leapinggnome.org

Welp, many things have changed for me since the last time I posted an update on this site. School at MTU started a long time ago, and this Fall semester marked the first Fall that I was not enrolled in classes at Tech. Work has been crazy, with our office moving once and then me moving in to my own office. But that’s settled down a bit, and I’m working on some interesting projects.

I snapped this picture a week ago in Copper Harbor, MI. I felt like going for a drive after church – the weather was nice and there was good music on the radio. Partially thanks to a busy schedule, I didn’t get a chance to motorcycle up to Copper Harbor at all this fall. So I took my car for a nice little ride, and walked along my favorite stretch of beach for a while. There’s actually a freighter way out there on Lake Superior, but it’s almost impossible to see in the picture. There won’t be many more freighters coming through, as the Soo Locks will be closing for the season.

The weather was sunny, almost warm and very calm last week. Very peaceful, but I definitely got the sense that less peaceful weather was on the wing. Sure enough, last Wednesday we got a couple inches of snow, and it even stuck on the ground for a while. The days are getting extremely short, winter will be blowing down our doors (and through our coats) very soon. To quote scripture from Ecclesiastes:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:1,11a

Many months ago, I borrowed the book Saint from a friend of mine. I had heard of the author Ted Dekker before, he is a well respected fiction author in many Christian circles. The book is very action-packed. Probably spends a lot more words on a romantic relationship than I would normally prefer. I did finally make it to the end of the book, and did enjoy it. I didn’t decide that I wanted to finish the book until I was at least 1/3 of the way in – another hint that the book is probably a little bit wordy/slow moving for me.

There were a couple parts of the book I did really enjoy. Probably my favorite quote from the book is on page 274. As you’ll see, the main character Johnny is in a bit of a depressed state:

He walked into the canyon, bearing an ache in his heart that hurt worse than any needle he’d received through the shoulder…
He felt nothing but utter loneliness.
He wanted Kelly to come and hold him.
He wanted to die.

It’s a feeling I think I can sympathize with. In my lowest moments, I have similar thoughts rolling through my mind. It’s a couple pages later that Johnny learns that his purpose in life is not to be happy, but to selflessly love others.

Honoring God by loving others is our purpose in life. I would encourage checking out 1 Corinthians 13 for a quick refresher on what this kind of love looks like. Done properly, I think it will bring about the most complete kind of happiness.

So for the last year or so my car has been making a humming noise, starting at about 30 MPH and increasing in pitch/intensity the faster I go. This noise has also been gradually getting louder, and I finally decided to do something about it. A consensus of mechanically-inclined people led me to believe the problem was the wheel bearing.

The noise sounded like it was coming from the passenger side front tire, so I grabbed a wheel bearing from Auto Value for ~$75. Swapped it out, hopped on the road…and my car was still making noise. I’m not sure if the noise changed at all or if it was just in my head, but it sounded like the noise was now coming from the front driver’s side wheel. Another $75 and a couple hours of work later, both the front wheel bearings on my car are brand new – and the noise is gone!

Picture 1 shows the old and new passenger side bearings…quite the difference. I’m not sure how bad the old bearing was, but the seals appear to be on their very last legs, so it didn’t have long to go even if it wasn’t bad yet. Picture 2 shows the bad wheel bearing from the driver’s side. It actually started coming apart when I used the puller to remove it. It’s for sure shot.

So happy to have a healthy-sounding car again!