Air Car - The Car of the Future?

Dad just sent me this video (Thanks Dad!) - who knows, maybe we'll be filling our car tanks with compressed air in the future? I think it would be awesome. There is still energy required to compress the air, but it seems a lot less expensive to compress air using electricity than to run an engine on gasoline.

Busy Week Update

Work: This is one of the three most busy and draining weeks of work each year. It's our fall training so I switch from sitting and working primarily on my computer each day to standing and interacting with people I don't know for three days. The three days of training actually mean that we spend the entire week on the class because we set up on Monday and will tear down some on Friday. This first day of class went well today - only two more days to go and it will be over again! I don't know if it's the teaching and interacting with people or the standing or the mental and physical preparation that makes this week tiring. But it does pass and it actually usually goes pretty well.

Car: My car seems to enjoy being repaired on Tuesday. Dad graciously replaced my car's cooling fan tonight. It decided to quit working yesterday as I drove to their house for Dad's birthday. I'm sure fixing a car wasn't exactly the birthday present Dad wanted! I hope that this Tuesday trend doesn't continue

AWANA: Tomorrow is my first full night of teaching AWANA. Each evening I have the 1st grade sparks class for one hour. The hour is the "counsel" and "sections" time. Churches do AWANA many different ways. In my church, section time is done by listeners pulling the children out of the class rooms to a hallway where chairs are set up. There the children say the verses to the listeners. Usually we have about 3 listeners and about 18 children in Sparks. So, for most of the hour, each teacher has the majority of their children in class. Last week I had 8 sparks in my class, so I will probably have a minimum of 5 children at all times. I like to have 3 or 4 activities that fill the hour I have in the classroom. We begin sparks with pledges and songs and soon break into our grade level classes. This year I am again using science experiments to illustrate Bible concepts. I am also once again using memlok's Say the Books during the hour to teach the books of the old testament. Say the Books has a running story line that we read, actions to learn, and coloring sheets as well. In past years, I've used the Sparks flannel graph stories, but this year plan to use other missions related stories. Ivory asked about the science experiment we did last week. Since I'm making a handout with a slightly shorter version of the experiment each week, I'm going to post the experiments here for reference for others. I've really enjoyed doing experiments in the past with the children. Experiments seem to be something they really remember and look forward to.

Church: We had a board meeting tonight (between work and picking up my car). Tomorrow after AWANA I need to see what was causing the wireless mike to make some noise on Sunday. I also need to get some more batteries since the rechargeable once I bought last year have more than once failed before the end of a sermon.

So those are the things on my mind this week. It will be over before I know it - busy weeks always go by quickly.

Cars and Dads

Cars and Dads make a nice combination - especially if your Dad is able and willing (as mine is) to help you out when your car is making a new noise or being a little greedy with its fluid needs. I hate having to drop my car off at a mechanic to get it fixed. It's a pain to find rides or even to feel like I'm bothering my family by borrowing a car from them. I also dislike feeling stupid when I don't understand what the mechanic says is wrong or know what the answer is to the kind of tires I want (good tires - but not too expensive?). Somehow being a mechanical engineer did not suddenly make me knowledgeable about all car parts though that sure would be nice!

I guess I don't hate fixing cars enough to drive a nicer one. My car standard thus far in my life is to buy something that is not any older than the year I first drove ('94) , that looks ok and gets me where I need to go, doesn't cost a fortune (defined as more than I have in my car savings category at the moment), and is not a "tank". That includes a huge range, but so far I've only bought two vehicles and both of them happened to be '94 Saturns. Both of my Saturns have/had problems with oil leaks and odometers that don't work. My last Saturn had noisy brakes and my current Saturn developed a coolant leak.

I only got rid of my previous Saturn due to a problem it suddenly developed upon my turning left at an intersection in 2005. I'm still not exactly sure how I missed seeing the car that was obviously right there, but it was quite an experience to wake up disorientated in an ambulance. I'm thankful to God for sparing me from injury by allowing my back wheel to absorb the impact instead of the drivers side door. After that wreck, I ended up getting another '94 Saturn that Dad and I found.

Now leaking fluids is not necessarily a big problem. I'm used to adding oil every other time (or so) that I get gas. But when I went from adding coolant every few months to every month, then every week then every few days, I knew that it was finally time to do something about it.

I asked Dad about possibly borrowing a car for a few days so I could drop of my car somewhere and get it fixed, but he had an even better idea. He graciously swapped cars with me for a day, picked up a radiator from a place he knows, got extra coolant and then installed it for me last night. Talk about amazing generosity! I "helped" a little as he installed the radiator and enjoyed the time we had to talk and work together on the project.

Now this is obviously not the only reason I love my dad, but I do believe that this is a good time to say that I love you Dad! and I think I have the best Dad in the world!

Thanks Dad!