The Daily Commute

It has been a week since I totalled my car and have been stuck sharing a car with my wife. Did I stay stuck? I have to admit that the first few days were a little rough, Trying to get Emily to school and then racing to work, but as I drove home tonight with Triann I had to stop and smile. With all that has been going on in our life recently we don't have a lot of time to just chat. We talk all the time, but it is usually about things that need to be done, or bills that need to be paid, or decisions that we need to make. Sitting together in traffic for 45 minutes has given us a chance to just catch up a little. We are piling together our resources now to try to find another vehicle, but I have to say I am hoping just a little bit that it takes a while, just so I can spend some more time hanging out with Triann on the daily commute.

Isn't it funny how things work out?

Well, on to plan B

I wrote yesterday that we had been denied by Cares based on our credit report. We found out today that it was because we had more than $8k in debt, and that is against their policies. Pretty bummed about the whole thing. I am not mad at Cares, but really confused about what I thought was fairly clear direction from God. Not much to do about it now other than keep pushing and try to come up with plan B. I guess in reality we are probably up to plan S or T by now.

With the car being totalled (I guess that is what you call it when the damage is 4 times more than what the car is worth) we had to do something with it so Triann made some calls and met a salvage guy at the body shop and sold the car to him today. We didn't get much for it, but anything is better than nothing.

Now it is time to put that in the bank and start adding to it to come up with another ride. I should be able to add some to that from the sale of some bike parts. That is an interesting story that I don't think I have shared. After the bank took the bike and it was sold at auction I received a letter in the mail from the guy that bought it. Not sure how he got my information but I was happy that he did. He said in his letter that he was sorry that I had lost my bike but that he would take real good care of it and that he noticed there were racks for bags on the bike and wanted to know if I was willing to sell them and if I had any other parts. I sent him back some prices for the bags and the other odds and ends I still had and we made a deal today. Again, not a ton but every bit will help. So that will be added to the funds from the BMW, the additional parts that I plan to sell on ebay or craigslist and our tax return. When that is all put together we will see what we have to work with. Triann and I both agree that a bike makes the most sense right now. I will be able to get a much more reliable bike for the amount we assume we will have in the account when all is said and done.

Back to housing. We signed a one year lease when we got here last year and Tara has been living with us and helping with the rent. She has now found a perfect apartment and has moved out. With our lease up in June, a 4 bedroom house and a higher rent than we are comfortable with it is time to find another place. We would really like to stay close to this area for Emily's school and for church but a little concerned at this point about how much trouble we are going to have finding a place based on the problems we had with Cares. Frustrating part is that even with outrageous rents we have had over the last 3 years (2100 and 1900/month in San Diego), we have never been late on a payment. I am not sure if that will be a compensating factor but praying that we can find something that fits the budget, is close to school/church and that will allow us to rent without paying for the whole year up front.

Not sure what inspiring words I can put at the end here. I am not overly inspired right now. I don't think I am as frustrated as I was yesterday but not on top of the glee wagon either. It would be so easy to start complaining and grumping about all of this (and maybe that is what I am doing here) but I am afraid that if I really start down that path I might not stop and that won't help anything. I can say today (couldn't yesterday) that I know we are still alright. We are alive, Triann is doing good, we have a roof and food and transportation so there is no justification in saying that He isn't watching out for us. It's just hard sometimes to keep watching certain things fall apart and not have any clue what is next. I know by now I should have that under control. I know that God promises to give us strength to get through and he has. So maybe this is a time to take inventory of all the things that we have and look forward to whatever the next challenge is. (knock on wood)

E

Which way is up?

I still owe two more posts about my trip to Phoenix and Triann's trip to Hawaii but the events of the last few days have me a bit distracted.

The bank took my bike back last month. I was unable to make the payments and there were no arrangements that we could make to satisfy the amount I was behind so my daily commuter was gone. I also had a ‘89 BMW 325ix that Triann's parents had given to us. I used this for a back up for snow or ice days when I couldn’t ride the bike. This became my new commuter. Yesterday morning I was driving to work (for the first time in 5 weeks). There was a black Mazda that was weaving in and out of traffic cutting folks off. I didn’t see the final part but after talking to the folks I found that the Mazda had cut in front of the car in the front of my little incident and the gal made a motion with her phone to indicate she was going to call and report him. The Mazda decided to brake check this gal. The gal was able to stop in time as was the explorer behind her, unfortunately the guy in the bmw (me) was a little slow to react and punched into the explorer pushing him into the impala. Luckily no one was hurt and there was very minimal damage to the explorer and the impala. a little different story for the bmw. the explorer had a hitch receiver that saved it from most damage but did quite a number on the font end of the bmw. The hood, bumper, radiator, shroud and both quarter panels were smashed. I called AAA and had them tow the car to the repair shop. It was after I called the insurance company to get a claim number for the repair shop that I found out that we did not have full coverage on the bmw. We had it in the past, until I turned but I had turned it down to liability only because I was commuting on the bike. When I took the bike off the policy last month I did not turn the insurance back up to comp. Bottom line was no coverage as the accident was my fault. I received the estimate from the shop today and the total for the repairs was 7500.00. The blue book on the car was 1800. Even if I could afford it I don’t think it would make a lot of sense to put that kind of money into the car. So in a month and a half I have managed to loose two vehicles. The hardest thing about this is that I can’t blame anyone for any of it. Yes the guy was screwing around and his road rage or whatever it was started the process, but I was the one that didn’t stop in time, and as much as I would like to get mad at my insurance agent for not reminding me that we hadn’t changed the car back to full, I didn’t check myself. It is much easier to point the blame somewhere else then it is to know that it was your fault.

In other news… We have been working on an application for Cares Team ministry (http://caresteam.org). This is an apartment ministry that places a couple in an apartment complex to provide social activities for the complex. The ministry is a hands and feet evangelism ministry, meaning that it is not about thumping people over the head with the Bible, but showing them by your actions and creating opportunities to share your faith through normal conversations. The ministry provides the apartment to the couple in exchange for 70 hours a month of even planning and activities. My cousin Laura and her husband Shane are in place currently and have done a great job of explaining the ministry and what is expected. As a result of the last few months Triann and I were concerned that it was more than we could handle right now and that maybe we were excited about it for the wrong reasons. With all that has been going on, the idea of free or reduced rent is very appealing and we were afraid that is the main reason we were wanting to do it. We weren’t sure if we really had the energy or commitment necessary to do it right. All that being said we had decided to stop our application process for now. That was until this last week. All this week if felt like God was pushing us to go for it. Daily readings, small group Bible study and the Sermon on Sunday all seemed like they were talking about this directly. After talking and praying about it we felt that God was truly calling us to do this and we were ready to trust him to give us the energy we needed to do this well. I had just submitted my application and was sitting in the family room with Triann when we both received an email from the area coordinator for Cares. The email explained that based on our background check/credit report they would need to deny our application based on their policies. There wasn’t any information about what it was that triggered the denial, but it doesn’t take too much imagination to figure it out. Between the repossession of my bike and all of the collection and charge off accounts I have accumulated over that last few years I am sure the credit report looks like a mess. I will call them in them tomorrow to find out if there is anything that we can fix or explain, but I am not holding out a lot of hope for it right now.

I have to admit that I am confused and pretty frustrated right now. I had given up on this whole thing, thinking that it wasn’t what we should be doing right now. Then I felt like God was pushing us to complete the application and go forward with the process, only to have it fall apart.

So between that and the fact that for the first time in about 12 years we are sharing a car I am having a real hard time keeping my chin up.

I think this is really what faith is all about. Trusting God even when you can’t see a good reason to do so. I am writing that out to try and remind myself. Right now I don’t want to trust, I don’t want to hold on for “the good thing right around the corner”. I am tired and feel like I can’t do anything right. I am mad and frustrated and disappointed and confused. AAARRRRGGGGHHHH

I know that there is more to the story, I know that it is not about things being easy or making sense. That knowledge, my loving and patient wife and all our experiences with God and his providing the things that we need (not what we want, but what we need) is what is keeping me afloat right now.

That’s all right now… another opportunity to write things out and chew on them as they hit the screen.

E

A Crazy 5 Weeks, Part I

Sorry for the long delay in posting, it has been a crazy 5 weeks. It started with a business trip to Monroe, Louisiana for 2 weeks. That is about 4 hours east of us so I was able to drive back and forth. The company rented me a car for the trip. With the travel company we are only able to set up rentals at local airports. Our airport is about 35 miles away so I decided to call Avis and change the reservation to a local shop closer to where we live. This seemed like such a good idea at the time, the only catch was that since it is a smaller shop the selection was a bit lacking. When I got there Sunday morning to pick up the car the only choice was an electric blue PT Cruiser.

I was not very happy about it but did not have the time to run down to the airport to change it out. The only bright spot (and it was a pretty big one) was that the car had satellite radio in it. I have had XM in the past and new that it makes a big difference on a real long trip. Anyway, the drive to Monroe was great. Nice scenery and a part of the country I hadn’t seen in years and I was able to listen to my old radio shows (The Shadow, Suspense, etc).

I tend to stay a the Residence Inn when I travel and found one in Monroe. The website said that it was close to a Railroad track but that measures had been taken to reduce the inconvenience. When I got into my room I found the “measures”… a set of earplugs and a personal sound machine, lol! I woke up the first night at 11, 12, 1, 2 and 3 not to the noise of the train (which was across the street) but to my bed bouncing around.

The Residence Inn offers a free breakfast buffet which is one of the reasons I like to stay there. It saves money and is convenient. The first day I went down for breakfast and the host asked me if she could help me with anything. She reminded me of the grandmother in Beerfest accent, long braids and all.

I told her I was good and I think I offended her. The whole rest of the week when I said good morning she would say “can I help you, oh that’s right, you can do it by yourself”. I really think I ticked her off. The guy at the front desk was a treat. Every day when I came back to the hotel he would ask me for my name. I would tell him and he would always say he couldn’t find me on the list. The genius tried to check me in every night. Now I don’t expect anyone to know my name, but wouldn’t you think that after a few nights you would recognize a guy and quit trying to check him in?

The first night I was there I ran over to Target to grab a part so I could plug in my X-Box (never travel without it). On the way out I asked the security guard for a good place to eat. He said he knew of a good pizza place. Said it was really good, but he was having trouble with the name. He finally got it out and it was Sbarro’s in the mall food court. It was 9pm on a Sunday so I asked if the mall was still open. He said no and I asked if he knew of another place I could eat tonight. He said there was a great chicken finger place called Canes. I said that sounded great and asked where it was. He said the mall food court. I reminded him again that it was closed and that I was looking for some place to eat right now. After this he thought for a minute or two and said that his uncle had a BBQ stand. Now this was exactly the kind of place I was looking for. I asked where it was, and he told me it was down the road behind a gas station and that I had to get there early, he was only open during weekdays between 11 and 2… I smiled and told him I would check it out and went out on my own to find someplace to eat.

Having all my complaining out of the way (it’s only there to give you something to chuckle about) I had a great two weeks. I have to say that the folks in Monroe were some of the nicest I have ever met. Always saying good morning and how are you in the office and out on the street.

After a quick weekend at home (and two more 4 hour drives) I ended up changing to the Courtyard and was able to sleep. I had some of the best food of almost any trip I had been on. There were more local hole in the wall restaurants there then I had seen in a long time and I spent my week eating my way through them all. My favorite was Rays PEGE. They made Po’ Boy sandwiches and my favorite was the fried shrimp Po’ Boy. I have already thought about driving back out there just for that sandwich.

My class was great and the management out there was incredible. I met some real great folks that will be good contacts in the future. I think we did a good job. I checked in with them last week and it sounded like they were all up and running which is the goal so I think it was a success.

Part II and III soon to follow.