Lost and found (repost)

Most of you have heard at least something about our recent and infamous hiking trip in the white mountains. Here is the story from my point of view. If others post, I'll edit this and link them up top. Edit: Pictures added.

Leah, Abi, Rachel and myself pause for EVER on this bridge. If memory serves me correct, Leah explained to us that she couldn't pass this bridge because of an enchantment.

Our youth group had planned a short hiking trip for Sunday the 23rd, right after church. We were going to climb the trail for Lonesome lake, an easy 2.7 mile hike that lazily twisted and turned around beautiful rivers and waterfalls. The weather couldn't have been more perfect- with Autumn fast approaching, it was the most warm and sunny day you could ask for. Some of our company had even brought gear to go swimming in.

Some of the ample areas where one could go for a swim. Waterfalls abound in this trail; its quite beautiful.

A friend of my sister's and myself had unexpectedly dropped by our church and to our delighted surprise was even able to go hiking with us. But since she had not come prepared for a hike, so she came as she was: A long skirt and sandals. But its not like we were scaling a mountain vertically, or even hiking Lafayette, so she was fine in what she had.

Our group got started up the hill pretty soon after we landed at the parking lot. Shortly after setting out, our group split into smaller groups based on the pace that people wanted to take up the mountain (as usually happens on hike). I decided to stay with my sister and our friend Rachel for the most part, bringing up the rear at a nice leisurely pace. Mrs. L, Nicole and some others went up faster, and my father and LittleMan were somewhere in between. Ethan, Noah and Jay took the riverbed and quickly made good time ahead of us. We thought.

If you've ever hiked around the basin before, you know that the rivers beds running down the mountain are very wide but the rivers themselves generally only take up a narrow strip of it of the rocky bed, so following the river as a trail is very easy thing to do. Its a beautiful walk.

Part of the river bed. The dry big rocks in the picture goes on for quite awhile behind the camera (its where I was standing).

The hike up the mountain was pretty pleasant for me and my group. 2/3rds up we over took Leah, who was resting contemplatively on one of the big rocks in the stream. She joined our group, and informed us that as per parental orders, we were to turn back by 5:00. Apparently this had been announced shortly after everyone got on the trail, but I had missed it (probably because I was off to the side on the rocks myself at that time). So at 5:00, we turned back, making good time down the hill though stopping for some photo opportunities along the way and arrived back at around 6.


Other little groups followed soon after. It wasn't long before we were waiting for the last group to get back: Ethan, Noah and Jay. We were hoping they would show up soon. By 6:30, we were concerned. Fish and game were alerted and my dad and Mr. L. shot back up the trails calling out for them as they looked. They had decided to turn back at 7:00, because of the diminishing daylight and it was a good call- according to my dad, the latter half of his return hike was to dark for him to make out trail markings reliably. We've hiked this trail at least 5 other times, but even he had to walk back slow to make sure he didn't slip or get off course. Both him and Tim L. returned, neither one finding the kids. Night had fully set in by 7:10- it was dark and chilly.

I spent most of this time waiting in the van, being the "responsible adult" with most of the younger kids. Leah, Nicole and Abi were in the van for a little bit, but soon grew too restless and joined Mrs. L. at the base of the trail. I was in the van for an hour or so, with the awkward charge of staying nearby and trying to make sure the kids' imaginations didn't get the best of them and put them into a panic. I've never really done this before... basically it consisted of us either being quiet for awhile or talking about unrelated things and then, someone would start to say how worried they were and what might happen to them out there on the trail. Then I'd try to offer a calming dismissing of the fear, assuring them that all would be fine and that we had experts on the case: It wasn't a big mountain, they couldn't get THAT far, it wasn't THAT cold, etc. I don't know if I was doing it right or not. It was a bit of a difficult job when the only updates that would come to us would essentially be that there was no update, except for that Mrs. L and Leah were occasionally in tears now.

Around 8:40 I heard my dad's voice coming up to the van. I hoped that he was coming to tell me they had been found, but instead he just moved the vehicle down to the part of the parking lot where the ranger and everyone else was. Mounting tension was palpable... a few people in the group were upset at the ranger for sitting in his vehicle seeming to take forever about things, not realizing he was coordinating the effort, not actually executing it. He was in radio contact with the top of the hut and working out stuff on the map.

After pulling the van up to the closer parking lot, my dad gave me some money and told me to go get everyone something to eat. Even though most were very hungry and more were badly in need of a bathroom break, no one really wanted to leave the site. I can't blame them. Dad got some directions from a ranger on the nearest place to get a bite to eat. The van was loaded up with silent and somber patronage. I drove us out.

To get back south towards civilization, you have to head north for 5 minutes or so till you get to exit 34A where you can turn around and go south. I left the site nervous but very purposeful- I have never navigated this area before, and I had a van full of kids who were already distraught... This was my one charge; to get them to a warm place to sit down and get a bite to eat. It wasn't much, but it was important and I did NOT want to fumble it.

I made the 34A turn around fine and rocketed back south. I passed the basin. Pretty soon, I was coming up with exit 34B. The ranger told me that the closest food was on exit 34, and to stay left. I realized that this had to be 34B, because the other one was going the wrong way. I took the exit, and noticed it too split. The sign said services were to the right...but the ranger told me left. I took it slowly, realizing further with each foot I rolled that I was going BACK 93 North. But I couldn't turn around, I was commited now. I was frustrated with myself- now I had to PASS our groups turn off, hit the turn around AGAIN and come back. Meanwhile there were people who were going to explode if they didn't get to the bathroom and grieving siblings in the back. Great. Good call, Zeke.

I sheepishly explained that I had to loop back AGAIN. One person might have acknowledged me but mostly, it was just quiet. When I hit the loop was when most people realized it- "Weren't we JUST here?" "Yes...."

We did get back to 34B and this time I took the right. We got into civilization- but it was mostly closed breakfast shacks, hotels and lodges. We went a bit of a ways before we got into a little towny strip that had two family restaurants open. We had intended to get food at a fast food joint, as people wanted to get back as soon as possible. But after I passed this strip it began to look like we were quick leaving civilization. I decided that we needed to stop at one of those places, at least to use the bathroom.

We all rushed into a little geek family restaurant and I went up to the counter.

"I need to ask something of you that I know is a really big favor, and if you want me to pay for a drink or something, I will. I have a van full of kids here who desperately need to use the bathroom, is it okay if they use yours?" The lady gave me a smile and said "Go ahead." I thanked her and bought a coffee, while trying to get ahold of my dad to ask him where the Macdonalds he knew of was. I couldn't get ahold of him. It wasn't a big surprise though- everyone's phone was blowing up.

Word had apparently spread very fast. Anders tried to get ahold of me (thinking that our whole party had been lost), and Jay's older brother called me as well. Leah's phone was receiving call after call and even more text messages. I think she actually received 5 messages over the course of a few minute long conversation at one point. Abi's was ringing too.

After how nice they were to us, we decided to have a sit down meal at the greek place after all. I tried to lift the mood a bit, pulling out and treasuring a few reluctant smiles from the group. I contemplated a lot of my mixed feelings over that pizza- I wanted to be strong and comforting to the group... logically, it was a very short trail and I was pretty confident they would be found. The only real concern I had was if someone was injured. But I didn't want to sound like I didn't care about it. I didn't want to run off my mouth about how they would be fine. But I felt like some people might be looking to me, so I wanted to keep things calm. I felt like it made me almost distant sometimes... I wanted to comfort the group, especially Leah who was missing a brother up there. But I didn't know how to. I wanted to embrace them, to give them a hug and tell them it would be allright, but I was afraid of appearing like I was making advances. It frustrated me. All I could do was drive them and take care of the food. Thats it; thats basically all I had. It felt inadequate.

After we finnished, we loaded back into the van and took off. Abi's phone had died from receiving one to many calls from concerned people, but Leah's phone still had a good charge. She talked on it off and on. I could feel the fear and concern in every word. It broke my heart and made me wish I could do something more. I think all of us wished there was something we could do... friends and family called in to ask if they wanted a volunteer search team. Jay's whole family was coming down. Everyone on the prayer chain at our church knew about it and so did most of the homeschool co-op.

In the last stretch of highway towards the basin, I overheard Leah next to me saying into the phone the words that I wanted so badly to be true-

"They found them?"

I held my breath for a second, hoping that those in the back might not have heard it just in case it was a false alarm. But of course they had- it was like everyone's ears were straining to hear those words, and a collective sound of exclamations and questions erupted behind me. It was true. Just as Leah was confirming it, we pulled into the place where we had parked and got out. Details remained sketchy- they found them up the trail, .3 miles out, or they found them off the trail, .3 miles out. How did they get lost? Didn't know yet. Were they okay? Yes- as one rescue worker said "They are more scared of their parents right now then anything else."

They would be coming down into the parking lot on the other side, the rescue workers informed us. After waiting for Jay's family to arrive (which didn't take but a few minutes) we all loaded into the van and went to the exit 34 turn around so we could get to the other side. When we arrived, their was a small crowd. Rescue workers, family and other church members- and the boys. They were all there. Everyone jumped out. I grabbed the pizzas I had got from the greek place (we had ordered more to feed them when they got down) and headed over. They were in good spirits, laughing and joking around with us. Apparently they never got the word to turn back at 5. Not that it mattered- none of them had a watch. Or a cell phone.

They had shot up the trail, following the rocky riverbed. The river split a few times though, and eventually they got further and further away from the trails. They didn't turn back till "right before it got dark" which would be just about 7:00. How fast it got dark caught them by surprise. They had attempted to rejoin the trail several times, thinking they had found it only to see it dead end or loose it in the moonlinght. Each time, they'd back track and follow the riverbed down further, slipping a few times and misstepping in the dim light.

I bounced back and forth between the different ex-lost boys getting as much info as I could and carrying around pizza. Delivering the pizza was probably the best part for me, everyone was really happy to have food, and finally it felt like I was doing something to help.

We had to stick around there for a bit, while the rescue workers got the story nine ways to heaven from each of the kids. We left for home around 10:30, thoroughly enjoying the ride back- talking and laughing with everyone over the night's drama.

A lot of things went wrong for this to happen, and everyone involved in authority is still troubleshooting it. It just seems such a stupid thing to happen to us- Everyone on that trip had been hiking before. The youth group had been up part of those trails once before last month, and my family have been up it a lot- I've probably hiked the basin at least 5 times within the last 4 years.

We'll get everything worked out, and we'll all be better for it. Meanwhile, I have to work on some promotional material for our youth group. Nicole and I had discussed possible ways of spinning this whole thing into a new tagline. After brainstorming with my Brandon, I'm thinking of going with the following one:

New Testament Hikers club:
Looking for direction in your life? Join the club!

This fall: LittleMan IS the rock ninja!

Ouch.

Preface

I was going to post an amazing poem and sort of deep ramblings type post next. I had some stuff I've been knocking about in my head for a spell that I had until very recently not been able to render in any discernible form. These were the things that my next post would be about.

But then someone seemed to almost take offense that I posted about a car (or any possession for that matter- the thought!) and seemed to suggest that non-material things would be much more flattering on this blog.

Dude, this blog is me. It's post processed for a number of reasons, sure- but its me. If I get a car, am I not to be happy about that? If I make a good deal with someone, am I to wipe that smile off my face and put on sackcloth and ashes? We live in a world of things material. To not find joy in them would be folly in my opinion. To make them the source of our joy or to buy them hoping they will provide our joy- that is folly was well. I strive to be like Paul- being content with plenty and being content with little.

Strangely, before purchasing the car (and I'll admit, a little bit after it) I had this weird "car guilt" complex. Because it was fun and really cool. No, I didn't spend to much for it. No, it wasn't useless. No, I am not getting this car to attract attention to myself and no I am not getting this car as a status symbol (its 17 years old for Pete's sake!). So why would I feel guilty? There is no reason to make a purchase, and then instead of enjoying it, turn around and wallow in remorse.

..Wait, what the heck? This was supposed to be a shallow "look what I dun wit my here toys, yeahaw!" type posts. Huh... Oh well... I'll just work my point into the story.

Once upon a time...
Now that I have a car that I can commute with (both for [AwesomeCo] and my own meetings), I am less concerned about the trucks quirks, even if they prove fatal. Even if Big Yellow went down, it won't affect my ability to get places. This allows me the freedom to use my truck in a very stupid, fun recreational sort of way... going over trails and through woods, even if Grandmas house isn't on the other end.


I found some power line trails pretty close to us that Brandon and I spent an hour or so with one day. It was pretty fun, but we couldn't go to far on it. Then the other day Brandon told me about some trails over by his work. When our schedules finally matched up, we loaded into the truck and got going.

As it was my truck, I was first. I drove up the trail slowly until I got to a certain point where we parked to get out and survey the road ahead. Mum had warned me to not get stuck and we took the advice to heart- anywhere the terrain looked iffy, we walked through testing the firmness and plotting out how we would steer to avoid this rock here, or that boulder there. We mapped ahead till we found a place we could turn around the truck in- that way we would have the option of going further, but at least we knew we could get back.

I started at the top of a hill, which we went a little ways down in a crazy crossing back and forth manner at first, but after that the path wasn't very hilly- just curvy. Speed isn't the thing in offroading (at least its not the only thing)- you want to be in control and the fun appeal is more in conquering the terrain and going the limits of your vehicle mechanically rather then going as fast as possible. That being said, when we came to the mud stretches, we needed enough speed to make it to the other side. I took the first one- pulled to the right a little over the track to dodge rock number one, cutting it hard to the left for a second to avoid rock two, then straighten out to make it to the other side. I was just about to come to a muddy and futile stop- Brandon was saying "Don't get stuck, don't get stuck...." and I was replying "I know I know, almost out..." We were loosing speed, but just before we would have come to a stand still my front wheels grabbed solid land and pulled me out. Perfect.

After that I the ground rose a couple of feet and curved around again to present a second muddy area. This one was not so tricky as it was a much clearer shot and I basically just powered through it. So far, so good.

We came to the little area where we could turn around and parked the truck. Hopping out, we ran up the trail a bit and saw another mud pit- this one much worse. "I dunno..." we said. We wanted to drive further, so we followed the trail up a bit more by foot to come to a small wetland area complete with frogs resting in a shallow lake. "Okay, not going to work..." we said and turned back. After investigating a fork in the trail that also lead to disaster, we headed back to the truck. "Your turn Dude!" I told Brandon as a handed him the keys. He got in, adjusted the seat and all that, then we were off.

He deffinatly didn't want to get stuck. The first mud pile he powered through a little faster then I did and got over with no problems at all. Now we wound our way down and around to the second one. Coming back to this mud area from the other direction meant we didn't have any straight lead up to it like the last time. It was just sort of there, and our front wheels were almost in it . He laid the gas down heavy.

Too heavy, IMHO. We were bucking like bull riders, and when your front wheels are in the air steering is much less effective. Long story short, we hit a rock or two. Hard. From the air.

(...okay thats a bit over dramatizing it I guess. What I mean is that I my front wheels went up and then slammed down on a rock I think).

We heard an awful scraping sound, drowned out only by the noise of the engine and Brandon's perfuse apologies. We figured there was some damages- but at this point we weren't out of the mud yet so we were committed. He pressed on till we were out of the mud pit. He threw it into park and we got out of the vehicle to see what happened.

Immediately I started to look around for something that had come off of the truck. I don't have a skid plate and it really sounded like I hit something on the undercarriage. But after looking behind us on the track for awhile and around the vehicle we didn't find anything laying about. We got back in and started to roll out some more. As we started to drive, suddenly I heard a weird sound-

"ka-thump....ka-thump....ka-thump"

Again we stopped the truck, and again I jumped out. This time, I saw the problem. The right front tire was flat, and a little bit off the rim. "Oh man, I popped the tire off the rim..." Brandon observed. Oh well- I had a spare, no big deal. I dug into the back of my truck and fetched out the tire-iron, then the jack- oh wait no! I don't have a jack. Shoot.

This proved to be a problem. For a while we tried to figure out how to drive it into some terrain that would lift the wheel off the ground for easier access, but after that failed we surveyed the terrain ahead of us and decided to drive it up and out onto the road (I drove this time). We got it there and pulled it to the side, flashers on. Then we proceeded to go door to door asking for a jack.


Two no-one homes later and one "don't have one" later, we called in the infantry- that'd be...that'd be my mom. We called my mom, who found the floor jack and brought it over to us.

But before that happend, a cop came and...well I guess he couldn't really pull us over since we already were, but he pulled over, and did the whole "guilty till proven innocent" thing. I was all smiles with him, having a good time but boy was he nervous.

"Whatcha got here?"
"Just a flat."
"Where were you?" (Clearly a rhetorical question since the trails were to the right and my muddy tracks to the road were right in front of him.)
"Over there on the trails..."
"What were you doing?"
"We were just going around on the trails."
"WE? Who's 'WE'?"
"Me and my friend."
"Wheres your friend?"
"He's just over the hill...hes taking a break"
"He's what?"
"Just takingabreak..."
"What he doing?"
"He's taking a leak Officer."
"Can I see some I.D.?"
"Sure..." (pull out my wallet, give him the ID then put my wallet and hands back in my pocket)
"Sir please remove you hands from your pockets!!"
"Oh, okay right..."

It continued. We got back to the topic of what I was doing.

"Supposed to be there?" (Strangely worded...its not like that was our calling, but...)
"Yes officer- or I mean, we aren't not supposed to be over there."
"Is that so?"
(trying not to take the confrontational bate)
"Yes Officer I believe so-"
"That your land?"
"No sir, but its public access."
"Is it?"
"...yes officer- I mean, I am not trying to contradict you sir but I am fairly sure it is. Is it not?"
"Its the power companies property"
"Yeah, but its public has public easement, doesn't it?"

I could tell he didn't know this, but he was really nervous about it. It was almost like he wanted us to let on to what was legal or not. It wasn't really going to work since apparently we didn't know anything he didn't either way. About that time Brandon came back from the hill and joined the fun. Asked him what we were doing, he told 'em we were mudding, officer asked for ID, etc.

When he turned to go to the cop car and we took a step forward while we asked if he had a jack he got scared again (though this time I suppose I can understand it)- "Please do not approach the vehicle!!! Please step back and remain by the truck!!"

Phew... I tried and tried through smiling and making small jokes to get this guy to laugh but the most he did was crack a "you stupid youth" sort of smile. I guess thats something. We didn't get written up for anything after he found out that there were no warrants for our arrest, so thats cool. He did tell us not to go on those trails because they were the private property of the power company. He wouldn't tell us anywhere we could go, just that we should take it up with our towns.



After he left and we were waiting for the floor jack to arrive, the person who didn't have a jack for us came back out. "I'm really sorry, I feel kind of stupid I have 4 cars and not one that will fit yours... did you guys get someone?" We told him we had- he was really nice. Hung around while we changed the tire and even let us use his pliers. While we worked we told him about what the cop told us about it being the power companies property."

"Nah, that all back there is MY property, actually."

Oh, huh... go figure. I suppose if we ever had the urge to go back to that trail we could ask him for permission then... not that this will happen. This kind of maintenance is not really in my budget (when we got the wheel off, we found out that the rim was bent. Yay us).

Moral
Okay, so I said I'd tie this story in with the point of my preface. This at least won't take long- I just wanted to say that I didn't really care that Brandon busted up my wheel. Its material. We are all safe, its an accident, I've broken things before. I don't want to be the type that freak out when something of mine breaks, even if it cost me something. Its just not worth getting upset about it. I'm sure he feels worse then I do as it is anyway- I know I would and I don't want to make things worse.

Thats how I want to enjoy material things- they come, you can enjoy them, but when they go (I'm Not to say my truck is dead- I drove it home and everything) , just don't worry about it. Its just things. I want to be able to do that with everything, especially when I have a family. "Oh, you drove my car through the garage junior? Well just next time don't drive until your over the age of 10." "What, you burnt the clutch out Susan? No honey, don't worry about it I did the same thing with my dads."

The world is made up of things. Enjoy them. But don't rely on them- after all they are just things.

Another deal, another day

I originally had an awesome idea for a very reflective, deep post- unfortunately, though I started to write it, I think I started to late as all my awesome ideas were failing to form on the screen.

Instead I decided I would take you on a tour of what my days look like now. And since this may bore many of you, I brought pictures!

Below I give you a tour of my week. Of course, the way I keep track of all this is with my lovely secretary, Miss LG-VX9800. By now just about everybody has met her, but heres a picture anyway:

Monday

Get up at 8:00am. I need a place for my recycling business to grow outside of the garage, I set up a meeting last week to look a place in Nashua. Its at a decent location, has a loading dock, has 1000 sq ft. with alot of room to grow AND its at a good price bracket. The only negative about this property is that its right near the river and in the basement. This year and last, it flooded to about my chin. This makes it tough to sell. But its also one of the reasons I love it: Since copper and aluminum don't rust, flooding means maybe at worst moving the steel and tools out of the space once a year, and at best a bargaining chip for a lower price. So I'm excited about the property- it looks like a great place to chop of transformers like this one:

Went to a computer store, bought a cooler a contact wanted in exchange for some scrap. Then I pulled into a car tuner store and asked them how much to install some body kit parts. My truck, glorious though it may be, is not going to be with us much longer. I want to get a stable commuter and a big cargo carrying vehicle. For the commuter, I have my eyes on this hott 1993 Honda Prelude. What makes it so utterly attractive to me is that its butt ugly right now- half of the body kit is installed but not painted, and the back end isn't installed. All the parts come with it though, and the guy wants to sell it. I can probably trade the truck in to him and get it for $400 or so. That leaves me room to throw the body kit on and paint it, and get a cargo vehicle. See? Responsible and practical...

Okay, I'll admit- this car is drives and looks AMAZING too. Heres a stock Prelude from the same year (complete girl with freaky death stare):

Not too bad looking, eh? Yeah, well if I get the one I'm looking at, the body's been all tricked out and looks way cooler.

Anyway, after getting the quote from that dude, I went home and ate, then left to work at [AwesomeCo] till 11. Came home and watched two episodes of "The Office" with my sister. Went to bed around 1 someting.

Tuesday
Got up at 9:00am, I think. Met my old economics teacher at 12:00pm to let him hawk me insurance. The cool stuff about this insurance (Perm) is that you can do stuff with it. Unlike regular (term) insurance, you are actually putting money into something you own. It gathers interest and you can even withdraw money from it like a bank account. The cool part is its tax differed- so you don't get charged for the interest you earn like in a regular account (such as my ING Direct). He bought lunch (score!) and I had a good time.

After that we walked down the street to a Practice where he introduced me to his lawyer, whom I might very well use for my upcoming business venture. I got to ask him a few questions and got his pricing and contact info for later.

Left Manchvegas, went back to Salem and got to work for [AwesomeCo]. Got out at 11, went to bed about 12.

Wednesday
Got up at 8:00am. Left at about 10:00am- picked up a large wad of cash at the bank, then headed off to Antrim, NH. I had seen a guy trying to sell several computers on craigslist for awhile and I finally emailed him and started haggling over a group price. After a lot of going back and forth, we decided I would just and settle the price once we got there. Obviously, both of us thought this would be in our favor. Obviously, one of us was wrong.

Sadly, I think I was the loser here.
1. I had committed to driving there (about an hour and ten minutes both ways), so I wanted to leave with something. No longer did I have the advantage of no connection, where I could take it or leave it indifferently. I had already invested time and gas into it, so that would affect my decision.
2. The stuff was all newer hardware. It was still used, but it was way better then scrap. Pentium 4 stuff. I have never really flipped this kind of thing before.
3. The guy was firm as a rock with his price. I barely got him down at all.

Some of the stuff I from the Craigslist guy in Antrim.

Hopefully I can flip the stuff, or I'm out a sizeable amount of cash. I'm working on it... we'll see. If not, hey- another expensive lesson. As much as I love an education though, I really would have rather bought a car instead...

Went to work at 3. I made my first almost major mistake. There is this ONE file that I check around 3:30 every day. I go in, check for it, then start a script that sends it out to another company. I record how long it was, wait for them to send a report back to us, then print it out. The report should say "no errors" and if it does I staple it to a form, put an initial and I'm done for that check. Simple stuff.

Well, when I first learned to do this, the guy who taught me showed me that he also checked the bottom of the file to see if it also said "no errors". Every other day I did this. Today, I did not. At 9:00 something the company called because they had just realized that their server had run out of room and never got the file all the way. Thats bad on their end, but we should have realized that right after we sent it out. I went back and looked at the print out... at the top it said "no errors" ant the bottom it had a specific error. Oi. Not cool. I worked with the other company to get the file resent and and had to write an email to the morning team explaining what happened. Got out as usual at 11, came home, ordered lunch for thursday via email (explained below) and got to bed.


Thursday
Got up at 8Am. At about 10:00 I got a call from a friend who told me the church was throwing away two EKG machines in if I didn't want them. I told him I did. I got there at about 11:20, loaded the two machines (which actually turned out to be EEG machines) into my truck and was off to my next meeting.

The two machines loaded into my truck. This ballance of this is even sketchier then it looks...

Thanks to an invite from my economics teacher, I have been going to these Business networking lunches in Manchester since last week. Every Thursday, people from all these businesses from around the Granite state get together, eat lunch, talk about their businesses and socialize. Basically the idea is that by establishing relationships with each other eventually everyone gets good referrals- not just from each other, but from people that everyone in the group comes in contact with. They only allow one person from each niche join so it is really a great deal for everyone involved. They didn't have a recycling broker niche yet, and I was formally accepted into the group on this fine thursday.

After the meeting ended at 1:00pm, I shot out to pick up some servers from a guy I met through craigslist. Over the past month or so I have bought out his entire collection (about 90) of PCs and sold them out to my scrap contact. The first 20 I bought I lost money on. The next 20 I made a solid trade with and the one after that I made over 200% profit. This time, I was picking up servers and he haggled me a bit on the price. There were only about 10 of them, but it was a challenge to get them all in the truck around the giant EEG machines. I ended up putting a lot of them behind my seats and about 4 on the passenger seat. The truck was loaded.

After loading up there, I turned around and shot off towards Smitty's new place. Smitty- or "Slick Smitty"- is the nick name for the guy who I usually sell electronics and computer scrap too. His real name is Sean, but when I first met him I thought he looked like a new york watch dealer... I told this to Jim who later referred to him as Slick Smitty, and the name stuck.

I got there at about 2:10ish and unloaded all the PCs. I bought them for $100. At 25 cents a pound, I sold them for $160. Not bad... at least it was a quick flip. The guy that was unloading the stuff started eyeballing the EEG machines.

Look at all those purty switches and knobs...

"Interested in these?" I asked.

"Well yeah I am pretty sure we are... don't know how to price them though, never done an EKG before."

We proceeded to agree that I could store one there and I would talk to Smitty about price later. It solved the problem of the big machines rattling against another in my truck and falling out, since I could lay the remaining unit down on its side. I then realized that it was 2:40 and I was still in Auburn. I got in the vehicle and shot out like a rocket, trying desperately to make it to [AwesomeCo] before 3:00.

On the way I got a call from Leah.

"Can you drop me off after the movie tonight?"

My mind pulled a blank for half a sec, then I realized that I was going to the midnight showing of Spiderman 3 with her and other friends.

"Yeah, no problem." Shoot, I thought I better buy my ticket.

I went down 93 much faster then I would advise anyone going in my ailing truck, but with my file checking goof last night this was NOT the day to be late. I got there only a few minutes late and no one seemed to care. I was a bit tense for a bit, running through my checks and checking my email. After things calmed down, I bought my ticket. Then Abi decided to join so I bought them again. This was all fine... until I left.

I started the truck up and was about to peel out when I noticed a weird feeling... a kinda dragging, tilting feeling. I stopped the vehicle and looked out to see exactly what I was hoping it wasn't: A flat. Greeeat.....

I called up Abi and ordered an extraction. She laughed, but complied and got over double quick.

Friday
Long story short, we saw the movie (it was good), but then Jarin had to stay at my place because he couldn't drive home after 1. This is fine and good but for some reason we ended up having more tea and talking in lou of sleep. I got to sleep at about 4am. I got up at 7:40am, a bit panicked- I wanted to be in Deerfield by 9:00am.

I was going to an event called NEAR-fest- basically an amateur radio festival and general geek swap fest/flee market. I had gone to an event called "HOSStraders" last year which was very similar, but this event has basically taken its place. Jim found out about each of them. He also found that on the forums, people were discussing what to do with the spare electronics and things left over.

As you may have figured out, I had some ideas. I offered them a solution and I talked to the organizers. As a show of good faith, I got there early Friday Morning (the first day of the festival) even though I didn't get any scrap. Jarin came with me that day, and I picked up Anders as well. It was a good time. Went back and worked at awesome co. at 3. Got to bed late again.

Saturday
I wanted to get up early this day so I could go replace the tire on my truck and still be in Deerfield by 9 for day two of the flea market, so I set my alarm to 7. My body had other plans- I woke around 8ish. Semi panic strucken, I got dropped off at the parking lot of [AwesomeCo] and finnished the job. Talked to a coworker I haven't seen in since I left the graveyard shift, then went back home. It was past 9 by now and I just accepted the fact that I'd be late.

Called up Jim and Brandon and we eventually met up and caravaned out of Londonderry- it was pretty crazy: Two 15 passenger vans with the seats taken out, on our way to get us some junk. With those two beasts we could have singlehandedly shut down 93 if we wanted.

Anyway, much longer story somewhat shorter, I ended up taking more then half of the electronic scrap. We filled both vehicles. We probably could have packed one of them to the top if it wasn't for our scrap lord rivals- the enemy in his giant truck, having others go around for him on a tractor picking up stuff. We would see the little JohnDeere operated by the cleanup staff and try to beat it to the good stuff. Or if the other guy wasn't around when the tractor came by, we'd just help them unload it into our vehicle. At first I wasn't so gutsy, because I was under the assumption that we were going to do some sort of civil "split the bounty 50/50" type of thing because of a previous oral arrangement. But after I finally talked to a coordinator and he said it was pretty much every man for himself, I knew what to do. We drove around that place like the scrap ninjas- One of us would patrol the grounds with the vehicle, then when we would see something we would barely stop the vehicle before the other two would jump out and grab the target, throw it in the van, jump back in and speed away before anyone else was the wiser. This was not with out danger:

Brandon was a bit new to the acceleration characteristics and apparently thought the van wasn't going to take him seriously when he stepped on the gas. It did. I having no warning, flew back screaming while desperately trying to find something to hold onto and landed on a military grade "radio fax machine" machine just long enough to tear my shorts and start to cry out in suprise and pain. Hearing this, Brandon slammed on the brake which thankfully saved me from further damage by throwing me back on my feet, at which point I was able to catch a passing seatbelt and die. The whole thing lasted only a few seconds but was the source of endless jokes for the rest of the evening.

Got back to my place at about 5 or 6 and unloaded both vehicles. Thats a story in itself- suffice to say, between our two vans and my truck we heavily damaged the cosmetics of one vehicle and invented a new budget dumping method with another. Stay tuned for that- Youtube videos should follow.

After this I went with Brandon and Jim to his house where we... looked...at some stuff from his work. IT WAS REALLY COOL- wish I could tell you guys about it. I am part of a semi paranoid company so I can sympathize with Brandon's and their wishes not to run on about this stuff, but its really a shame. You all would enjoy it, I'll just say that.

*looks around *
I hope I haven't said to much...

_--__-_
And that my friends, was last week. In
closing, and to thank those of you who got this far, here is a picture of a "Shatter proof blade" that I shattered while cutting through a transformer. Enjoy.

Automotive woes, part the second

Okay, so now I have guilt. I felt a little stupid putting in that plea for comments, much for the same reasons that everyone so rightly threw it back in my face: Write it and they will come. Returning to a site that doesn't update is boring. So, my apologies- BUT! It worked. I didn't have to analyze the logs to figure out who was hanging around. So my plan worked, even if it was pretty stupid.

Alright now- on to the second story. And since you all have been so good to me, I shall deliver it in rhyming verse.

Once upon an interstate
Once upon a time there was a boy named Zed
Who was given a truck not at all very red
This truck came to him as if heaven-sent manna
But was oddly colored as if a banana

One morn our hero rushed off like a riot
His engine roar breaking the still morning quiet
He had to get to a parking lot and get there fast
To pick up his friend, so he wailed on the gas

His friend would be waiting for Zed to come
To help work for Zed's client and not be a bum
And help Zed he would, but not quit on time
And not even as planned on Zed's Gasoline dime!

This fateful morning on interstate 93
The one thing all drivers hate happened, you see
"What could that be?" you beg as you ask
Well tell you I will, for that is my task-
To tell you the tale of what happened so fast
When poor boy Zed pressed down on the gas.

The truck shuddered and sputtered,
It whined and it cried
And some swear it muttered
"I wish Zed had already died"

Long story short, Zed pulled over his truck
Tried to start it again, but no luck- it was stuck
He called and got help from Anders mother so Kind
He called the client, and they did not even mind!
Zed had the truck towed to a lot then went on with his day
To later drop in on the shop, to talk and to pay

"So there he is" the mechanic said in a jest
"Do you think its the tranny?" Zed asked, not suspecting the best
"I think its something simple, not something big for the most...
I don't think its serious. I don't think that its toast."
When this beam of light landed on zed, he had a new hope
That he would not have to drop 2 grand for a used truck like a dope.
At any event they were just starting to close for the day,
So Zed's was told to call him tomorrow and they'd figure the pay

The next morning Zed dialed the number and waited with out-held hope
Only to hear the mechanic laugh out what happend-

"You ran out of fuel, you dope!

-_----_-_-

True story.* In my defense, I was calculating my fuel consumption off the tripometer (the fuel gauge broke some months ago). By my calculations, I had 30 to 40 miles left. Thats why the thought of running out of gas hadn't even crossed my mind. I did run it in 4 wheel drive a bit during one of the snow storms, but I didn't think that would throw off my calcs that far.

I think its because my fuel tanks leaks fuel when you fill it up all the way. Yup- I started paying more attention and found out it drips gas if you fill it all the way. So I've started refueling it in smaller doses and more often...so far, it seems to be working.

But just in case, I now always carry about 3 gallons of gas with me in the truck. Never again I say!

------------
*Sort of. The events are mostly true, but not quite verbatim. For example, Zed's mechanic does not actually call customers "dopes", and cool as he is, he does not talk in rhyme.

I may have shot the clutch, but I did not shoot the depuzeke

So, some have accused me of being the anti-blogger.

Yeah, I don't really have any defence. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Whats been up recently? Welll... Work has been great but has kept me busy (I suppose thats what its there for). I went to an AMAZING fort Pastor concert, and they solidified in my mind how awesome they were. They are just such real, honest, nice people. They remembered us. And a guy from SoulFest was there, and he remembered us too. How cool is that?

Concernting the title, yes I know its basically the lamest title EVER. But I paid for it, dang it.

You see, I was getting onto the highway with my good friend Mike, taking him home. I was going in my dads car, which is a manual, which I recently learned to drive. Or maybe not.

As I was pulling out of the stop light on to the on ramp, I thought "Wow, this thing really is going today- look at that RPM shoot up!" and I had to shift faster to account for the faster rev up. Which I thought was pretty cool. It sounded more like a sports car. Shifting can make you feel pretty cool when your not bouncing around in a parking lot trying to get into first. Thats a fact.

But of course, by the time I got into 5th I realized that I wasn't going as fast as the RPM would have me beleive. In fact, in 5th, I wasn't passing 50, and my RPM was almost redlining. About that time, Mike asked "Dude, do you smell that?" to which I replied like any good friend "SHUT UP! DON'T even joke about that.... you must just be smelling the heater. I don't smell anything."

But as I could tell something was up, I pulled over. THEN I smelt it. "Great." Juustt great. I tried putting it into gear again... I had to have that thing up to 4000 before it would budge. "I'mmmm in trouble. Can I borrow your cell?"

Long story short, my dad came and towed us out. In the van. With a tow cable. Yeah, it was pretty cool. I drove the van, with a line of communication constantly open between the vehicles, courtesy of Mike's cell. I would warn him when I was going to break, he would tell me if I was going to slow or if I needed to move a little more off the shoulder, etc. I towed him to the next exit, which thankfully happens to be the exit our mechanic is at.

So what happend? Welll.....

APPARENTLY, the clutch is designed to slip. This is what my dad told me when I asked him how on earth I was supposed to get a start going on a hill with out falling into the car behind me.

"No Zeke, you can take the clutch out a little bit to defeat the backwards motion... you don't have to go all in right away."

"OH! Like how an automatic is always going forward a bit when stopped!" says I.

"Yeah, sort of..." my dad replied, not realizing the chain effect this had on my brain.

APPARENTLY, your not supposed to slip the clutch for long periods of time. Say, on a hill, while waiting for a red light to change for thirty seconds. HUH, oops. Thats basically what I did for a day or two in Manchester. Heh, my bad!

I paid to have another clutch put in. The mechnic showed me what I did. I literally caught the thing on fire. Pretty funny actually.

So thats why I say I paid for my lame title. Though I didn't document that use. I did however, document the biggest portion I got out of this whole ordeal. On the memo to the mechanic, I wrote "An expensive lesson".

A Heinz Post

I call this my Heinz post. How come? Why, because I have to Catch up, of course!

The last post would have been okay I suppose, had I followed it up soon with another one and another one that were just the same style. But left as a final note on a marriage, it is a tad underwhelming. My apologies.

Because of the lateness of this post, I will change from doing a play-by-play recap of the previous day in a roughly chronological order, to simply giving you the highlights from the days I didn't blog yet. I will even add bold headers to the different sections as a gift to you guys, so if you get bored of reading geek stuff then you can skip to right where you want to go. Okay... commence tomatoey sauce- NOW:

Keep'n it White and Nerdy
Originally, dX wanted me to bring down my computer, so we could kick it in Counter Strike like old times, but I told him their was no way I could seriously game on that thing. It is...lacking. I am too ashamed to even post the specs on this blog...not that I game very much these days anyway, but I do appreciate and use the power usually.

I have been needing an upgrade now for awhile, so one of the ideas I had was that I could build a system while down there and ship it back. But when you boiled it down, it really didn't make any sense- I would be paying way to much, rushing myself into the purchasing, limiting my choices, and probably end up using some of the money I wanted to use for his gift. I didn't decide this, though, until after I got there, so I had brought my own optical drive with a windows XP CD, as well as a spare hard disk of questionable lifespan. But thats another story.

And so, being the easy going guy he is, dX took the news in stride. It turns out, he had accumulated a collection of computer pieces since he had moved out there, so we decided to REALLY kick it like we used to: Spend some quality time with the hardware on a makeshift bench, and Electro-static precautions that would make a QA representative faint. I'll spare you the details of building the box, but it was a lot of fun. dX and I hadn't really gotten down and dirty with a system like that in awhile, and we both agreed that it was our quickest build ever- when we actually sat down to work on it, we finnished it up in a few hours. And it was unnaturally fast- we had scrounged up 128 MB of ram, and put it in a 400 mhz P2 system with a crummy old 32 MB ATI card, but the thing FLEW. I kid you not; it was more responsive then my current system at home. And oh yeah; we loaded it up with XP. I cut down the services that ran considerably, but still- it was an impressive feat. I used it as my own system, and when I left he gave it as a gift to his sister.

People who don't smoke and cars that do
The night before the wedding, dX had a little party with me and a few friends. I hate to call it a bachelors party because of all the pejorative connotations that come with that term, but thats what he called it so that I suppose is what it was. Basically, it was a bunch of guys, hanging out, laughing, eating pizza and dorritos, and playing Game Cube. It was alot of fun.

A guy named Fritz and I both needed to get some money from an ATM to help pitch in for pizza. Since Fritz was was the first one there, we decided to all duck out for the errand and get some snack goodies while we were out.

"Can we take your car- is it running okay?" dX asked.
"Well, the radiator is a bit leaky... hows yours?" Fritz responded.
"Oh, just a leaky radiator? Psh, my alternator might be going..."
"Okay cool, we'll take mine".

Ahh, those fateful words. The radiator turned out to be more then a little issue, and it got very bad by the time we had got to our first stop. Steam was coming steadily out from the hood. We decided to stop by an auto store. They were pretty sure it was the cap on the radiator, so we picked up another of those and some radiator fluid. When we added just a little bit of the fluid, the thing fired up like a smoke generator- steam clouds erupted violently into the night. It did this for several minutes, until it was finally cool enough to put the fluid in. There was much laughter, and I was heard to say "DUDE- where's a camera when you need it? I'm SO blogging this."

We finally got the fluid in the radiator, and it seemed to improve with the new cap. We drove a very short distance to Wal-Mart from there, and as we were cruising through the parking lot, Fritz kept looking back in the mirror. "Dude," he said "Am I smoking?"

When we parked and got out, we found- quite graphically- that we indeed had been. It wasn't like something was on fire, it wasn't a black smoke- but the tail pipe was emitting enough emissions to make Al Gore cry. dX thought perhaps the O2 sensor was faulty. I just sat back and wished I had a camera again- the smoke from our tailpipe was even more fantastic then the radiator. It rose slower and lingered more. You could literally see our trail from the auto store to Wal-Mart, rising slowly into the heavens. When we drove, it must have looked like we were the world's slowest rocket powered car.

But wait, it gets better- when we headed back home, the radiator problem came back. With vengeance. Whenever we stopped at a stop sign, the steam from the hood would quickly flood the view from the windshield in less then a second, like our own personal fog area. Luckily there wasn't any other cars around at those intersections- we would stop, the view would disappear, we would go, and we could see. As long as we kept going at all, the steam was pushed around us.

When we parked I wished again that I had a camera. The vehicle was a sight to see. Smoke coming out one end; steam coming out the other. It was hilarious. Fritz ended up having it towed out of there in the morning.

Coffee, Coffee, everywhere and all the drops to drink
I think I mentioned before that many in the grooms family work at the a very nice local coffee establishment. Just in case your passing through some time, its called "Harbor lights". Personally, I think it sounds more like a cigarette then a coffee shop, but the atmosphere and quality of beverage more then makes up for the odd name (I mean, its KANSAS- there aren't any harbors to speak of). I told you already about the George's caramel mocha blast. I suppose that the rest of my experiences won't translate as well in print. I'll just say- Its a great place. They have books, and games out for you to use if you want to at both locations. Its a great atmosphere. OH! And I almost forgot-

They make custom soda's there. Yup- on demand. I had an irish creme soda- with (get this) whipcream. The groom's mum told me that about the custom soda's and made me one. I think its basically club soda/soda water with flavor shots on demand. I don't know exactly how its done, but I can tell you why its done- because they taste AWESOME. And whipcreme? On soda?

....

GENIUS!

I told everyone there "The boys back home will never beleive this- 'Whaa? Whipcream in soda? Your making that up!' and I'll be like 'No man really! Thats what they do in Kansas!' it'll be great."

Wedding

The wedding went off pretty much with out a hitch- well, sans of course, the Marriage of dX and his new Bride. But this, I'm told, was entirely intended.

I got to meet Sarah (dX's wife- man that is still weird to say), which was great as until this point I had never had the oppertunity. And she was a great person- Conesiur of coffee and music, edging a bit on the artsy side, yet able to love a geek and even having established some welding skills. I'm very happy for them.

Super duper suite
The wedding wasn't a huge operation, but it wasn't ghetto. It was still very nice, even if the couple wasn't made of money. Nate and I, for example, were basically their getaway vehicle. Get away to where? The Chateau (said with extreme accentation- shut up, its a word now), but of course! They were kind enough to bring up their suitcases and such so we got a chance to see the establishment. It was some high class stuff. The room's looked like something out of the imagination of a Disney set designer- I think their's was an "island escape" theme, complete with a huge front end of a ship that served as the balcony and bedroom, a giant jacuzzi and exotic trees and plants a plenty, shooting from everywhere. There was probably more, but we didn't really hang around to long...

Neil Gaimen Evangelism
I got to hang out with Nate a bit as well, (if you recall in a post previous, I dissconnected his family from the internet using his computer- always a great ice breaker) but that night and the next day, I got to spend some more time with him. It was a blast- Nate is a genius and (I had forgot) an Artist. He sketches quite often, always striving to better his craft. I was almost sure that he would appreciate Mirror Mask. I was going to bring it with me to watch before I headed out, but of course, being myself, I failed to remember to. But things turned out all right; after dropping off the happy couple, we took a jaunt down to the local video rental establishment.

On our way we discussed the pros of wearing suits. Originally, he had protested his general level of discomfort in the suit and that he didn't really look forward to wearing it. But by the time of the wedding, we had both noticed that it was quite fine indeed to be wearing the suits- not only were they comfortable as heck (I know, I know- its a misnomer, okay?), but they also gave us the strange urge to possess and use a Katana, a handgun, or (preferably) both. They just make you feel and look that cool. So on that note, we walked into Hollywood video, commenting that we were probably their best dressed patrons ever and joking to each other that we could just buy the establishment if the lines were too busy.

If you haven't seen Mirror Mask, I'm very sorry but there really isn't any good way I can explain it. I just ask that you go, look at the trailer, then rent the movie. Heck, you can even watch it for free in semi cruddy quality on Google Video, legally. Or, preferably, buy and watch the DVD. Whatever you do, watch this film- then you will know that it is indeed an amazing movie. And it will seen a foregone conclusion, that yes, OF COURSE, he loved the film.

And you would be right. He found it quite impressive. I also evangalized Regina Spektor to him, which I wasn't as sure about. But he recognized and appreciated her genius as well. He was fasinated by how expressive and subtle her face was in the videos. "I have to try and sketch her" he said.

And that, in a nutshell (a very large, approximately 2000 word nutshell), was my trip in Kansas. Happy? Good.

So. What happend with you guys while I was gone?

This is the picture post. But it isn't at the same time.

I was seriously intending on posting a whole bunch of pictures- of my work, of my truck and of my hat- yesterday. I had taken them all. I was quite pleased with myself. I merely had to upload them to my computer, edit out any identifiable information from [AwesomeCo] and upload them. It was going to be wonderful. It was going to be marvelous. It was going to be simple, and yet it was going to be so satisfying.

Then... the camera cable or the connector in the cheap camera I use to upload the images from had... "issues". Issues that caused it to loose power while connected- several times. Connection issues that caused it to literally ERASE all pictures on that 512 MB card. And so... all of the pictures are gone. In case you were wondering, the above picture was an interpertation of what I felt like and probably what I looked like when I found out all the files were gone. If I was a girl.

But, since I told you all I would have pictures, here you go:



I am a man of my word.

I just lost a billion words... give or take.

I was about one or two sentences away from finnishing a HUGE post. It was all about poetry, and I had it formatted beautifully, with exerts I had gathered from everywhere. It was LONG. It was probably coming up on three pages, at least. Then firefox crashed. BLOODY BROKEN BROWSER!!

I'll see if I can recreate it tomarrow. I can rebuild it. Better, badder, stronger. More better. Betterist. Dang, its late. Dang, I just lost a big post.

I will close this post with a type of poem called a 'fib'. I am not going to tell you what it is tonight (cause I just did, and then lost it), but here is a little 'teaser' if you will (and I hope you do):

It
Is
so late
All work lost
My sanity gone
Where, blogger, did it all go wrong?
The big bit bucket in the sky has ate my data

----

One
More
Strange Verse-
A poem.
Spot the pattern, try!
Perhaps soon now you will get it.