Car update

Here's an update on the status of the stolen car mess.

The police caught two more kids who were involved, one 14 and one 15, to go along with the 16 year old they caught on Saturday. Apparently the 16 year old was the ringleader, and the other two left because he was getting too crazy. The 16 year old has no insurance, and our insurance is taking the position that they won't cover it.

I don't know much about the legal system, never having spent much time on either side of the process. Apparently "suing for damages" is part of how the system works, in terms of the state requiring them to pay damages in cases like this. I didn't know that, figuring I'd have to get a lawyer and go after them on my own. The state can apparently garnish their wages and so on to enforce payment. On the other hand, what are the odds a bunch of teenage meth heads have wages? I still don't know how the whole thing is going to work, but I am thankful that Barry is taking care of it for us.

And so we're car shopping. We had planned on buying a truck this month and trading in the blue truck. Now we're keeping the blue truck and buying a lesser vehicle to replace the car. We're thinking small SUV, but we haven't shopped hard yet. Some have expressed concern that we might need "help" of some kind. I'd like to thank you for your concern, but we've got it handled this time.

I'll let you know as the situation develops.

Ups and downs, mostly downs.

Just a warning for the reader as they begin... I'm grumpy. Read on and find out why.

The most challenging of the PITAs that I am facing this week is that a 16 year old on meth stole my wife's car on Friday night. It was at my in-laws, and he took it right out of their driveway. There were apparently a herd of them, and they thrashed the heck out of my car to the point that it's now undrivable. The police found the car within three hours of my in-laws reporting it stolen (perhaps my first good experience with police). We still don't know the extent to which he or they will be held responsible, the extent to which our insurance will work for us (doesn't the very term "agent" imply that they work on our behalf? I think reality demands that we quit calling them "agents.") In the mean time, my in-laws are without a car that they were expecting for the short term, and we are without a car that we were expecting to use for the long term. We have no idea right now what the next few days or weeks will hold with regard to transportation acquisition, but it's going to be a PITA either way.

The second major challenge is that I am in the final class for my degree, a one week short course on systematic theology. It's like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. I haven't read enough, and the professor is one of the most difficult that the university has to offer.

The third major PITA this week is that I'm a hockey player playing golf today. I am good at my job, and I am 100% not interested in team sports. It's a challenge to be good at something, or even remotely invested in something, for which you have no passion. So far I've functioned well, but I'm beginning to feel the burden of a job I don't like. If I can pull this off, both personally and professionally, if I can succeed at something that I hate, there is nothing in the corporate world that I can't legitimately aspire to. If I care.

In the midst of all of this, I have taken a very scary step back toward church work. I have expressed interest in two major league church jobs. In comes the anxiety of whether or not I am competent, whether or not I want to go back to church work ,whether I'm competent or not, and whether I would or should even take that kind of job if it were offered.

The sole bright point, being consistently challenged by the aforementioned PITAs, is that last Wednesday was mine and Shana's ninth anniversary. We dropped the kids off at the in-laws, spent some time alone together, and in general had a very good time. We came back from the experience with a stronger connection that we have had in a while. Just in time for the @#$% to hit the fan, I guess.

*Exit Grumpy Rant Mode*

Proudly teaching the next generation of underwater dump truck drivers

I took the boys to the lake tonight while Shana was out playing bunko. Phantom has come up about 3 feet, maybe even four, and I thought the catfish might be biting. They weren't, but I took these cute pictures of the boys. We caught one tiny catfish and that was it, but they had a good time.

We're headed to Ivie on Saturday for the next Stillwaters tournament. I'm not looking forward to it, as I haven't had the chance to prefish at all. On the other hand, when I asked the magic 8 ball at Academy if I was going to win, it said, "Yes, definitely."

Our company has recently changed the standards on a whole bunch of merchandising issues. The result is that we have had to entirely re-work almost the whole department in about a week. The district manager is coming in tomorrow to check our compliance with the standards. It will be my first big test as a "real" manager.

I guess that's about it. I had a person email me about this blog, so I guess I had better update more than once a month... We'll see.