Bad Firmware and Bad Weather.

The two hot topics of this weekend, in descending chronological order.

I spent a lot of this weekend cleaning the garage (Julie says I am nesting…) but also just taking care of a whole checklist of things to do.  In the middle of all of this Julie discovered that there were certain websites that she could not connect to on our newly-built network powered by AT&T DSL and a Linksys WRT54G v6 wireless router.  I found out that I had the same problem on all our computers, and the websites I could not connect to were seemingly random (although it curiously included the linksys website).  I did some research and found out other people had similar issues using this router, especially with DSL.  So I disconnected the router and hooked a computer up to the DSL directly – worked great, no problems.  Add the router back in, and problem comes back.  So I did what any good computer geek would do – upgrade the firmware (which was tricky since I couldn’t connect to the linksys website).  But I downloaded the latest official firmware for the router, installed it, and everything worked great!  Seriously linksys, not impressed.

Speaking of not impressed, how about that weather Friday night.  So I was on my home Friday night when my Ford Contour started sliding and I guess I reacted poorly as I did a complete 180 turn (on a highway) and slammed into a concrete barrier.  To make a long story short, a tow guy took me off the highway where I could drive my car home, but it is not in wonderful shape.  The damage is pretty interesting – clearly the rear right side of the car smashed up (where it met the concrete wall) but also all of my headlights are shattered.  There are cracks on the fenders, and the driver side door has a hard time opening.  The worst part of it is a funny new sound the engine makes.  By funny I mean “you’ve got to be kidding me.”

The insurance guy comes this morning and we’ll see if my car is fixable or not.  My ecstatic joy at having our cars completely paid off will be punched in the face if I need to get another car.  Julie suggested I could get one with cup holders this time, and that would be really nice.  Forget a nice stereo, automatic windows, sunroof, all that stuff – just give me cupholders.  Honestly Ford, not impressed.

I apologize for the generally somber tone of this post.  May the rest of your day be filled with wonder and joy.  And joyness.

I did get my fall semester grades, and they were such that I will continue going to Seminary.  I was pondering this morning the ways that I have reacted to things that have not come naturally to me – either to work really hard at it or to immediately give up and move on.  Earlier in my life I played a lot of basketball, which (as my Dad likes to remind me!) did not come naturally to me, but I worked really hard at it and some a lot of progress.  When I first started playing drums (over 10 years ago!) nothing could have been more counter-intuitive, but I worked (and still work) really hard at it, and have had the greatest and most fun times of my life because of this.  Other things I picked up and immediately dropped – such as computer programming when I was in college (look how far that got me) which I decided was more work than I was willing to put into it.  My journey at Seminary so far is proving to be in this category of non-intuitiveness, and I feel like the awkward and uncoordinated kid trying to play a pick-up game, or like I’m sitting behind a drumset on a Sunday morning service in front of 300 people and praying that the song ends soon because of how badly I am destroying it.

This post is getting worse and worse.  I am going to just stop now.

Happy MLK jr day.