Vault Discovery: A Word on Merging

I discovered a piece a wrote at the beginning of the summer and never posted. So here it is.

Originally composed June 19:

I recently participated in Summerfest and found it to be rather enjoyable - the food, the rides (Samantha and I have made excellent progress toward Tilt-A-Whirl expertise), and the fireworks display were all superb.

Intense concentration - or maybe the handle was dirty...

Lean!

Your other left!

Thanks for taking the pictures mum!

Notwithstanding, it was my experience in the parking lot which inspired this piece.

Merging. It's actually a fairly simple concept. Two lines become one. I recall that when I was being initiated to the road by my father, he explained that it should work like a zipper - or a "zip" as they call them across the pond. In any case, this being an object I was quite familiar with, the simile stood as an adequate explanation and I was confident that the general population was also equally well-versed in the fly-securing book-enclosing apparatus. Thus, one driving phenomenon could be checked off as a worry free occurrence.

Alas, experience has dictated otherwise. I don't know how other people's zippers work, but mine always follow the same pattern: one left tooth, one right tooth. One left tooth. One right tooth. Repeat previous sequence until all teeth have been assimilated. It's a very simple pattern. Merging should work in precisely the same way. Yet in this advanced age, people seem to want to complicate the pattern. One left car. One right car. Three left cars. One right car. Twelve left cars. Three right cars. One left car. Five right cars. I don't know about you, but I am hard-pressed to find the pattern. And can you imagine what your zipper would look like if it tried the same antics?

To those of you privileged to be instructing the next generation of vehicular operators, I have a simple request: covey the merging pattern. And the rest of us could do to take a lesson from the past, when times were slower. Can you imagine if driving were like it used to be?

Clip courtesy of The Andy Griffith Show

A Desert Adventure

Last week I went shooting with my father. Having amassed a variety of bottles, buckets, and jugs, we decided to go out into the land around the lake so we could cause explosions without fuss. As we're driving around scouting out suitable set up locations, Dad commented that the road seemed rougher than usual, but we didn't make much of it. We finally pulled into an open area next to an old rusted truck that had been deserted long ago and Dad got out to check a hunch. Sure enough, we had a flat.

As we were struggling to figure out how to get the spare off (it was bolted pretty securely to the underside of the bed), pushing off thoughts of succumbing to the same rusty fate as our new-found relic, another truck came by. They were from the County and were sent to look for a particular landmark or some other such business. They asked if we were shooting and would we please not shoot them until they had come back in about 15 minutes. We assured them that we would be occupied at least that long with the tire. We'd made no progress by the time they returned, and they offered to lend a hand. After banging around themselves, they were at as much of a loss as we were. They then offered to drive us into town to either get the old tire repaired or replaced. They seemed nice enough guys, but in Dad's words, we had four choices:

1. We could both get in their truck and leave our truck and all our munitions unattended in the middle of nowhere.

2. Dad could go with them and leave his daughter, the truck, and all our munitions in the middle of nowhere.

3. He could send his daughter with the two complete strangers and stay with the truck and all our munitions in the middle of nowhere.

4. We could send them on their way and be stuck with the truck and all our munitions in the middle of nowhere.

After some consideration and a glimpse of garments on stranger #2, Dad decided the guys were reasonably trustworthy and opted for choice #3. So the tire and I hopped in the rescue vehicle and took off down the road. I knew this was going to be even more of an adventure when I realized as we were driving away that I had left my phone in my car at the parents' house. So I had to content myself with sending positive brain waves back to my dad so he wouldn't worry too much and the consolation that I was armed.

About an hour later, I had found out quite a bit about Carlos and John - schooling, family, occupation, some entertaining anecdotes, and thoughts on travel and history. We'd visited 3 tire shops. At Walmart we learned that the tire was blown so repair was out of the picture, but despite 3 or 4 technicians blatantly sitting around, they were "busy" with 3 cars in front of us so it would take 1.5 hours to fix. No way were were going to sit around for that long, we moved on to a local Joe who, despite advertising "tires" on his building, actually orders in all his tires so he couldn't help us. Third time the charm, Big O Tires fixed us up with an $80 tire in about 10 minutes, the computer taking longer than the actual tire replacement. Back in the "limo," my chauffeurs kindly offered to stop wherever else I wanted - "drink? a show? the airport?" - and after a laugh were back on the road to the lake.

Meanwhile, Dad had taken shelter in the 14" of shade on the north side of the truck lying on the table we brought to put our guns on, worrying that getting back in the truck would cause it to shift off of the jack. I later pointed out that if the truck was going to come off the jack, all the banging around trying to coax the spare off would probably have done it. But water under the bridge. Carlos and John helped us get the new tire on and made sure we were all set before leaving. Come to find out, while we were gone, another car came up to shoot and had also suffered a flat tire. So Carlos and John trotted off to help them. I couldn't help but laugh; I guess they were destined to be the tow truck for the day. I didn't feel real sorry for the other car though - why would you drive a little lime Ford Focus into the wilderness?

Anyway, 2.5 hours later, we were finally able to get some shooting in.

(Yes, this was from a different shooting trip, and yes, my aim has much improved since then.)

Lessons learned:
~ Always prepare for the unexpected. Translation: have tools with you when striking out for the desert
~ Bring water (peanut butter crackers alone tend to do more harm than good) and
~ If you want to practice aim, it might be better to go to a range.

But if your goal is to make things explode, red food dye in water in a salsa bottle is a great way to vent any frustrations from life.

Updates

Okay, for all of you who have been complaining that I have disappeared from off of the blogging planet and have left you hanging, wondering what has become of me and the unfinished stories of dilemma and woe... okay, maybe that is no one, but I realize it's been a while so I thought I would take today to catch the record up to speed with my current life situation. So let's see, where did we leave off...

My car was successfully repaired and we have had no more incident on that account, for which we are grateful. As we were reunited, I have finally come up with a name for her: Louise, or Lou as she will most commonly be referred to. I think it is very fitting; it means 'warrior' and is the feminine form of the French Louis, and as she is yellow it reminds me of Louis XIV, the 'Roi du Soleil,' or 'Sun King' for you non-frenchies. It's been a long time coming, but better late than never.

I have been promoted to a student lead position at work, which is kind of exciting. It's always nice to know that my hard work ethic is appreciated and recognized and that I can be put in a position to teach this to others. This means that I am in charge of about 4 workers in my area, I get a whole $1 raise, I have to work about 6 hours per shift (as opposed to the 3 I was working previously), and attend work meetings every other Thursday with all the other student leads and managers. So far it has been really fun - training new employees, coordinating and supervising prep tasks, and just having the opportunity to have my voice heard and help improve things. I really love my prep workers, they are really good. Usually there are a few good workers interspersed with a lot more mediocre workers, but mine are all really assiduous. They learn quickly, are extremely punctual, and have a general cheerful attitude and willingness to help out. I can't rave about them enough!

Yet another semester has dawned at BYU and I think it promises to be a good one. I'm very excited about my classes, so here's how the schedule looks:

Humanities 101: Introduction to Humanities - I absolutely adore this class! Humanities is basically the study of the arts: painting, sculpture, dance, literature, music, drama, that kind of thing. The professor is so wonderful - she loves her subject, she's excited to teach it and discuss it and share her knowledge with her students, and she isn't particularly concerned about whether we make mistakes or don't understand initially so she is extremely approachable. Even though it's at 8 in the morning, it is not one I anticipate skipping for the sake of sleep. Sis. Haddock is so engaging and makes the class fly by so fast. She tells stories about the great Renaissance artists and we look at art and learn how to judge and analyze it and before I know it the bell is ringing. It's going to be a great class!

Astronomy - This is just a fun whimmy class that I decided to take #1: because I knew it's taught in the planetarium and the seats in there are so comfortable! and #2: I really like star gazing and have always wanted to learn the constellations better. The professor is J Ward Moody, which I think is just hysterical. Luckily he's a lot like Sis. Haddock and appreciates the humor of his name; he made 3 references to Harry Potter on the first day alone and they have been scattered here and there over the subsequent lessons. (I learned that Rowling was really brilliant in using astronomy in her books, but that's another post.) He's very nice and tries to be engaging so we don't fall asleep in those lovely soft reclining seats. It's really amazing to look at pictures of the stuff out in space and realize the beauty and complexity and sheer magnitude of Heavenly Father's creations and then learn a little better how they work.

Chemistry 111H: Honors Principles of Chemistry - This is the most intensely involved class I think I have ever taken! I am beginning to question just what I was thinking when I signed up for it, but it is a challenge I am determined to conquer. I think my thought process was something along the lines of "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Maybe I want to major in science. I should explore that a little. Hey, chemistry! I've never taken that before, I think I'll try it. But I already know about atoms and molecules and that stuff, I should take Honors. They learn about thermodynamics. That sounds cool, I want to know what that is. Okay, I'm signing up for the super-intense-every-day-move-through-stuff-really-quickly chemistry class!" Yeah, that may have been a little ambitious. It takes me hours to read the book and finish my homework, but so far I think I am comprehending, so I'm going to stick it out. Hoping I can find the time to excel. Cross your fingers.

French 361: French Civilization until 1715 - I really love history and I still want to take French classes even if I don't major in it, so this was the choice. After the first week, I was a little nervous, because the graduate student who is going to observe our class in preparation for his first time teaching it next semester was in charge while the actual professor was giving a presentation on the cathedral of Ghent, Belgium in front of said cathedral. He is the leading expert on it, and so I was worried that it was going to be intimidating and he was going to expect a lot. But he is the funniest french professor and he has no problem having discussions in either French or English, depending of course on the language of the primary text, and he doesn't really worry about your grammar. That is really nice, especially because we are talking about complicated issues relating to culture so you can just concentrate on formulating the concepts instead of the sentences.

New Testament - That class is going to be just terrific. Sis Burgon is the sweetest person and she just loves the Lord. She has given us some really fascinating insights into the background of the New Testament, with all the wars and conquests of Israel and Jerusalem and how all of it was really important in preparing the people in that area to receive the gospel. She's also talked a lot about knowing Christ, not just in the sense of knowing facts about Him and His ministry, but to really know Him as He is. She spent all of the last class period talking about how in order to truly come to know Him, we have to know not only who He was on Earth, but also how He was before He came to Earth and the nature of His Godhood. She really knows how to bring the Spirit in and I've already had some major revelational breakthroughs. I just really like religion classes and I've been very lucky as far as professors go. My testimony is definitely going to grow and be strengthened!


I'm thinking of starting another blog and cataloging all the amazing stuff I learn about. If you'd read it, let me know and it will get done faster! :)

The only other update is that I've got some new roommates who are just awesome! Samantha moved in with me and we've been having a blast! Okay, that's it 'til next week! :)

My baby is sick!

We two have become quite the icon in our neighborhoods, both at home in AF and in Provo. Ever since I was blessed with her two years ago, she has become my identifying symbol. People at school or church are constantly saying, "I saw you in your yellow car driving by, or at such and such a place." Two days ago even at work there was a kid who recognized me as "The Girl who won the car." Now, after all the good times we've had together, crisis has struck.

Three weeks ago, I was driving to work, and just as I was pulling into the lot where I normally park, the engine stalled and refused to start back up. Great! I am already late and now I have coasted to a stop right in the middle of the parking garage, in everyone's way and just shy of a spot. Luckily, someone was driving by and helped me push it out of the way, halfway between a regular spot and a service spot. Hoping I wouldn't get a huge fine, I ran off to work and hoped things would work out when I got back. They didn't. The poor thing was still stranded there, refusing to start. Luckily though, I didn't seem to have a fine for being kind of in the service-vehicle-only spot. I tried to contact some people to help me try to jump it, but to no avail. I walked home, feeling like a cat abandoning her kitten to the elements.

The next day, my dad came to help. Jumper cables: fail. Battery tested at Checker: only taking half charge, could be the problem. New battery: $84.99 - fail. We are out of ideas. The next thing we could think of is that there is something clogging the fuel filter so we aren't getting fuel to the engine. We can't do anything more where we are, so we begin the tense task of towing it back to AF. I have never done that before and I must say, it was quite the experience. As dad was linking the cars together with the tow rope he brought, he explained to me that he would be the gas, I would be the brake. My brakes have been complaining rather noisily of late and I thought in my head, "Uh oh, I wonder if they can handle it. Couldn't I be the gas and you be the brake... oh wait..." So one and a half slow, white-knuckled hours later, we had arrived and were ready for the next treatment option.

Dad found a mechanic who was willing to make a house call and his diagnosis to the malady could be a faulty sensor in the engine, the camshaft sensor (I'm not sure what it does exactly). We ordered the part: $140, nonreturnable - fail! We are at our wits' end, and nearly our wallet's. After another inspection, diagnosis #2 was a worn out timing belt. This is bad. This is a routine tune up that is supposed to be done at 100,000 miles and for some reason, both dad & I thought it had been done. Nope, we were wrong.

For those of you unfamiliar with how an engine works, I will explain. I found it fascinating to learn. Inside the engine there are cylinders (mine happens to have four). Inside the cylinders are pistons attached to the crankshaft that turns your wheels, makes the car go. At the top of the cylinder is a valve that lets fuel in which, combined with the fire from the spark plug, causes an explosion that pushes the piston down, turning the crankshaft. There is a gear connected to all the valves and another connected to the pistons. These two gears are connected by the timing belt, which ensures that the valves open when the pistons are down & close when the piston comes back up so that they don't hit each other. There, now you know how it works.

The bad news is that because the timing belt seems to have worn out while the engine was running, the timing may have gotten off in the momentum after it stalled, meaning that the pistons could have potentially hit and bent the valves. If that is the case, changing the belt will not help much and it will take roughly $1800 for a valve job. That was not an option. However, I was not going very fast when I stalled, so there wasn't much time for it to get out of timing. Plus, I would think that if something is hitting something else in my engine hard enough to damage it, I would have heard something. I did not, so I decided to take the risk & gamble the $350 to change the belt (and the water pump, as it is normally recommended to change both at the same time). That has been done and she started! However, we aren't completely out of the woods yet, because after the mechanic left, my parents took it around the block to make sure she sounds ok and everything. I've had to work everyday in Provo, otherwise I would have done it. As they were driving it around, it stalled every time they slowed down or stopped. That was a little disconcerting, so the mechanic was called back. He drove it, and it didn't stall at all. Then my mom drove it to Walmart and it stalled as she was turning a corner, but only on the way there. So the conclusion is that we won't know until I drive it and see what happens, as I am the normal partner in travel. Hopefully all goes well and we can cruise the highways together once again.