Flippin Sweet Dude

Erika and I have been in our home for about 14 years. When we moved into our home, we bought all new appliances ( and all kinds of stuff ), and they have been working great until the past few weeks. Erika came home to the dishwasher leaking all over the floor, so we replaced it. The next day the bathroom sink started leaking, so we ended up with a new sink and faucet. ( Had to rework the drain piping too. ) Disposal suddenly had a hole in the side wall, so we replaced it too. The next weekend the vacuum burned up, so we have a nice new one of those as well. The water softener was our next victim, we had a great time replacing that as a family.

We picked up the water softener about 8 pm, and then decided that it should be a quick fix. We quickly ripped out the old one, unboxed the new one, only to discover that it was 1 inch shorter. So we had to rework some copper piping. We also had this great idea to simply drill a hole in the bottom of the old tank, so all the water would drain out. This was a really bad idea, as it is filled with these tiny little beads that poured out all over the place, making a huge mess. We did get done before 11 pm, and it still left us with some time to play video games as a family.

This past week Erika got in a bit of a wreck with our new car, our furnace is not always starting up, and tonight our microwave seems to have taken a dirt nap.

I do have to say that I am optimistic about this, it has been a good reminder about what is really important in life. These types of things really do not matter too much. We have been richly blessed in our lives, and it is good that we can afford these simple luxuries for our family. Hopefully we will have 15 more years of great stuff, and then it may be time to relearn some of life’s lessons.

We have one of those picture frames that shows pictures from a thumb drive.  I always hate that you need to re-size the pictures to be smaller dimensions than your original image size.  

So I made a small application over the weekend to re-size all the images in a folder to be a fixed width. You can simply download this program, put all the images you want re-sized in a folder, and press the resize button and it will fix up all your images to work on your picture frame too.

It makes a new folder, and put the smaller images in it, and leaves your source images alone. It also allows you to pick what width you want, so it can be adjusted for different types of picture frames.

Benjamin and I got a new cell phone to share.  As usual, we got someone’s old number. Her name starts with a ‘B’, and we have got a few calls & texts for her.

Here is what we know about her:
- Her nickname was Bubbles
- She owes Rent A Center a ton of cash
- She has outstanding payday loans
- She might have sold drugs
- Her friends cash tills at work are often short cash
- She has not paid on her storage shed ( and I think it got broken in to )
- She might have a parole officer
- She makes a crappy reference for her friends when they want to borrow money

I also picture her:
- Renting movies from the ‘libary’
- Having trouble making rent on the  trailer
- Looking a lot like this …

Wrote this short story for the claims  specialist person at the insurance company.  Hope it brightens their day….

An Epic Bicycle Crash

By Aaron Searle 

July 4^th, 2012 – It was a nice hot July Independence day. My entire family had this great idea to go ride our bicycles together. That morning I had to make the important decision to ride my fixed gear bike, my commuting bicycle, my beater bicycle, or my shiny red road bicycle. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to take my road bicycle on our ride.

As you may or may not know, road bikes often have pedal systems that require you to wear special shoes that actually clip into the pedal. This allows you to ride really efficiently and fast. The down side is that you are required to ‘clip out’ of the pedals when you stop, in order to put your foot down on the ground. This requires you to turn your foot sideways, and pull it out of a bracket in order to release your foot from the pedal.

Towards the end of our family ride, my son Nathan, hit the brakes a bit harder than I thought he would, requiring me to do an emergency stop. I slammed on my brakes as best I could. I did not stop as fast as I needed and the very tip of my front wheel barely struck his back wheel. He had both his feet on the ground at the time, so he was stable to the ground, however I still had both my feet clipped in to my cool pedals.

The next few moments were really exciting. I have successfully hit his wheel going like 0.1 miles an hour, I have no momentum, lost my balance, and I am starting to fall to my right side. I tried like crazy to clip out and get my foot on the ground. I’ve been riding for years with this pedal system and never had any trouble. I tried to clip out with all my might, but had no luck at all.

Unable to put my foot on the ground, I slowly fell to the ground, landing with all my weight on my right elbow. My road bicycle still tightly clipped to my shoes, is now on top of me.

After a few moments, I finally get my shoes un-clipped from the bicycle. I do a quick check of the bike, making sure it is safe to ride and get caught back up with my family. After a mile or two more, I realize that I am hurt, and will require some medical help. So we finish up the ride, and my sweet wife took me to the doctor for x-rays.

In case you were wondering, the bicycle was just fine. Luckily it landed on me and did not sustain any damage. I named the bicycle Elbert, in memory of the great time we had together.  Also, I always wear a helmet, and I’m glad I did because I could have been hurt worse if I did not protect my head.

So there you have it. Hope that explains everything you need to know about how I crashed my bike and broke my elbow. BTW, don’t ever break your elbow, it hurts really bad and you can’t move it for weeks and that kind of stinks. The doctor would not let me ride my bike for 8 weeks, and that made me sad.

Here are some picture for the summer. From the top left:

My poor bruised elbow, out of the cast for over a month now, and still working on getting it working 100%. Took Erika to the arcade and played ‘The Simpsons’ game for like 1 hour. Sam Bush left on his mission to Japan. Nathan and his friend wearing the same shirt. Snake we found our running on morning. Tour de Utah, we all served as volunteer course marshals. Patang fighting kites from India. Us at the train museum up in Ogden. 1976 Bicycle restored to proper working order. Karma Bike Shop event last weekend. Last picture is my torture devise I’ve been serving time on the past several weeks.

Had a epic bicycle fall on the 4th of July. Broke my right arm at the elbow. On day 2 of healing and I’m just starting to feel better. It has been fun typing with my left hand, not being able to write, tie my shoes or be productive at all.

Erika is awesome and signed the boys up for the West Valley Fitness Center cardboard boat race today.  We spent most of the morning making two boats in the garage.  The boys boats were nearly identical, a simple design and looked pretty cool.  The race was wicked way fun to watch.  The boats floated for about 7 milliseconds, then folded in half, and the boys swam the laps while pushing/pulling the soaked cardboard and duck tape.  Here are some other boats at the race.  Nathan and Ben received the ‘Most Original Design’ award for their hard work.

Ran across this great article early in the week.  It is a well written article for everyone on the proper driving skills with cyclist.  I recommend every drive read it.

Just some early morning thoughts….

I’ve always had a great experience ( although initially scary or painful at times) when I did what was right. We have been working with our sons, teaching this principle and instilling this into them. It is tough sometimes to stand up for what is right, but the consequences are good, and knowing you did it is rewarding.

Sometimes it is standing up to the bully at school picking on someone for being a different nationality or race. Perhaps being the friend to the outcast, visiting those that need help, or speaking out against something you know is wrong. It may be hard, but standing up for what is right is what we all must do, even if we stand alone.

Now onto service…

Giving our time and effort to others has great reward. I’ve enjoyed volunteering my time leading teenage boys in Boy Scouts and other activities, teaching at my church, working on bikes for Karma Bike Shop, and serving at the local food bank.

Service give us the opportunity to help others, as well as to realize how blessed we really are. A good remedy for boys that only think of themselves, is to give them opportunity to go help those in need. Hearts are softened, perspective changed, attitudes corrected and deep inside their minds gratitude and respect for each other grows.

Find time to serve someone, there will be opportunity presented each day. Seize the moment and do good for someone around you.

The 2012 National Bike Challenge sounds pretty fun. Think our family will make a team.