Green, But Not with Envy

Several months ago Jean bought me a new water container to drink from at work. She was concerned because even the dishwasher couldn't cleanse all of the green growth from the bottom. I hadn't taken the new container to work. But, Tuesday morning she was cleaning out the cupboards and tossed it to me to bring to work.

I took a picture comparing the two. The old one, on the left, does have a nice, greenish hue.

I've always prided myself in how I slowly poison, er..., introduce things into my body to make it stronger. It's a strange thing. I would drink from a cup or eat from a dish that the dishwasher left food on. Yet, I will let a sandwich or meal that should be refrigerated sit out all day, and eat it of course. I worked as a custodian for our hometown church while I was on college. It was located in a pretty hard neighborhood. Prostitutes, the homeless, and drug dealers. One day I found one of those large drinking jugs with a straw in it on the church grounds. I took it in and washed it up and used it as thirst quencher at break. I got flack every day. On my last day there before I moved to Grand Rapids I asked everyone to autograph it. It was special.

Weeks Like This

I love weeks like this. Weeks where it seems like it snows everyday. Two inches of snow one day, six inches the next. The snow keeps coming. It makes it feel like something is happening. It pushes away the winter blahs.

These moon boots used to be my mom's. She sent them home with me back in December. Jean was going to where them to be like Napoleon Dynamite. Sam took them over today.

Sir Edmund Hillary Dies

Most know my love and fascination with Mt. Everest. Oh, the National Geographic DVDs I have on the subject. I even used Mt. Everest as a model for Men's Ministry. Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first humans to summit Everest. After that day in 1953, he devoted much of his life to helping the people of Nepal. Yesterday, Sir Edmund Hillary died.

Two Wrongs CAN Make a Right

We last left our cartographer in the grips of the electric villain...

So this morning I wired up the junction box just as I sketched it out on the diagram below. Turned the main power on, and the breaker tripped. STINK! I pulled the cover off the junction box. It should be right. It should. I put the cover back on and just stood there. I will need to call the electrician after all. The wiring to the junction box should be right. There must be something the way the three way switch is wired in the wall that I can't see.

Wait! That's IT!

See, on Tuesday I learned a lot about 3-way switches. The black screw is where the common wire goes, in most cases the black wire. When I put in a new switch for the set of basement lights on Saturday I wired the new switch just like the old one came out. Today I hypothesized that when I tried to wire the junction box correctly Monday the switch wiring then became wrong. I pulled the switch. The red wire looked to be in the correct place, but the black and white wires were opposite of what they should be – at least from what I learned Tuesday. I swapped the positions of the wires. I turned the breaker on. SWEET LIGHT! It worked! Two things wired incorrectly made the original wiring work. But, trying to make one part right Monday, made the entire thing completely wrong.

Creating and Solving Problems

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
- Albert Einstein

I found this quote today. It really reminded me of our house. Sometimes I cause the mechanical problems in the house, but usually I am the one trying to fix the problemS the previous owners created. We moved into our house a few days before Christmas four short years ago. I should have known that when I turned on the shut-off valve to our clothes washer and water sprayed – not from the hose connection, but from the shut-off valve itself – that we were in for a bumpy ride. When we are fixing things and find something odd we usually just shake our heads. When a contractor tells of a problem we never flinch. We simply say, "I'm not surprised. Nothing about this house is surprising." Actually, a few weeks ago Jean had a post about recent things we've discovered.

Right now my task is putting up new can lighting in the basement. There was a suspended ceiling that seemingly was put together with odds and ends from a dumpster. Some of the ceiling was taken out after we moved in when the spiral staircase to the basement was replaced by a standard staircase. This summer we took the rest of the ceiling out. We left two of the four florescent fixtures to give some light, but it was pretty drab. One thing that I needed to do, besides put up different lighting, is remedy the ceramic light fixture that also served as a junction box for several other wires, including an extension cord to plug in more florescent fixtures, as well as a converter that screwed into the light socket to make it an electrical outlet. It scared me. It was so unsafe looking.

When I got the first bank of lights installed on the existing circuit, everything still functioned. Then, I went after the scary ceramic light fixture from an electrical inspector's worst nightmare. I took out the part that functioned as the light socket/electrical converter. I took out the extension cord. I wired the rest back together and put a proper junction box cover on it. But, the mess no longer worked. Worse yet, it caused the washing machine's outlet on the floor above, not to work either. CUSS!

Anyone who knows me well knows I obsess when I can't make something work. We had to go to Lansing. I was grumpy – because I was stumped. Yesterday I went back after it. I traced wires to their origins. What I couldn't trace by eye I hypothesized where they were coming from and where they were going. I dismantled the mess. Separated what I thought the main components were. Eureka! And it works! Tonight I attempt the second part of my grand experiment with electricity. It should work. If it does, I will try and post the wiring diagram that I sketched out for the second half of the grand experiment. It makes me thankful that Jean lets me talk out loud to her has I attempt to problem solve, that she trusts me enough to problem solve, that she loves our kids and the purity of their ears enough to remove them when a project makes a move that I haven't figured out how to counter yet, and that she is simply so beautiful.

Many of the previous installs and "fixes" in our house have not been brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. It makes me wonder, though, when someone says, "Nice job Einstein!" why isn't that a compliment?

Of Brotherhood and Chocolate Donuts

Saturday afternoon we were blessed by the arrival of treasured friends. Nathan, Kerry Lynne, Josh, and Eva were on their way back to their home in Virginia after spending the week of Christmas in Michigan's upper peninsula with family.

Nathan and Kerry Lynne were in the very first small group that Jean and I ever tried back in 1999. Our apartments were about 5 minutes apart. The friendship flourished. Hanging out at each others' place, going to see bands, on and on. Nathan can be credited as the one who got me hooked on mountain biking. There was a bond formed that even their move to Virginia 9 short months later couldn't break. We continued to see the friendship flourish. We encouraged each other through job changes, moves, joys, and heartaches. We've experienced adventure races, a business, and vacations together. I've hurt them, and they gave me forgiveness.

Though Nathan and I talk at least once a week it had been three years since I'd seen him. Having young kids and using vacation time for ministry had limited our ability to travel. I was leading a backpacking trip when they came to Michigan this past summer, so being able to have them at our place was a huge treat.

We took the boys sledding late afternoon. I haven't laughed that hard in a long, long time. Wow, I needed to see my friend. He is one of those guys that you laugh your lungs out with and moments later be sharing the depths of the pain in your heart. The beats of our hearts are very similar. That is why it is always easy to pick up where we left off. Nathan, to you I say SLAP SLAP!!

Thoughts on Leadership

I consider myself to be a passionate person about good leadership. The people I invest in I strive to make better leaders. I get very frustrated at poor leadership by church staff and in the workplace.

Sometimes I let frustrating things go. Recently it has been easier to let frustrating things go because I won't be around here too much longer. Sometimes I don't let frustrating things go. Recently it has been easier not to let frustrating things go because I won't be around here too much longer.

Friday was one of those days that I didn't let a frustrating situation just slip by. About 2:45 my boss strolls out of his office with a smirk on his face and it appears he has an announcement to make. I say, "What's up, Mark?" He lets us know that "the office" will be closing at 4 PM due to weather. I ask, "Well, since I haven't had a lunch break yet, can I leave at 3?" My co-worker speaks up and says, "Since I only took a 15 minute break can I leave at 3:30?" My boss says, "Wow! I thought you guys would be happy to leave at 4!" I blurted out, "Buy you came in at 10 AM and took an hour and a half lunch." Ooops. First he said that he was going to "burn" a half of vacation day. Then, he said that he came in late and took a long lunch because he was working Dawn's shift to give extra coverage. Well, he couldn't have been doing both things. Much of me truly believes he was making an excuse. He was very quiet during my last 15 minutes.

It felt good. Not to one up my boss, but to open his eyes. He is a good "manager." He is a poor leader. Here's why I say that. This past summer he called someone in off of vacation in order to take someone else in the office to a golf outing. The person called in off of vacation performs a completely different job than the person Mark took to the golf outing. As a manager, you can do that. As a leader it is good to explain why two people need to go to a golf outing. Will it help having an additional person there, who just happens to breathe golf, in order to cement relationships and increase business?

Many of us have complained to Mark about Chuck's toxic attitude. The way Chuck treats customers, inspectors, and even others in "the office." Mark ignores it. Once ever four to six weeks he emerges from his office and micromanages everyone for approximately two hours, then returns to his office and hides from the rest of his staff for another four to six weeks.

The last month or more I have stepped up what I do there. Not only doing what is on my job description, but the jobs of many others as well. Even though that gives others even more time to trade stocks all day. And, Mark knows of their stock trading.

Friday it would have been so easy just to ignore Mark's attitude of "there is one set of rules for me and another set of rules for everyone else." I am in a place where I have nothing to gain and nothing to lose. No one in "the office" under Mark's management has had a raise or review in over two years. I will only be around a few more months. It is very good that poor leadership can be challenged without fear of what consequences truth could bring.