring red-hot aluminum in the bottom of a 2-meter pit runs the risk of having ones socks catch on fire from the radiant heat."

I read the abstract of the paper but not the full article itself. For best results, scroll down to the bottom of the article for all the neato pictures. Here's the first and most eye-catching:

Jeff Wenzel

This past weekend a prominent member of our church passed away after fighting a brain tumor for four years. Today was the service for Jeff Wenzel and I was glad to be a part of it. There are a lot of trivial things I could say about the service today and maybe I will some other time.

One significant truth became more clear to me today, though: the repeated Biblical command to care for the orphans and widows is a significant and needed service in the corporate Body. Though I have read it many times throughout Scripture, the reality of what this means moved from a mental exercise to living practice today. Jeff's three children no longer have a biological father to provide for them. The role of fathering, for now, has been passed on to our church body as a whole. I don't know what kind financial provisions are in place but I know a trust was established to help with the education of his children. As one of the pastor's at the service said, "It is appropriate to donate generously." This is probably one of the most significant ways my wife and I will be able to help Jeff's family.

Ironically, Jeff and another member of our church founded an organization here in Wichita ( Youth Horizons ) geared towards mentoring the fatherless children of Wichita. I pray that God will provide good father-figures for his children.

Name That Dot

Just recently I was able to do something I've wanted to do since I moved to Wichita: I used the telescope at Lake Afton Observatory to take a photograph of the heavens. One evening a month the observatory allows anybody with a camera to come and use the telescope for photographic purposes. The subject for the evening is pre-selected and the staff at the observatory provide the hardware you need to connect the camera to the telescope.

Part of the reason it has taken me this long to participate in the program is that it usually takes place at 11pm Sat. night; this is WAY past my bedtime. Additionally, the weather has also stymied a few past attempts. Things worked out great this month, though, as the skies were clear and the shoot started at 8:30pm Sunday night.

As for the quality of the photo, well, I don't have a ton of excuses. It was my first time on the telescope so that didn't help. The heat of the day rising off the cooling ground also added a lot of, uhmm, shimmer making a nice, solid, National Geographic photo pretty much out of the question. Plus, this particular subject is quite a ways away so even through the telescope it wasn't very large.

The mystery object: Venus.

The observatory is doing also Jupiter and Mars this year but I think I may hold out for the moon as I expected the shots to turn out much better.

Stillwater Don't Need No Netflix

This last weekend my wife and I were down in Stillwater, Oklahoma for a two-year old's birthday party (cute pictures to follow soon) and afterward spent some time with my wife's brother, Ben. We decided to watch a movie and Ben suggested we stop by a local video store there in town called "Video Vault". Ben thought I would like the place and he was absolutely right.

Probably the simplest way to describe Video Vault is by saying it is a specialty video store. You could also say that Video Vault is the exact opposite of Blockbuster; in the way that Blockbuster promises to have all the latest greatest movies in stock (or at least they used to), Video Vault "promises" to have a whole bunch of old, odd, and unusual movies you may or may not have heard of, like, say, the Academy award winner for best picture from 1962. They got it. Its in the in "Academy Award" section which is near the "Anime" section which is near the "Organized By Director" section which is near the "Blacksplotation" section which is near the "Date Movie" section which is near the "Rent At Your Own Risk" section (whatever that is).

I'm a Netflix member so that I have access to virtually all the movies found in these sections that don't really fit the summer-blockbuster mold. If I had a store like this in Wichita, I would probably quit Netflix; Netflix provides by mail what this store provides in-person.

By the way, if we have a store like this in Wichita, it isn't in the phone book. We've got Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, a locally owned Blockbuster wannabe, and a bunch of "adult" video stores. (Why does the preface "adult" seem to connote "vice". "Adult beverage" = alcohol, "adult gaming" or "adult entertainment" = gambling, "adult video" = sex and pornography. Kind makes being an adult seem like a license to sin rather than the obligation to be responsible.) This being the case, I'm adding this to my list of potential things to do with my life: open a speciality video store in Wichita.

Rolling Again

After nearly six weeks of being out of commission, I recently got the flat on my scooter fixed and it is up and running again. What I thought would be a relatively simple task (hey, it SHOULD be) of replacing the rear tire turned into a lengthy ordeal. I knew that it would take a bit of work to get the wheel off due to things like the muffler, rear suspension, and rear brakes mounted in that area. When all was said and done, it took two visits from the mechanically inclined friend, borrowing a specialized tool called a "gear puller" from the auto parts store, and taking off a sizable portion of the rear body and seat compartment.

Ironically, there ended-up being nothing wrong with the tire; no punctures or holes of any kind. I took it in to the motorcycle shop, we ordered a new tire, and they called me back a few hours later to say the existing tire was still holding air. I ran back to get the wheel and when I tried to put it back on, I discovered a fully inflated tire can not be squeezed past the engine block to slide all the way down the axle. (This scooter is quickly earning low marks in my mind when it comes to maintainability.) Letting out some of the air and whacking on it with a rubber mallet got it back on. In a few hours I had reassembled the bike and took it out for a test ride: all was good again.

This experience has also brought to light just how poor the quality of this bike is. Several of the bearings I had a chance to inspect in this process are starting to stick and the gear meshing at the rear wheel-axel is fairly loose. "You get what you pay for" and that has played out true here as well. Fortunately, I suspected nothing less from the low price I payed and plan on making the most of this opportunity to become a more knowledgeable mechanic.

This attitude will serve we well in the near future as there is a funny rattle I need to hunt down and a front headlight that needs to be replaced.

No rest for the weary. Or those who buy cheap scooters to save a few bucks.

Frozen River

The river that runs through Wichita is frozen over in some places, including the area right near our place. I was out this Saturday morning exploring and took a few pictures from the adventure. The ice seemed quite thick in some places (maybe as much as two inches) but it was obvious that there were other spots were it was considerably thinner. I was tempted to try to crawl across the river but, given the fact that my intended route took me close to areas where liquid water still existed, I decided against it. The neatest thing I saw, by far, was a school of small fish swimming under the ice. Sadly, none of the pictures I took capture how cool this looked so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

To the Parents of Hardy Child

This afternoon our non-existant child received a box of eight books from Scholastic. We have no idea how or why we were blessed with this delivery and haven't quite figured out what to do with it, yet. (My guess is that a certain brother and sister-in-law of mine signed us up but I have not proof of this.)

We carefully read through the invoice and it was very clear that we owe money for this unrequested "introductory package" and had obligations for future book purchases. We haven't opened the package just yet and are trying to decide what do from here. Some of the options:

Do nothing. We haven't ordered anything and to the best of our knowledge they don't have our credit card information (though this may or may not actually be the case). Despite what they would like us to believe, we have not obligated ourselves in any way. Though I feel very confident that we are legally on safe ground that doesn't mean our lives can't be made unpleasant by people trying to extract money from us.

Return the books. Our little invoice lets us know that if we don't want to be members of this club we can simply return the books (they pay for shipping). This would be the polite thing to do and cause the least amount of hassle. For them, at least.

Call Scholastic and pretend to be offended at the implication that we have a child. I could pretend to be frustrated not-yet father who really desires to have a child but haven't been blessed in this way. I could pretend to be gay and make a big deal about how Kansas won't allow for the adoption of children by homosexual couples. I could pretend to be single (this despite what their database probably already knows.) We could pretend to be elderly and only have grown kids. There are all kinds of fun things you could do with this.

At this point, we're probably going to do nothing and just see what happens.

Sticking It To The Man

This past month, much to my surprise, the Wichita city council ruled against a re-zoning request that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build a third store here in town. Wal-Mart already has numerous Supercenters here in Wichita but most are on the edge of town; this was a more central location. I found out about it a few days before the vote and wrote to the council members to let them know that I didn't think Wal-Mart ran the kind of business that had the interests of Wichita in mind. I would not consider myself a wholly anti-Wal-Mart citizen (here are some that are) but definitely lean more that direction.

I wish I could say that our city council sided with the grass-roots efforts to keep Wal-Mart at bay but my reading of the minutes from that meeting (starting on page 98) lead me to believe that the council was more interested in getting the issue settled rather than give Wal-Mart time to work its PR machine to change the mind of the public. Regardless, the re-zoning request was turned down 5-0 and Wal-Mart was kept out of that particular location.

All that leaves is the rest of the city to defend.

Flickr Update

New pictures from Christmas break have been uploaded to Flckr. Enjoy!

Audit #2 Wrap-Up

This second audit turned out to be MUCH simpler than the first. To prepare for this audit, I used the same procedure as last time:

-Assemble all tax related documents from last year.
-Redo the math and make sure the total claimed on the tax return matches the total from all charitable contribution receipts.
-For each charitable contribution, match the donation receipt with a withdrawal from an account (checking, credit card...)
-Compile all this data in a nice spreadsheet to make the job of the examiner easier.

This self-audit revealed a small error I had made in the return and after thinking it over a bit, I decided to highlight this on the spread-sheet rather than hope nobody would ask about it. Honesty with the IRS seemed the most trouble-free course of action. (It turns out that the examiner asked up-front if I had found any errors during my preparation. Unless I wanted to lie, this question pretty much made irrelevant and rationalization I might have had for not mentioning the error. )

I made my way through security and on my ride up the elevator with the examiner, our conversation revealed that I had just been here eight months ago for my 2004 audit. This surprised him and he made a point of mentioning this to his supervisor who was going to sit-in on the audit.

We went through the cursory is-there-any-income-you-are-forgetting-to-tell-us-about questions (Any income from gambling? Trusts? Bartering? Garage sales?) and then proceeded to dig into the issue at hand: charitable contributions. I handed the examiner my spread-sheet and after unfolding it, he spent several seconds looking stunned. I don't know what he was expecting to see but the number of transactions he was going to have to check must have seemed daunting. He slowly turning around in his desk to grab a calculator and, with a sigh, started to ask me about the first item on my list.

At this point, his supervisor jumped in.

"What did you say your 2004 audit covered?"

Same as this one, charitable contributions.

"How did the 2004 audit turn out?"

No change to the filing was made.

"Tell us about the mistake that you found in your filing."

Due to the weird way my church reports my financial donations with them, I accidently counted $65 I paid for men's retreat as a charitable contribution. A closer examination of the receipt clearly shows that this was not a tax-deductable contribution.

"$65? That's it? If that's the extent of the error, I don't see any reason we need to continue with this. Do you have the 'case closed' letter they gave you at the end of the last audit?"

Now I was the one who was stunned. I slowly turned to my stack of folders to find my records from the 2004 audit. I handed the examiner the letter, he went to make photo-copies, and that was that.

As the supervisor explained, the IRS customarily does not examine the same person for the same item two years in a row. My impression was that this practice was not governed by law, but more by some internally-established procedures. If there had been other items of examination in the audit, they would have proceeded checking those and my charitable contributions. He said the computer that figures out who needs to get audited doesn't take into account any previous audits and when it saw my abnormally high charitable contributions, it flagged me and I got a letter. This also means that if I get flagged again in 2006, instead of scheduling an appointment I can simply call the examiner and let him know I've already been examined twice for this item.

With that, I was done. In and out in under an hour. Best of all, I don't have to file any kind of amendment to my return for that silly mistake I made. The fact that I don't have to do any extra paper-work is reward enough for me.

Hail, Sleet, Snow, and Freezing Rain

In the words of the National Weather Service, Wichita has been experiencing a "wintery mix" of precipitation this weekend. As a variety of precipitation has been falling from the sky an old debate between my wife and I has once again emerged: what exactly is sleet?

My stance has been that sleet is the same as hail and the term is a regional one. We in the northwest call it hail, in the midwest it is called sleet. My wife's view has been that hail MUST be larger and must come from a thunderstorm, thus, any winter-time small balls of ice must be sleet. After much thought and a little bit of digging on the internet, I am here to say that while there is validity to both views, hers is more correct.

Both sleet and hail are balls of frozen water; in this sense, I am correct. My wife, though, is correct in that the process for these two forming is quite different. Sleet is rain that has frozen on the way down. Hail DOES form during thunderstorms and is also frozen water but it circulates in the thunder clouds, gaining mass until the winds cannot keep it aloft any longer. Sleet must be small, hail can be large.

For the sake of complete-ness, snow is water vapor that freezes directly to a crystal, freezing rain is liquid rain that freezes on contact with a cold surface.

In the final assessment, Wichita has experienced sleet, snow, and freezing rain but will have to wait for this spring for the hail.

Power On Start-Up

At my brother's request, I measured the power consumption of my computer during start-up. As I kind of guessed, power usage is relatively variable, anywhere from 65W to 105W. Using my finely honed real-time, eyeball-powered skills, I would say the average during the whole process was around 90W.

Scooter Flat

I got my first flat tire on my scooter this morning. I don't think that flat was there when I started but coming around a corner not far form home I was certain something was up with the rear tire. I pulled over and confirmed my suspicions. I wasn't too far from home so I decided to just push the bike back; this took more time and effort than I would have guessed.

My wife gave me a ride to and from work and when I got home I took a closer look. I can't identify what caused the flat but I was thankful to see that getting the rear wheel off won't be as difficult as I would have imagined. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get everything working again.

You know you're a nerd when....

This Christmas, I requested and received something that many of you will find highly nerdy and not all that interesting: an electrical power meter. I have long wondered just how much various items around the house use (home electronics, mainly) and I now have a way to measure and see for myself.

First up, the computer. Instead of shutting my computer (iMac G5) down every time I am done using it, I put it into "sleep" mode. The display turns off, the disks spin down and the computer appears to be off except for a pulsing heart-beat-like light below the display. Power consumed in this state: 9W. Considering most house-hold incandescent lamps are 60W or greater, this is not much power at all. Overnight in the state, my computer consumed 0.08 kW-hrs. Even at $0.10/kW-hr, this is only pennies a month to avoid the hassle of shutting down and restarting my computer every time I want to use it.

Other misc. measurements I made on the computer:

-The display can be set to turn off after a period of disuse. The display consumes about 15W at full brightness. This is a lot less than I expected considering...
-During my normal usage, my computer consumes about 70W. This varies quite a bit depending on what I'm doing but the normal email, web-surfing, typing all weigh in about the same.
-When I'm doing processor intensive work like photo-editing or DVD-rendering the computer consumes about 110W.

I'll be measuring other stuff and probably (maybe) post on it later but I'll leave you with this one highly practical tidbit: those compact florescent lamps REALLY DO use a lot less energy than incandescent bulbs. The ones I've measured have all met their advertised power consumption. These light sources consume only 14W and provide the light of a 60W incandescent. Do us all a favor and go out and get yourself some of these for all the high-usage areas of your home. They'll probably pay for themselves over the life of the bulb and provide the warm fuzzy that you get when you save energy.

Well, at least I do.

Audit #2

Our mail was on hold while we were out on Christmas break and, due to Gerald Ford's death, we didn't get our mail until Wednesday. Waiting in the stack on my desk was a little letter from our friendly neighborhood IRS office.

Yes, once again, I am being audited.

The last audit was for my charitable contributions during the 2004 tax year. This audit is for contributions during 2005. I guess the good news is that I haven't filed my 2006 return so I can't be audited for it. Yet.

I don't know what to make of this. Katie thinks that once you're audited, you stay on the IRS watch list. I'm skeptical but don't have a better guess at this point. I haven't started to assemble the documents yet but I'm not very worried. Additionally, since I've done this before, I have a pretty good idea what to expect.

Two audits, eight months.

Sheesh.

Early Speilberg

My wife borrowed a copy of Close Encounters of the Third Kind over Thanksgiving and we watched it the other night. I know it was quite popular at the time but when all was said and done, I have no idea why. Well, that's not quite true, the visual effects used to create the alien spaceships were quite well done. I would say that to this day, they hold up quite well and don't appear fake at all. (This is not true of the make-up used on the aliens. They looked like small children with rubber masks.) Aside from that, though, I found the film rather disappointing.

This isn't the only early Speilberg film that was popular when released and that I find mostly unentertaining. Just a year or two ago I finally saw Goonies, about twenty years after the peak of its popularity. There were many moments throughout the film where I had flashbacks to grade school and finally figured out the pop culture references I had missed at the time. The "Ah-ha!" effect was probably the only redeeming part of the film for me. That and the fact that it was filmed on the Oregon Coast (along with other run-away hits like Free Willy and Kindergarten Cop).

For me, the most annoying part of these early Speilberg films is the dialog/relationships between the main characters. If I had to say, the rule seemed to be that all family units must be dysfunctional in a painful way and all dialog must include at least three people talking at the same time. In the case of "Goonies", the dialog must also be loud and obnoxious.

Obviously, Speilberg went on to make other films that will probably stand the test of time: my votes are on Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Oddly enough, there were also two films that received critical acclaim when released and were made in-between "Close Encounters" and "Goonies": The Color Purple and ET. I haven't seen "The Color Purple" but I remember the buzz surrounding it and it has been a while since I've seen ET but I know I generally enjoyed it.

So maybe early Speilberg is more inconsistent than anything else; I'm sure some would say that this just isn't early Speilberg but all Speilberg. For me, though, I think I am much more able to tolerate his more recent films than his early ones.

That said, it looks like Jurassic Park IV is in pre-production with Mr. Speilberg as the executive producer. I think I'll pass.

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving Travel:

Wednesday Night: Wichita, KS to Enid, OK
Thursday Night: Enid, OK to Mutual, OK
Friday Afternoon: Mutual, OK to Hitchcock, OK
Friday Evening: Hitchcock, OK to Stillwater, OK
Saturday Afternoon: Stillwater, OK to Wichita, KS


Why all the driving? Well, Katie's extended family all showed up for Thanksgiving day but the turnout was not so fantastic the following day, her birthday. For whatever reason, almost everybody had made other plans so we decided to take the initiative and go and see them. It made for quite a bit of driving and we were definitely vagrants for most of the weekend (a different bed every night) but we didn't have much of a choice; family is important to Katie

So how did we end the weekend? We rolled back in to town Saturday afternoon and proceeded to do nothing most of the day. Katie signed up for a bow-tying and wreath-making class at a gardening store near here, we went through the mail, and then watched a movie while having delicious pizza for dinner. Oh, and we had cake and ice cream afterwards. Though her actual birthday day wasn't that spectacular, I think her birthday weekend is going to end up just fine.

UPDATE: Sam's Club and Aviation

As a follow-up to my previous post, it should be noted that the jet has sold.

UPDATE: Sorry for the bad link; it's fixed now.

Thanksgiving and Pumpkins

For Halloween, Katie and I got a pumpkin. We didn't end up carving it or really doing much of anything with it other than set it out on the porch for the trick-or-treaters. We only got the pumpkin the day before the grand event and felt it was the least we could do. That and have candy for the kids.

A few days ago, somebody stole the pumpkin off our porch. We don't exactly live in a crime-filled neighborhood but our porch is about three or four steps from the sidewalk and, naturally, the pumpkin makes a tempting target. All in all, the theft is not the big of a deal except for the fact that Katie had plans for it; pumpkin pie if I remember right. Being the kind and loving husband I am and noting that she was particularly grieved that somebody would actually go to the trouble of taking our pumpkin, I decided I would get her another one.

A simple task, I thought. It's the week before Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie is a very traditional dish, there should be loads of fresh pumpkins for sale.

Five stores later, I have realized how sadly naive I can be. There are no fresh pumpkins to be easily found here in Wichita. I tried a farmer's market of sorts, three grocery stores, and the home and garden store Katie got her first pumpkin from. None had any left except small, decorative ones.

The funny thing is that all but one of these stores were all decked out in Thanksgiving regalia. Lots of browns and oranges (for our purposes we'll call this pumpkin-color), cornucopias of squashes, corn, potatoes and, yes, pumpkins, scarecrows, and turkeys. All of these items are available for purchase EXCEPT the pumpkins.

So let me ask you, my friends. Is it normal for pumpkins to disappear shortly after Halloween? If so, how are the pumpkin pies made? How about where you live; can you still buy a fresh pumpkin? Is it asking too much to still be able to buy a pumpkin this far after Halloween? Are they already out of season? Are most pumpkin pies made with canned pumpkin? What would the pilgrims think?

Please, share your thoughts in the comments.

Flickr

At the request of a friend, I have fired up a Flickr account. No promises on how often I'll be adding to it so enjoy it for what it is.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tubby_mac/

(Don't ask about the user name. I was not attempting to be funny or cute. I chose the name because I gave myself the nickname Tubby in Idaho and I use a Mac; it seemed like a natural fit. That and all the other user names I normally use were already taken.)

Voting

Oh, yeah. Before I forget, voting on Tuesday was pretty smooth in our district. We had those electronic voting machines which are all the rage these days. There was long line to use them, though, so I just used a paper ballot. No hole-punching here, we were all 1990s and had a Scantron™-like ballot (but were told to use black ink instead of a number two pencil). I was in and out in about ten minutes. When I handed my ballot over to the election officials they fed it into this big copier-looking thing that I'm assuming scanned it and added my votes to a running tally. Over-all, a slick system. In fact, probably better than many (maybe all) the electronic voting machines out there in that a paper trail for each votes exists (the original ballot), but a computer does all the hard work of tallying the votes.

The only drawback in the experience: signing-in. The following has happened at EVERY vote I have ever done in-person. To split up the work-load of getting all the voters signed in, the voting officials form a set of lines divided out by the first letter of voter's last name. They then place a sign or placard with the corresponding letters on the front of the table, taping it to the top of the table surface and letting it hang down the front.

The problem: if ONE person is in line, nobody else can read the sign. With just a handful of voters, it is possible to completely possible to remove any clue which line a given voter needs to be in. As you can imagine, when things are busy, it gets even tougher; in my voting location, it was hard to tell there were even separate lines. Fortunately for me, the line I needed to be in completely emptied out and I was actually able to see the sign and realized I was in the wrong line.

To all poll workers: hang your signs from the ceiling so we all can see them.

(Extra) Scooter Parts

Yesterday I spent most of my afternoon hunting down two mystery noises on my scooter. In the process of doing so, I ended up removing most of the external body panels from the machine and got a chance to poke around and see its inner workings. By the time I was done, I had found two small parts that had been, well, just hanging out unattached inside the body of the scooter.

Well, at least they weren't attached any more.



This guy was resting on the undercarriage panel (the mostly flat plate of plastic that keeps gunk from the road from getting kicked up into the engine) and was a big confusing at first. I eventually found that it had broken off the backside of the panel that covers the windshield bolts. It appears to be a mounting point for a screw and (obviously) is not one that I have been using. I think I'll call it a vestigial part as it doesn't appear there is any way to get a screw in it; you would have to drill through the instrument panel to make it work.

Extra part worry-factor: None. I'll be getting along just fine without this guy. The next part though....



In case you can't tell, this is a bolt. (If you look down toward the bottom you can see what remains of the threads.) The curvy profile of the bolt is not by design; this bolt has been seriously worn down. It fell out as I was putting the scooter up on its center stand and I have spent a long time looking for a place that it might call home. I have a guessed but nothing I feel very confident about.

Extra part worry-factor: High. Bolts shouldn't be worn down like this, not after six months of use. Very scary.


By the way, I did find one of my mystery noises, it was the front brakes. I'm hoping to coerce a mechanically-inclined person to show me how to work on disc brakes. My normal point of contact is a new dad so I don't know how available he will be in the near future. The noise isn't overly distressing, just something I need to check on relatively soon.

The other noise is still a mystery. I couldn't replicate it yesterday so I guess I'll have to work on it another time.

And the high is...

(Truly this is the nadir of this blog: the classic small-talk that is weather.)

The leaves are turning, the days are noticeably shorter, these are the days of fall.

Except its 70 degrees outside. Not that we mind but I think I would prefer the highs to be more in the high 50's instead of having us contemplating whether we should turn on the air-conditioner. We are two days from November; shouldn't it be cold right now.

Oh well, it does still make for a beautiful day.

Gas Prices

Last week gas was $1.979/gal. here in Wichita.

Under $2/gal.

I never thought I'd see that price again in my lifetime.

And like a dream, it is gone. Prices are now $2.159/gal.

Shoot.

Blinking Lights

My scooter had it's first significant failure: the turn signals started not blinking. Some of the time. I hate "random" failures.

First stop for trouble-shooting: the internet. Less than a minute of digging revealed that most motorcycles and cars have a special little part that tells the lights how to blink and since both left- and right-hand signals would check-out on occasion, I decided this little guy was the culprit. The tricky part was finding where he lived and, on top of that, finding a replacement part for my "Chinese" scooter.

Well, it only took an hour or so to tear off the front of the scooter. ( I have removed nearly every single exterior body panel on the scooter now; this should make future repairs easier.) When confronted with the mass of wires and connectors, I decided to resort to my keen sense of hearing to find the faulty part. I turned the ignition, flicked the blinker switch and after a few intermittent blinks, had found the part. Next stop: motorcycle shop.

I stroll up to the very official-looking parts counter, plunk down my broken blinker module and ask for a replacement. The clerk begins to type stuff into the parts database and is halted when I tell him I've got a "Chinese" scooter.

"Oh, we don't carry parts for stuff like that. That has wires hanging out of it. All of ours just plug in."

I assure him that I feel comfortable making my own wiring harness and ask to see what he's got. He brings out two options, I choose the one that looks easiest to work with, and $20 later I'm on my way home.

Making switch was pretty easy. The part has a connection diagram on the back of the package. A few minutes of voltmeter action and I knew the corresponding wires on my harness. Solder up the connections, coat the thing in hot glue to avoid any shorts due to moisture and I was done.

Except for putting all the body panels back on. I'm getting better, I swear, but it still took another hour or so to get everything back in place.

Monday was the full road test to and from work and the new module is great. The turn signals blink like a charm.

One thing is bothering me about all of this though: should a failure like this occur after only 1000 miles? Me thinks this does not bode well for the future.

Sam's Club and Aviation

This is not a joke, I promise:

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?catg=7822

That's right, boys and girls, you can buy a Citation Mustang, Cessna's latest and greatest business jet, from Sam's Club. Instead of going directly to us, the manufacturer, you can go to the king of bulk-items retail. The jet you are buying is the demonstration plane we have been flying around to show off to prospective customers. Pay now and get the product in a year.

The only people who I think will be interested in this are those you want a Mustang but don't want to wait until 2009 to get one. (Yes, we are sold out that far in advance.)

Weird.

Christmas in Wichita

For those of you living in "big cities" (I'll let you decide what qualifies as a "big city") you are probably already knee-deep in Christmas decorations at stores. Here in Wichita, the party is just getting started. Small but prominently placed sections of decorations and "gift ideas." Tunes faintly drifting throughout the stores. Lots of red and green.

It is the second week of October.

Project Vote Smart

With the upcoming election I wanted to place a plug in for my favorite election website: Project Vote Smart. The website is run by an organization whose goal is to provide voters with accurate information about politicians and their views on a variety of political issues. (Daunting task, to be sure). The website contains a bunch of information like short biographies, campaign finance information, ratings from interest groups, and this little thing they call the NPAT.

The NPAT is the crown jewel of Vote Smart's information arsenal and seems to be generally feared by politicians (at least based on their participation). The National Political Awareness Test is less a test and more a survey that Vote Smart asks running candidates to complete to evaluate their stance on issues that Vote Smart has determined are of interest to voters. That's right, the NPAT is a long list of questions that require a politician to voice an opinion on an issue. No hemming, hedging, weaseling, or generally obfuscating their stance through verbal trickery. Just answer the question. To give you an example, here is the first question from the abortion section:

Indicate which principles you support (if any) regarding abortion.

a) Abortions should always be illegal.
b) Abortions should always be legal.
c) Abortions should be legal only within the first trimester of pregnancy.
d) Abortions should be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape.
e) Abortions should be legal when the life of the woman is endangered.
f) Prohibit public funding of abortions and to organizations that advocate or perform abortions.
g) Require clinics to give parental notification before performing abortions on minors.
h) Abortion clinics should be required to submit more detailed information on late-term abortions to state health officials.

There is also an "open response" area associated with each question which, in past elections, I have seen used by politicians as another PR avenue but I'm sure is more intended to allow a candidate to add any clarifying remarks. If I remember right, in a previous election I saw the one of the candidates answer none of the questions and then use the open response area to tell of all the wonderful things he or she did in the past that were at least mildly related to the issue. I was not impressed.

As you might guess, participation on this survey is not the greatest. I remember during the 2004 elections that neither Bush nor Kerry filled out the NPAT. Looking over the ballot for my area, I can see that neither of the two leading candidates in our gubernatorial race (I've always wanted to use that word) filled out the NPAT. Granted, they may be too busy to fill this silly thing out but, well, I know I'm not the only one that could use straight-forward answers on some of these issues.

The only weapon we the voters have in attempting to get politicians to fill out the NPAT is shame. I'm going to be emailing all the relevant candidates who haven't yet filled out the NPAT and letting them know I would REALLY appreciate them providing this information and that the NPAT is a key tool in how I make voting decisions. Vote Smart spends most of their time trying to coerce candidates to filling it out and by lobbying other organizations, people, and groups, to get the candidate to fill it out. As a candidate continues to refuse to fill out the NPAT, Vote Smart keeps a running (and public) tally on the variety of avenues they thus far employed. Check out the big red text at the top of the incumbent governor of Kansas Kathleen Sebelius showing just how uncooperative she has been.

So there's my plug. I encourage you to use the website and give your candidates some grief if they haven't completed the NPAT. In my mind, Project Vote Smart is attempting to put politics back in the hands of voters by providing clear information about those we face on the ballot each election. I'm a fan and I'm eager to convert others to the cause.

Weird Plant

This thing has been growing in our yard since we have moved in and nobody seems to know what it is. Especially now in early autumn it looks very corn-related but I know no specific. Any ideas? (For reference the shed in the picture is probably 15 feet tall at its peak.)

One Six Right

I like movies, all kinds of movies. Some have said I like weird movies, and, at times, I must agree. I enjoy seeing art of many kinds but films offer a very large canvas on which to build. Just think about it. There are movies filled with special effects eye candy and there are films with only a few characters set in places that could be just down the street. They are all trying to tell a story of some kind (well, almost always) and those creating the film work to realize that story.

Last night Katie and I saw a film made by a man who is passionate about aviation. It was released a year or two ago and was playing one night in Wichita as a sort of 'thank-you' to Cessna who helped underwrite it. The story is of aviation told through the busiest general aviation (that is, "non-commercial") airport in the US (maybe the world): the Van Nuys Airport. The producer and director learned to fly at this airport and loves flying. He spent four years of his life building this film to express that love and did an truly wonderful job. No fancy special effects to speak of, just a simple documentary he crafted together in an expert manner.

We were blessed to have this man, Brian Terwilliger, there at the screening and it was wonderful to hear what you might call "DVD extras" live and in person. After hearing him speak, it was easy to see the strong connection between the film and the man. If I ever get into film, I would be blessed to be able to so clearly and simply communicate through that medium.

If you get a chance to see it, especially if it is on the big screen, take it. It is a great example of simple and powerful artistic expression.

One Six Right


(As a side note, the film was shot in digital HD and a digital projector was used in our screening. The quality was noticeably improved over regular film but nothing so spectacular that I would call it "revolutionary". I wouldn't stay up too late worrying about when your local theater will decide to go digital.)

Shameless Pitch

I recently ordered a flash memory card from Memorysuppliers.com and they are offering me $10 back for posting their link on my blog so here it is:

http://www.memorysuppliers.com/

The store appears to be the place to get memory for both mobile devices (like digital cameras, cell phones, PDAs) as well as memory for your desktop or laptop computer.

Sorry if this ad is distracting, thanks for being understanding. Feel free to leave a comment about my shameless efforts to save a few bucks.

Equinox

In the park down the street from us, Wichita has a very cool piece of public art that is especially neat four times each year: a solar calendar. In the tradition of many ancient cultures, a couple of artists here in Wichita collaborated to construct an accurate solar calendar that clearly marks the two equinoxes and two solstices that occur each year.

The piece has several stone pillars throughout the area but there is one central stone pillar and it has a steel and glass orifice mounted at its peak (make to look artistically similar to a human eye).




This orifice casts an eye-shaped shadow (with the pupil being open) on the ground and as the sun moves throughout the day and year, so does this shadow. The artists have also placed on the ground three marker stones with tennis-ball sized glass discs mounted on the surface such that at "high noon" on each solstice and equinox the pupil of the eye lands exactly on the glass disc and illuminates it. Think of Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" but without all the special effects.

Well, today was the day after the equinox and a small crowd gathered at the solar calendar to see the show. (Yesterday being a work day, I'm assuming the turn-out wasn't as good). Due to daylight savings, "high noon" was around 1:30 or so and there was probably about two dozen people there. We were also blessed to have the artists show up for the event which I really enjoyed. Since celestial event itself was rather slow-paced and predictable, they were able to explain how they constructed the piece and explain some of the more esoteric artistic references. (All of the pillars are decorated with painted tiles meant to allude to the various ancient methods of time-keeping).

As it turned out, being one day late for the event meant the shadow was slightly out of place. The artists said that the equinoxes are the most precise and every day counts but around the time of the solstices, the eye appears to land exactly on the glass for several weeks.



Here's the view of the glass target stone looking back up towards the eye.



The next event is on December 21st at the winter solstice and it should be easier to see the eye exactly on the eye (as long as it isn't cloudly). The artists also mentioned they had another project in the works for a larger, calendar/time-piece for the county park here in Wichita. Considering they just got this one done in 2004, I'm surprised and pleased that they would be able to do something similar so quickly. Maybe Wichita isn't as un-cultured as I thought.

Third Injection

Two weeks ago I had my third and final epidural injection for the herniated disc in my back. (For reasons I don't understand, they only do three injections for any one injury.) It had been about five months since I had been in for my second injection; it had only minimal long-term effect. I had waited this long since the last one to give physical therapy a chance to do its magic and, as I have mentioned previously, there has been some definite improvement as my abdominal muscles have strengthened. With the physical therapy ending, it was time to give this all one more shot.

The procedure went very smoothly. From the time when the surgeon walked in to him walking out was no more then ten minutes; I had forgotten just how quickly these things can go. Post-proedure pain was fairly minimal but I knew by the time I got in the car I wouldn't be going back to work that day.

Two weeks later, I can say that the injection has gone a long way and that I am as pain-free as I have ever been since the injury. I am able to walk long-distances (a mile or so) without significant pain and have been able to do more than lay down when I get home from work. I am very thankful for such marked improvement.

The flip-side is that I'm not all the way healed and still have to answer the surgery question. Due to insurance weirdness, if I do the surgery this year, its free. If I wait, I will definitely have to pay and, due to ever-decreasing insurance coverage, probably have to pay more than I expected. Despite, or maybe because of, all my progress, this decision is still not clear cut. I'm going to be visiting my neurosurgeon soon and see what he thinks. Feel free to leave a note and let me know you're thoughts.

Hey, maybe I'll get to do another cool MRI!

In Business News...

Recently, our company announced the "top secret" (aka obvious progression of our existing models) new business jet: the CJ4. This is the model that I have been working on for several months and will continue to be working on for the next year or two. Yes, we really do announce products that far in advance. We have firm orders for over one hundred of another model, the Mustang, and we have yet to certify the plane or make a single delivery. Does it seem odd to you that customers are lining up without ever haven even taken this for a test drive? Ask me sometime to explain the crazy world of private business jets.

Here's a nifty little press release that gives you all the fun stats for the plane (again, prior to it even being built.)

http://www.cessna.com/news/article.chtml?ID=buKkVHZ237qaHQJkpv6VAVsE8LmmyRYUAdf1dk7iE9qFUlQvCr

Not related to Cessna but still in the aerospace vein, Lockheed-Martin won the contract for the next generation space vehicle. Their winning bid calls for a capsule approach to space travel, much like the Apollo program. To me, this seems a step back but I think after two very disastrous Shuttle accidents, NASA is making higher reliability and lower cost a priority.

If you want to really know why Lockheed choose this approach you can give my good friend Jon Markley a call. He works Lockheed. In fact, he works in the rocket program they have.

Yes, yes. Jon Markley is a rocket scientist.

OK Go

Months after they were hot, I wanted to pass along two fun music videos self-produced by the band "OK Go". (I heard about them on NPR if that's any clue how out of the loop I am when if comes to these things.) The first video is fun but the second one gets the award for "Best Use of Treadmills In a Music Video".

Seriously, whoever choreographed this deserves a medal.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fe196bnpmY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCSGGrU9MA

I'm Healed!

Well, not entirely.

Today was my last physical therapy session for a while. The physical therapist said that she had pretty much done everything she could for me and that if I continued with the exercise regimen she had developed, my back would continue to improve. And my back has been improving these past few weeks, albeit slowly. She gave me some guidance for future exercises including a recommendation to do some pilates. (Boy, I don't know if I'm secure enough in my masculinity to do something like that. Maybe I'll just get a ball and DVD and do them at home.) The best part, though, is that I got a free exercise band; all I had to do was ask!

So what now?

Well, I'll continue with my exercises, plan on doing my third and final steroid injection in the near future, and we'll see what happens from there.

Death of the 24-hour Kinkos?

It appears that there are NO Kinkos open 24-hours-a-day here in Wichita. I checked the website and they all open at 7am and close at 11pm on most days. Kind of sad? What about the Kinkos in your area? If there are no longer any 24-hour Kinkos then I feel we have truly lost something as a society. I can't say exactly what that might be but it is something.

(This has come about because I am dropping my wife off at the airport this morning at 5am and need to make a photocopy of a maintenance request to our landlord before I submit it. The ceiling in our kitchen is dripping water onto the floor. Quite a thing to discover at 4:00am as you're getting ready for work. Hopefully the craziness of today ends when I get her to the airport.)

Doing nothing

UPDATES

-The Wichita water test is going much slower than I expected. The pan of water finally evaporated off and I'm afraid the results are inconclusive. There is a lot of particulate stuff (including dried blades of grass) that I think got into the water when it was out in my car and the landscaping people mowed the lawn.

I think I'm going to try this again but put some kind of cover over the pan to prevent stuff like this from getting into the water. The tricky part is that the cover will still need to allow water vapor to get out. Saran wrap with a bunch of small holes in it?

-Scooter riding is still going great. Getting 80+ mpg and enjoying the rides.

-Katie and I are looking into getting a scanner so that we can electronicazationify some of our paper documents. I found out that the IRS does accept electronic versions of tax documents; this could save us a ton of filing cabinet space. We could do the same with much of the paper documentation we are hanging onto right now. As to when we are getting said scanner, well, it could be a while. We'll let you know.

-My latest exploration topic: nuclear breeder reactors. Pretty interesting stuff. In ways that I don't fully understand, it is possible to reprocess a large percentage of most nuclear waste to both reclaim/recreate some of the fuel and produce a by-product with a half-life of a century or so (vs 20,000 years). From what it sounds like, the process can be made to generate more fuel than you put in. (Don't ask me how, I don't understand the details yet.) The US has outlawed such reactors in an attempt to prevent nuclear proliferation but there are rumblings that if nuclear energy takes off in the US, such a ban might be lifted.

Why might the US embrace nuclear power after several decades of shunning it? Zero carbon emissions. In fact, more than a few environmentalists are getting on-board the nuclear bandwagon because it is so much "cleaner" than coal/natural gas power plants.

-Lastly, Katie and I got some neat folding bookcases to replace the particle-board deathtraps we've had. Literally our old ones were falling apart (and may have done so on top of us). We'll see how these new ones hold up. They fold up in a way that is kind of hard to explain in writing but, hopefully, this will make moving easier.

Heat Wave

Yes, folks, it has been hot here in Wichita.

Very, very hot.

The temperature here the past week has had high's in the triple-digits with the latest peak being 109 'F. I think this is the hottest weather in which I have ever been.

Scooter riding has been fine, though, thanks to a jacket that is meshed and allows air to pass through it rather easily. The ride has been short enough that I have been able to stay cool without sweating up a storm. Heat exhaustion/dehydration, though, can be a challenge; drinking lots of water is the norm.

Speaking of water, I have a friend at work who is enough of a health nut that he distills all tap water at home to remove as much of the nastiness as possible. He says, in fact, that every three gallons of Wichita water he distills leave behind a teaspoon or two of, well, nasty-smelling yellow residue. By his account, the tap water from all four places he has lived in Wichita over the past several years have had this residue. By methods I cannot remember he was also able to "test" Phoenix water and found that it did not leave this contaminant behind.

Me, I've never been a big one to be concerned about water purity. After seeing his "vial of vile" though, I was at least slightly concerned. And, unlike some of the other health-nut claims he has made, there is a very easy way to test his assertion! I got a big glass baking pan, filled it with tap water, and have left it a hot, isolated environment (inside my car with the widows cracked) for the past several days and let our record-setting heat evaporate away the liquid. The experiment isn't quite finished yet so I don't have result yet but I'll post them when I get done. (This is another advantage of taking my scooter to work; I can use my car as an oven without having to pay for electricity! Brilliant, I say!)

Regardless of the results, I figure this is probably not a bad thing to do wherever I live. The test is easy and it will give you at least a rule-of-thumb estimate about the quality of the water. Sadly, distillation won't remove ALL water impurities. Anything that boils at a lower temperature than water (alcohol, for example) will also evaporate off with the water. This test really only reveals the particulate contamination in the water. I don't know how carbon filters work (the kind used in most homes, like Brita) so I don't know if they would get rid of this kind of stuff. We have just such a filter and use it often so I may re-run the experiment using filtered water as well just to see what happens.

So, in conclusion:
-It is very hot in Wichita right now.
-Wichita water might be nasty.
-Unused cars left out in the sun all day can double as an oven.
-Science is fun!

Scooter Miscellanea

Tank Capacity: 1.6 gallons/6L

Fuel efficiency on first tank: 60 (25.5 km/L for you metric folks)

New top speed: 55mph/90kph (I still haven't tried going all out; maybe I can do 60?)

Odometer reading: 256km (Yes the odometer is in km. Kind of explains all the metric-y stuff above, doesn't it.)

Other: I passed my motorcycle driving test today which means I am a fully licensed scooter/motorcycle driver here in KS. The test was not difficult but I did far from perfect. I didn't go in expecting to pass but, well, I did. I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine if somebody with nearly exactly one week of experience driving a scooter should be able to pass the motorcycle drivers test.

Scooter-ific!

It has been five days since the maiden trip-around-the-block was made on my new scooter and since then I've put 135 km (83 miles) on it. In short, it has been a pretty sweet ride. I've run errands, gone to work, gone to physical therapy all without incident. I feel very confident that adjusting to scooter-based transportation will not be a very big deal at all.

I'm loving the fuel economy (I'm guessing I'll get over 50 mpg on this first tank), handling is similar to bicycle (not near as agile, though) and the learning curve isn't near as steep as I had thought. Smoothly accelerating through turns and maintaining a constant speed are skills I am still developing, hopefully quickly. And before I forget, it is fun to ride! Its similar to riding a bicycle in that I feel I am more aware of my surroundings and a part of what I am riding through and not as isolated as I feel in a car. Its a little hard to explain in words but if you spend much time on a bicycle, you'll know what I mean. (If you haven't been spending much time on a bicycle, what are you waiting for; get on it!) Oh, and the insurance I have is full coverage with a $100 deductible for $170/year. This is a fraction of what it costs to insure my car with a $500 deductible. The economy of a scooter is quite clear; in insurance savings alone it will pay for itself in short order.

The only real down side right now is that it is easy to get hot when its 100'F outside and I'm all geared up. The jacket I have is mesh and the visor on the helmet pops up easily so if I'm moving at any speed over 5 mph I can stay pretty cool. When traffic stops at a light, though, it doesn't take long before I eager to be moving again. For now, the work-around I'm going to use is having jeans and I shirt I wear whenever I ride and a set of clothes I can change into at work. Not ideal, but really no different than what I do when I bicycle.

All in all, I'm very pleased with how things have worked out. Obviously I can't make any definitive comments but based on my experience so far, I would recommend a scooter for all able-bodied souls who are looking for an economical and fun way to get yourself around. And really, this is why Katie and I decided a scooter would work well for me; 90% of the time I spend driving I am just moving me. You can't beat the low purchase, fuel, and insurance costs of a scooter for moving one person.

Without any further delay, here are some of the promised pictures. Enjoy!





Me and my good friend Mia assess the caged beast.




Did I mention that since that battery wasn't charged we had to jump-start the bike on the first ride? My super-helpful friend Steven is there on the left. Less helpful (when it comes to all things mechanical) but always good to have around Matt is on the right.




Very first ride. Ever.

Its Alive!

Quick update: after a few hours of work (mainly me assisting the efforts of my newest best friend Steven), the scooter is up and running! Assembly was smooth, we had to resort to jump starting it the first time as the battery hadn't been fully charged yet, and I've taken it for a spin around the block. That short ride convinced me, though, that I need a bit more practice before I strike out on the road in a full-time way; no commuting to work today.

There is a moderate list of things that need to done or re-done to, uhmmm, overcome some of the non-standard assembly we resorted to to get all the pieces together. The most significant is the auxiliary right blinker was mis-wired and I'll have to figure out how it really needs to be connected.

I'll give you the full scoop later (including pictures of me in my Power-Ranger-esque cycling gear). Stay posted for further updates.

Almost There

Well, I've spent the past week talking, emailing, and discussing my scooter with the retailer I purchased it from and I've decided to keep it. This is partially motivated by the difficulty in returning the item, partially by the fact that the same shop here in town will be able to provide service for it and has parts in stock, and partially because I believe that the scooter I was delivered will perform just as well as the one I ordered. This is actually another way of saying that I bought a chinese scooter from a primarily online dealer and if I wanted top-notch service and a top-notch product I would have been shopping elsewhere (and paying four times as much.) When all is said and done, you get what you paid for and I expected difficulties like this along the way. All that matters now is how this specific scooter performs.

This we shall soon be finding out, too. An eager friend of mine with vast amount of knuckle-scrapping automotive knowledge is coming over tomorrow evening and the two of us are going to be uncrating and assembling the scooter. The assembly isn't very involved: attaching side-view mirrors, attaching front windshield, putting acid in the battery and charging it, and attaching the rear luggage trunk. I'm pretty confident that I could do this all on my own but I'll appreciate the help of an expert. (Plus he is VERY eager to see how all of this goes; he asked me if he could come over, not the other way around.)

Last but not least, the title for the scooter arrived in the mail today so I'm going to be picking up plates tomorrow as well. This means that the plan is to have a fully functioning and street-legal scooter by tomorrow evening. As you might guess, I am VERY excited by this prospect and am looking forward to my first scooter-ride to work as early as Friday.

With fingers crossed....

Caveat Emptor

Well, after four weeks of waiting, minor hassles and confusion regarding the shipping date and the tracking number my scooter has finally arrived!

I got a call on Wednesday from the freight company saying that delivery would be between noon and 3pm on Thursday and they'd give me a call half-an-hour before attempting delivery. The next day I got a call at 10:30 from the truck driver saying he was two block from my house and asked if I was there to accept delivery. Sigh. Logistics can be difficult but you figure a freight company would be good at it. Fortunately, I was able to leave work and head home right away so all worked out fine. The driver backed his semi into the alley (How do they do that? I would have trouble doing that in my Civic.) lowered the gate, and we pushed the rather large box into the garage. The driver was a very pleasant and helpful and didn't seem to have minded waiting a few minutes for me to get to home.

That evening, in the company of a few friends that were over for dinner, we tore into the cardboard box the lay eyes on the machine.

The first thing I noticed: it wasn't the color I ordered.

The second thing: it wasn't the brand I ordered.

As you might imagine, these two things are not trivial and it took me a few minutes to get past them. Katie was snapping pictures while we opened the box and I'm very curious if they will show the disappointment on my face. Once I had accepted that even after delivery, things were not perfect, I began to look more closely at the bike.

The cardboard box turned out to be a kind of exterior surface for a rectangular metal frame that caged they bike. The frame looks like 1/4" steel angle-bracket; very serious stuff. The bike will take some assembly (not much) and it is a lot bigger than I expected. The styling is very similar to the bike I thought I would be getting and it looks like all I was hoping for in a scooter. The promised luggage truck was included and the keys were in the ignition.

So, after looking everything over, I got back on the computer and reread over all the fine print I had read before ordering. Boy, I must not have looked very closely because there are a lot of stipulations in the purchasing agreement. The most interesting one that may explain my situation is the following:

"All model numbers and name are use as references only and does not represent the name on the scooter."
and
"Bnscooters does not guarantee color options. Customer may request a color option, however if the color requested is not available during time of shipping, we automatically ship out a default color without notification. This condition is due to high sales volume and non real time updates on inventory. We make every effort in keeping our inventory updated, however Bnscooters reserves the rights to ship out a newer model or higher priced model at our discretion if the model you order is out of stock or unavailable. Pictures and specifications displayed on our site may be subject to change due to constant improvements from the manufacture. We reserve the right to update model specifications at any time."
Does this seem funny to you? When it all boils down, it really seems like they view your order as a suggestion and they try their best to honor your request. No promises though.
If I had noticed this when I placed the order I may not have ordered from them. Caveat emptor, buyer beware.
What's done is done, though, and though they do provide a way to return the scooter, I would have to pay shipping and a restocking fee so I don't know how interested I am in that. The silver lining on this cloud: this online retailer is based here in Wichita and they have a shop. I'll be going in today to talk all of this over with them and see what can be worked out. This single fact, that I would be able to visit the store in-person, is the only reason I took the risk in placing such an order online. Without that face-to-face accountability, I wouldn't have taken the chance.
When all is said and done, things don't seem so bad. I have a scooter and as long as I can get some kind of co-operation out of the dealer (parts availability, specifically), I think things will work out. If this ends up being a big fiasco, well, at least I didn't spend several thousand dollars on the scooter. I'll learn my lesson and do things differently next time. Until then, I have every intention of enjoying the scooter.

We have a WHAT!?

I have spent quite a few hours today trying to combine all the paper files that Katie and I have. Katie had already gone through her's, getting rid of things she didn't need and carefully organizing everything into distinct folders. Today I have been doing the same for mine as well as trying to group the two sets of folders together. (First rule of organizing, one I have to remind myself of often: make sure everything has a home.)

As I was doing this I got to my folder with all my car-related documents in it and, knowing Katie would have a similar folder, I went over to her box of folders and started searching. Sure enough, there was a folder named "CAR" right there, just like I expected.

Right behind it was another one labeled "LEARJET."



(Blink.)



Hmmm. Maybe that's where all our money has been going.

Midwest Ocean

Yesterday afternoon we had the most torrential rain I have ever seen. It was raining so hard that leeks in the roof I had never noticed during previous rains were gushing water, enough for a shower. Virtually all the pavement was flooded over with an inch or two of water, most of it rapidly flowing towards the nearest storm drain. The day was slow so I walked out to the experimental hanger where they had the barn-doors open and watched the storm roll through.

In front of me was the large stretch of pavement that serves as our taxi-way to the runway, larger than most parking lots I've seen. And, as you might imagine, it was mostly empty; no planes coming or going in weather like this. The pavement was completely covered in water flowing and rushing to the drains. The surface of the water was covered in near-infinite pock marks as icy rain drops continued to fall from the sky. The wind was blowing creating waves of rain and waves on the surface of the growing body of water in front of me.

For a few moments I felt like I was at the ocean.

Wind in my face, water mist (not really salty) blowing through the air, large expanse of empty... This is the closest I figure I'll ever get here in Wichita to experiencing the ocean.

Two Wheels It Is!

I am delighted to let you all know that this last week my lovely wife gave a thumbs-up on the purchase of a scooter! Yipee!

Needless to say, I was online placing the order within a few hours and am now in the state of eager anticipation of the said scooter to arrive. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

When I'm not thinking about the scooter itself, I'm thinking about the, uhmmmm, accessories that I'll need for using it. This ranges from protective clothing to wear while riding to upgrade parts (like brighter headlights for more visibility). So far my purchases have consisted of a helmet and a gas can.

The helmet I got is quite a thing to behold. It was on clearance and I think I can understand why: its purple with gold highlights/trim. The purple color I actually like; it is has a matte finish and a deep shade of purple. The gold highlights, though, kind of move the helmet over the top into something that looks like it should be from a comic book or a cartoon. Oh well, it was 45% off and is esteemed as a quality helmet.

Getting a gas can that I liked ended up being quite and ordeal. Every store I went to sold only one brand of can and, without sounding too picky, I'll just say I didn't care for the spout design. The marketing and sales team for this company is incredible though. Four of the five stores I looked at carried that brand exclusively. It was amazing. The whole city of Wichita and it seemed that there was only one (stupid) brand of gas can available. The fifth store I went to had this brand but also carried a Briggs and Stratton can as well with a MUCH better spout design.

I've placed an order for a jacket and pants and am still on the prowl for gloves and boots. (Just stopped in at Red Wing on the way home from work to see what they had.)

I realize that many people might think I am going a bit overboard when it comes to getting all this gear for a measly scooter but as I have been dealing with this on-going back injury and its financial burden I have realized just how damaging any kind of accident on a scooter could be. The financial cost could be huge but the loss of functionality of some parts of my body would be an even greater difficulty. This protective gear is, in my mind, a small price to pay to provide greater protection as I scoot around town. Thankfully, my wife is in agreement on this.

For the Love of Taxes

Yes, yes, this past Tuesday I was audited by the IRS. (Wow. "Audited." Never thought I would ever write that.)

The "invitation" I received to have my 2004 return "examined" was apparently chosen at random and my charitable contributions were singled out as the item of primary concern. (No suprise to me as I feel very responsible for how I spend my money and know that when all is said and done I will be held accountable for the financial choices I make; I like passing on the blessing God has given me and act accordingly.) Fortunately, I still had all my financial data from 2004 and it only took an hour or so to organize it and draw up a spreadsheet detailing the contributions I had made. Oddly, I was asked to bring my 2003 and 2005 returns as well even though it was very clear from the letter that it was my 2004 return that was under examination. Hmmmm.

Thus Tuesday morning around 8:25am I walked into a/the federal building in downtown Wichita with a backpack filled with documents. A quick airport-style securty screening (complete with x-ray machines and metals dectectors) and I was up the elevator and seated at the desk of my examiner. As it turns out, she was a relatively new hire and her boss was there examing her ans she examined me. I found this quite humorous but decided to keep the joke to myself. This is, after all, the stern-faced IRS.

First question from the examiner: "Anything you want to tell us about now up-front? Any known omissions or errors on your return?" Yikes! That is quite a loaded question. Without much pause I decided to stick to my guns and declined to the opportunity to confess to cheating on my taxes. The examiner then deftly noted that I did my own return. Had I always done my own return? Yes, I always had, without the aid of any software. She was good, though, letting me know this wasn't a social visit in the least.

Still not getting to the item listed in the letter, she then went through the process of verfiying my source(s) of income. Do you have any interest-bearing accounts? Any investments that generate capital gains? Alimony? Child-support? Trusts? Estates? No, no, no, no..... Again, the purpose of these questions seemed more at getting me to confirm that my original income stated on my return was accurate and/or confess to any revenue that might have "slipped my mind" when I filed my returns. Towards the end my patience was wearing a wee bit thin; I felt like saying, "Just look at my return! That's my income!" Obviously, that wouldn't have helped. Its also worth noting that these questions literally had nothing to do with why they brought me in. They seemed to be standard questions that anybody being audited would have to answer.

While I'm thinking about it, the letter I received specifically mentioned that a lawyer or tax-preparer was allowed to join me for the examination. Considering that I lived in Boise in 2004 the odds of any relevant party in my tax preparation being available here in Wichita are virtually zero. If I hadn't done my own taxes, I wonder how I could have answered some of the questions posed. This is a point in favor of doing your own taxes or at least understanding every item on the tax return. You as an individual may be the one having to defend your return, not your tax-preparer or lawyer.

Finally, we jumped into the official item of examination, my charitable contributions. Having the spreadsheet delineating all the pertinent transactions helped TREMENDOUSLY. The spreadsheet showed the total for allof my contributions (which matched what I declard on my taxes) and was broken down by the individual organizations involved; these matched the statements I had received from each organization. The examiner didn't check every single donation (thankfully; that would have taken quite a bit of time) but sampled from each organization to which I had donated. She asked for not only a receipt verifying the donation but also proof from my accounts that I had actually made the donation (typically in the form of a
cleared check, credit card statement or bank statement). Its this latter part that caught me off-gaurd; if memory serves, the instructions on the tax return form only mention a receipt for each donation and not necessarily a corresponding cleared check or the like. I guess the assumption is you'll keep bank and credit-card statements; thankfully, I had.

There were a few minor hiccups in the process: I couldn't find my bank statement for the month of one of the transactions that was sampled for examination; a carbon copy of the original check was good enough. Also, there was a question whether one of the charities to which I had donated was officially registered as such. After a bit of digging with no conclusive answer the examiner got pragmatic. In light of the relatively small donation amount, the fact that this was a one-time donation and that I didn't intend to donate again she decided to give me the benefit of the doubt and assume the charity was registered.

This brings up another interesting point: over the course of the interview/examination she asked for a brief description of the kind of work each charity carried out. This was not only a great opportunity to talk to these (assumedly) non-Christians about the good that Christians are trying to bring to this world but also to remind me about each of these projects. It made me feel blessed that I could be a part of what God is doing, to be cut-in on the action.

A few more questions, checking a few more transactions, and we were done. The examiner was pleased that things went so quickly and when all was said and done, no adjustment was made to my return. Yeah! In-and-out in under an hour.

Lessons from the examination:
-Keep EVERYTHING. Official paper documentation for all financial matters makes any kind of audit much easier for you and the IRS
-Keep everything ORGANIZED. Again, having all these documents readily available made the whole process go very smoothly.
-UNDERSTAND your tax return and be comfortable justifying any item on the return. Having the above mentioned documentation makes this easier.

Day-Off

Today, I have been blessed in two ways:

1-I passed the written and visual test for my motorcycle learners permit! This means that if we decide to get a motorcycle to augment our current one-car plan, I'll be legally able to ride it. Right now, we're actually looking at getting a scooter instead of a full-blown motorcycle. A scooter would be much more accessible to Katie, cheaper to purchase, and it gets that fabulous 60+ mpg. The one were looking at wouldn't be interstate worthy but would be perfect for getting around town and running errands.

2-My new nerdy phone service has started! I have been using VOIP (using the internet to make phone calls) for several years now and my service provider has been Packet8. When I joined Packet8 was a start-up and having unlimited local and domestic long-distance calls for $25/month was a steal. The customer service has never been spectacular and the service was a bit bumpy initially but all-in-all I've been happy with it. Well, I've been enticed away to ViaTalk and just this morning got the service up and running. I signed up during a sale and go a great rate of about $12/month for unlimited local and domestic long-distance. In addition, ViaTalk has lots of cool nerdy features like being able to download recordings of voicemail. We'll see how things turn out but so far I'm liking it. (If any of you out there have high speed internet access at home I highly recommend VOIP instead of traditional phone service. Do your homework in choosing a provider but you it would be hard to not save money.)

Bonus blessing: our couches arrived earlier this week. We now have places for people to sit when they come over!

My Very First Stitches (Probably)

This morning I cut my finger on one of our new kitchen knives. I cut it while cleaning the knife and though it didn't hurt too bad, the cut was pretty deep and the bleeding was a bit heavier than normal. After a bit of help from my wife, we had it bandaged up appropriately and I was just marginally late for work. I had a corporate education class on conflict management the whole morning and as there was still some bleeding by the end of the class, I decided to head on in the emergency room to see what they thought.

The verdict was stitches, my very first. (Unless of course I had some when my wisdom teeth were removed, I don't remember having any then and I sure didn't get to see them. That was, though, the first and only time I've had full anesthesia in my entire life. Full anesthesia, along with an MRI, are two cool medical treatments I recommend everybody experience at some point in their life; they're fun!) Now my grade-school honor has been preserved and I can brag about the four stitches I have on my finger.

That I got cleaning a kitchen knife.

(Doesn't sound nearly as impressive as I thought it might. Sigh. Now all my co-workers are going to make fun of me at recess.)


P.S.
I also got a tetanus shot along with something like an MMR booster mixed in. I now actually know the date of my last tetanus shot! This is the one question on medical history forms I can never seem to remember. May 10, 2006 will stick in my mind from this day forth!

Also, did you know that "tetanus" had an "a"? I didn't. It seems the word should be pronounced with three syllables, not two. "Tet-a-nus", not "tet-nus". Boy, you learn something everyday.


UPDATE: My lovely wife suggested I put a picture of the injured finger up. So I did. Enjoy!

Drive-Through Recycling

As long as I can remember, our family has recycled.

During my growing-up years when we would drive into downtown Portland for church, we would often stop at Sunshine Recycling on the way in and drop off the goods we had cleaned and sorted the night before. (In true Pacific Northwest form, the chore was no simply "take out the trash" but rather "take out the trash and do the recycling.") The recycling center was located in a rather industrial part of the city and consisted of a small parking lot filled with dumpsters, each designated for a certain material. This was, if its not obvious, in the days prior to the curbside recycling and I'm fairly certain our family's primary motivation was not entirely environmentally motivated. Portland charges for trash based on the size of the trash container and recycling saved us money by allowing us to use a smaller trash can.

(Rabbit trail: why don't all cities charge for trash based on the size of the trash can? I don't know what Wichita does but I know that Boise didn't. When I was living in Boise, we had a neighbor across the street who one day (nearly) literally opened up his garage door, pushed the contents out to the curb, and had it ALL hauled off the next day by the garbage men. He paid the same amount for trash that I we did. Huh.

Charging for the amount of trash each consumer uses not only is more equitable (you only pay for the trash you generate), but it provides an financial cost for the waste we all generate. There is a financial incentive to recycle and/or produce less waste. Let's hear it for sustainability!)

Wichita, being not quite down with the whole recycling thing, does not have a curbside program. My wife, though, has found a location much similar to Sunshine recycling in Portland that you can drop off many types of materials for recycling. This Saturday morning I went for the second time and I must say it works well. The big difference between Sunshine and ProKS Recycling: ProKS is located in a warehouse so there are (very) limited hours it is open to drop things off (and its indoors). Overall the system works well, you drive in, find a parking spot, and take all your pre-sorted goods to the appropriate bins. Sometimes there are volunteers there to expedite the process by pointing you in the right direction or helping you dispose of the items. I don't know if the organization is funded by the city at all or if it is a purely commercial venture but both times I have been there have been plenty of citizens there recycling with me. The first time I went I even had to wait outside until a free parking spot opened up.

The only real thing left to do to make this recycling thing painless is to get some bins set-up here in the house so we can sort on-the-fly. Then, every Saturday morning, we could just grab the bins and make a quick trip to ProKS. Recycling is a very good thing. Yeah for sustainability!

....And We're Back

Well, I'm married now.

Its pretty cool.

Trying to communicate in writing all that the past month or so has held is going to be, uhmmm, difficult. Being the slightly dedicated blogger that I am, though, I will make an attempt:

Wedding ceremony
Overall things went off without a hitch. Well, at least not too much. The photographer was an hour late. The caterer apparently didn't hear some of the specific requests we had regarding the cake. And somebody added oil to the chocolate fountains (an unnecessary step with the fine, fine chocolate we had purchased). The last one is actually my biggest pet peeves. We had tested the fountains and chocolate to make sure they didn't need any added oil yet somebody decided they did. The result: uneven chocolate flow. Like I said, this complaint in only worthy of the "pet peeve" classification.

Other than the above trivial items, things went well. The ceremony was Jewish styled and we enjoyed the oddities therein (The bride entered first! Gasp! Shock!). We had a great showing from people all over the place. (One odd fact we noticed: it seemed that the further you had to travel, the more likely it was you would attend. A lot of very local people we expected didn't show.) In particular, I was overwhelmed with how many of my friends from all over the nation were able to make it. Thanks, guys! I give our ceremony two thumbs up.

Pictures are available here

The Honeymoon
The honeymoon got off to a rocky start as we had to interrupt it early on to head back to Oklahoma for a funeral. Katie's grandfather passed away the evening of our wedding. We could have stayed in town for three days but, considering we had already paid for hotels, we decided to just go ahead with plans. Driving back for the funeral took three days and two nights out of our honeymoon but, well, that's just the way things go. It was a good reminder that we're not the ones calling the shots.

The secret honeymoon location was a cabin outside Woodland Park, CO (near Colorado Springs) (showing here, brown roof in the center of the screen.). The place was great, had a wonderful outdoor hot tub which we indulged in regularly. We didn't do as much hiking as I would have wished due to my back injury but did play a lot of board games including a sweet two-player version of Catan. We hung out with some friends in the area, went to a nice Italian restaurant where I had two bottles of Henry Weinhard's root beer for $9 (Note to self, ask the price on the drink before you order it.), and enjoyed the scenery. Honeymoon: two thumbs up.

The Move
This last weekend we moved all of Katie's stuff from her apartment into our new duplex. I think that I'm tired of moving Katie; I've done this five times now and I think that we're done with this for now. And now that we're married, it has become my personal mission to help free her from her bonds of materialism.

Well, probably not.

At least we can get rid of all the duplicate items that we each had. Like spatulas.

Needless to say, our place is a mess and it will be at least a month before we approach any kind of order. When its organized enough, though, we're going to have a house-warming party and use our chocolate fountains.

And this time, I'm not going to add any oil.

Moving Katie for the fifth time: two thumbs up due to favorable weather and the fact that she was moving in with me. Otherwise, two thumbs down for having to move her one more time.

The Gifts
There's not too much to say about the gifts other than there were a lot of them. I didn't expect near this many and we had to spend a most of a Saturday sorting them out. Sadly, due to the varying locations of our friends, we ended up having to register at five stores and returns are going to be a bit tricky. We ended up with a number of items we didn't ask for nor have much use for but, hey, that's how things go. We're thankful for the generosity of all our friends.

Gifts: two thumbs up, even for the stuff we didn't want because we know they meant well.

Bagpipes, et cetera....

Adding to the list of "Surreal Events I've Experience in Wichita" was the greeting I enjoyed upon getting out of the car after work earlier this week: a man was practicing his bagpipes in the park across the street. I listened to him from the porch for a few minutes then went inside and opened the windows to continue enjoying the music. I think I am in the minority that enjoy bagpipe music and this guy played respectably well. I haven't seen him since then but that might have something to do with the fact that....

... it is once again cold in Wichita. The winter we didn't seem to get is trying to squeeze in a few days of cold before spring officially starts. Earlier this week it was warm enough for the bagpipe player to enjoy his time outside. The past few days the high has been in the low 40's (Fahrenheit for all you foreign readers) and rainy. This has been a bit of a problem since...

... my electric radiator heater broke. I have it on a timer in the bathroom to help combat the cold tiles. Getting out of the shower wet into a room that is 50 degrees is no fun. I've had the heater for a month or so and then on Tuesday is emitted the "electrical smell of death" (all you EE lab rats know EXACTLY the odor to which I am referring) and ceased functioning. I opened it up and found the part that had obviously failed. A quick on-line tour showed the part was available only in China. Based on the price of the heater, this is no surprise to me.

Oh, and I'm getting married in 13 days. I think that's pretty neat.