Author: Lee

A Dream Come True

Ever since I was a kid I have had a huge fascination with motorcycles.  Some of it was the fact that I never had one.  My best friend had one for a while, and I rode it like it was mine.  When I was 14, my dad bought the scooter my friend had at the time.  He in turn got a brand new one.  After a few months, someone sabotaged it.  I couldn’t get it started again.  I ended up selling it for $400 and bought a Sony Discman with it.  That’s right kids, CD players (especially portable ones) used to be really expensive.

It was a worthy investment.  I had that Discman for around 10 years.  I left it doing what it did best, spinning CD’s to play for customers at Big Red Liquors.

Back to the point.  That seed that was planted in me as a child never went away.  I don’t know if it was my mind yearning for times gone by, or if I just enjoyed motorcycles that much.

Due to my epilepsy, nobody felt comfortable with the idea of me even owning one, let alone riding one.  I understood, but wasn’t happy about it.  Since I’ve had my VNS implanted, I’ve only had 1 seizure due to me not taking my medicine.

A friend of mine was selling his motorcycle, and what blew me away is that it was my wife who suggested I look at it.  Any previous attempts to bring that subject up would be presented with “the look.”  I decided to pass on his, but since I had her “on the line” I thought I would keep looking, and I ended up falling in love.

I found an 1982 Honda CB750SC, commonly known as a Nighthawk on Craigslist.  It wasn’t perfect, and it’s almost as old as me.  The owner had done some customizing to it, which really makes it stand out.  After some back and forth about hearing it run, which I finally did, I bought it.

There’s just something about newer motorcycles that I just don’t like.  I think a large part of it is the lack of chrome and character I see in affordable models.  Harley’s look nice, but I’ve already got 1 mortgage.

As of right now the motorcycle is in pieces.  I’ve had to do a complete cleaning of the carburetors, the front brakes are not working and I’m having some work done to the plastic panels on it.

I can’t wait to get out on the road with her.  I just need a good name.  I’m hoping to have it road worthy by mid summer.  Just enough time to get some riding in.

Preparing for the Big One

Through the years I’ve wrote a lot about my on-going home renovation projects.  I’ve done so many that I’m now down to doing large projects instead of small “easy” ones.  Our bathrooms have been easily the most neglected spaces of our home.  We’ve decided to finally remodel them, they deserve it.

Our master bathroom, which is a half-bathroom needs the least work and will be done first.  It is by far the smallest room in the house.  Measuring in at 4′ x 6′, there isn’t much room for anything.


We’re adding texture to the walls as a quick fix.  Originally wallpaper was put up, but we took it down.  What remains is dried glue and many places where repair is needed.  With a little joint compound and some creativity – It’ll look beautiful.  Surprisingly there is a standard size double hung window in the room.  To give privacy the original owners installed plantation shutters.  Both of us hate them (especially in this room), so I’ll be applying some window tinting to give some privacy and save space.

The flooring is carpeted.  I would like to know what drugs people were on in the 60’s and 70’s that made them think that a type of flooring that likes to hold water was a good idea in a room with nothing but plumbing!  We haven’t decided what we are going to put in just yet, but it will probably be vinyl flooring of some type.

The only remaining items in that bathroom are the lavatory, medicine cabinet and lighting fixture.  One weekend Rachel and I went to our local home improvement stores and without an argument, agreed on almost everything we need.  We have some pieces that will be the same in both bathrooms, but each will have their own style.

The main bathroom is a completely different story than the master.  This bathroom was not built right to begin with.  When we moved into the house, the drain lines for the toilet and tub had to be replaced.  The tub surround is merely tile that has been glued onto the drywall.  Mold is in no short supply in this room.  I’ve decided that I’m going to gut this room except for the ceiling.  I expect some repair work will be needed on wall studs or joists.

 What we have decided, mainly based on our experiences is that we need to have a better tub surround system.  After searching high and low I found one.  It goes from the top of the tub to the ceiling.  There is also an optional cap component that acts as a ceiling for the shower, encapsulating that area from water infiltration.

We’re also going to install a whirlpool tub, score.

Everything Old is New Again

It’s been way too long since my last post.  It seems as if I forget about my little corner of the world here and forget to drop in and reflect on my life, which is the main reason for this blog.

At the beginning of last summer, I accepted a position with VICOPS (Collaboration Technologies) at Indiana University.  This small department handles all of the videoconferencing/collaboration resources for the entire Indiana University system and outside affiliates.  I work for the help desk, where we take telephone and video calls for assistance with issues regarding technologies such as desktop videoconferencing, Adobe Connect, Telepresence, etc.

At the beginning of the fall I was offered and accepted a full time hourly position with them. I no longer have to worry about finding multiple jobs to fill hours.  It has been a great relief to my family as well.  I never realized how much I actually treasure steady working hours.

I’m only 10 credit hours away from graduating.  This semester I’m taking nothing but Informatics and Computer Science courses.  Most of these are just introductory courses, which are a cakewalk for someone with my knowledge in the subject.

My business has received a much needed injection of attention.  After changing the name from LML Video Services to Magic Media Services, things just died out.  I then put a request on reddit for someone to help redesign the logo for my business.  I was more than surprised at the results when someone obliged my request.  I am now working on redesigning my website, which will be located somewhere on the rox.com domain temporarily.

Rachel and I finally got “grown up” furniture for our bedroom.  With the assistance of my neighbor Bill we got a new dresser, chest of drawers, headboard, armoire and night stand.  We also purchased a new mattress and box spring, which was needed greatly.  Our old, borrowed furniture went back to my grandma who lent it to us over 10 years ago.  I can’t thank her enough for the kindness in her heart.

Over the weekend I replaced the first of three sinks in our home.  The one in our utility room (they are all exactly the same) started leaking about a gallon of water a day.  The drain was rusted out, but I couldn’t replace it as it was seized together.
The shut off valves for the water lines were seized as well.  With all of the water problems this area had previously, we knew this was going to be ugly.  Since we needed a place to give Amelia a bath while remodeling our main bathroom (which will be happening soon) we decided to purchase a utility sink for the space.  8 hours and 3 trips to Menards later, I was both finished with the project and worn our physically and mentally.

On the ROX side of life, I’m currently downloading the latest finished episode for distribution to CATS.  #96 will be on the air soon in Monroe county.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon with more organized and focused posts.

 

Flying Through Time

I wanted to do something big for my 30th birthday.  The original plan was skydiving, but I weigh too much.  My fabulous wife found something almost as good, a guy in Madison Indiana flys people in his open cockpit bi-plane.  With him you can just fly, do some aerobatics, and even take “the stick” and fly the plane.

Unfortunately with our hectic schedule, making this a reality became too much for us to handle and that idea was eventually scrapped.

Fortunately our airport often hosts airplanes that travel the country and offer flights.  These are not just cessna’s, but historical airplanes.  Last fall we checked out the WWII B17 bomber.  While I would have loved to, we could not afford the flight as the $450 price was just too much.

It’s an amazing piece of avionic history.  We actually climbed through the plane, which has very tight quarters.  It was made even more difficult by to us carrying a 1 year old through it.

Last month a Ford Tri-Motor came, and this time the price was very reasonable.

This plane was one of the planes that started commercial aviation, just to have the opportunity blew me away.  This was also the first time I had ever flown from my local airport.

Our flight path was simple and took less time than I had expected.  We flew to the south side of Bloomington, near where old 37 and new 37 meet.  We then turned north and headed to 2nd street where we flew between 2nd and 3rd street back to the airport.

Due to the proximity of my home to the airport, I got a picture of my neighborhood(if you look at the hi-res version you can see fires & tree damage from the tornado)!  We see planes take off and come in for landings all the time, but I had never got to see the plane’s perspective before.

Planes today hold hundreds of passengers, this one only held 9.  The cabin was tight, but I felt more comfortable in this plane than in our modern counterparts.  I was sitting in the very back, a seat that was reserved for the “steward” was the only thing behind me.

I was busy while we were in the air.  I had my camera and an iPhone; I was utilizing all of their capabilities.  I even tweeted mid-flight!

I say this often, and I can’t reiterate it enough.  Without the past, we have no future.  I have to give thanks to the EAA AirVenture Museum for giving me this opportunity.  I greatly appreciated it.

I’ll leave you with our landing.  If you notice when we touch down, the wheel on my side doesn’t touch for a while!

The Tale of Two Cities

We had planned a getaway for Memorial day that was a little quirky and not like us.  Little did we know that a tornado would get in the way.  Due to said tornado, I had closed myself emotionally.  While you could say I had a “good time.”  I don’t have any emotions to go along with the trip, something I typically have.  My wife wrote a blog post from her point of view, I highly recommend reading to see the contrast in our points of view.

We left as soon as we could on the Friday after the tornado and drove about halfway to our destination, St. Joseph / Benton Harbor Michigan.  We stayed the night in Lafayette, leaving early so we could arrive at our destination early.

As soon as we arrived, we learned about these two cities the hard way.  There seems to be a strong sense of division.  While St. Joseph is a nice, quaint resort community, Benton Harbor shows all of the “what used to be” looks.  There are many homes that used to be mansions, but are now dilapidated; some even boarded up.  It’s downtown area almost looks like a ghost town from the 1950’s.  There is some new growth, but it still feels like a ghetto.

The first thing we did was check into our hotel.  It was a pretty funky Courtyard by Marriott.  We decided to find something to eat, explore, and just relax that evening.  The views from St. Joseph are absolutely amazing.  It’s a great little resort community.  The whole time I was contemplating about what was happening back home and trying to calm my nerves by smoking copious amounts of tobacco.

Sunday was a mixed bag of not great weather conditions, so the beach was not an option.  After having the best breakfast I’ve ever had at any hotel, we headed for St. Joseph.  Our first stop was downtown.  They have a charming area filled with high fashion shops, and typical small town businesses.  They have animal statues on just about every corner, decorated in many different ways.  Taylor loved the “Cash Cow,” a cow covered with REAL money.  It was of course in front of a bank.  My fave was “Vincent Van Goat,” which had a depiction of “Starry Night” on one side and “Irises” on the other.

We then went to the most interesting pizza place I’ve ever been to.  Silver Beach Pizza is a pizza place located within an Amtrak train station.  I had an ice cold beer and a very good barbecue chicken pizza.  It was most excellent!

We then went to the Curious Kids museum.  It was fun for both the girls.  Taylor enjoyed encapsulating herself in a bubble.  Amelia enjoyed the water table, and acting OCD with random items.  They’ve ran out of space in the converted brick house they are located in, so with the price of admission you can also access their addition, which is located next to the indoor carousel.  We then went there.  They have stuff even the adults can appreciate.  They have a climbing wall, water tables galore, space items.  It was quite fascinating and good stuff.  We then went and had fun with the carousel.
We were a bit nervous, as Amelia had never been on one before.  She was a trooper, and had a blast.  It was good family fun for all!

Amelia’s nap time was approaching, so we headed back to the hotel.  Which was perfect timing, as a severe storm approached.  After going through the tornado, this was the first time a storm actually scared me.

That night, we played in the pool – all of us.  This hotel has a very interesting pool, it has an indoor and outdoor section; you can swim to either section through an opening in a glass wall.  We then found an arcade was in a mall not too far away and decided to check it out.  What we discovered was a mall that was essentially dead.  There were no anchor stores at all.  While there were interior stores, there weren’t that many.  We played for an hour or so and then went back to the hotel.

The next morning, we stopped at beautiful Silver Beach.  The difference between an ocean’s beach and a large lake’s beach is pure calm.  It’s an amazing place, with an amazing view.  The girls had fun, I put Amelia’s feet in the cold water and she didn’t want to leave!  The sand was so fine and plush that we decided to bring home a bucket full.  We all have glass jars of it to help remember the experience.

As fun end to our short trip, we stopped at Fair Oak’s Farm in northern Indiana.  It’s a large dairy farm that gives tours and offers many learning opportunities for children about where our dairy products come from.  We took a bus tour, which takes you through some of their barns to see how the cows live and what they eat.  Amelia sat with me, and I told her that these are cows, they go “moo.”  She started repeating me, it was adorable.  We then saw their carousel milker.  It’s an amazing machine that lets them produce vast quantities of moo juice.

We then went to the birthing barn, and witnessed the births of two calves.  While I had seen this many times as a child, Rachel and Taylor had not.  I think it was a good experience for both of them.

Next we stopped by the kids area, where Taylor got to do something she hadn’t done in a while, jumping on trampolines while attached to bungee cords.

We then visited the store, where I sampled some cheese.  We bought some souvenirs for the girls and they had some ice cream.

I had just started to heal from this life changing event, and our vacation was over.  Coming home was almost like a nightmare coming true.  While it was nice to get away, the mental extremes that it forced me to go through were almost too much to handle.

The Little Girl Isn’t Dead

This is a continuation of my last post, The Little Girl is Dead.

While on our short vacation, my mind refused me the opportunity to forget about what was going on at home.  Instead it kept thinking about that phrase that was etched into my mind that night.  I kept running scenarios in my head about my girls; I didn’t like to, but I had to.

I felt bad for everyone who had been affected by this storm, especially the less fortunate ones who lived in that trailer court, right next door to me.  They had lost everything, and probably didn’t have insurance.  There were many children living there, so many that the schools had 2 buses come for pickup and drop off.  We would see them all waiting for the bus in the mornings on our way to work.  I still see their faces, and imagine what they must have went through on that eventful night.

I received two phone calls that Saturday while we were in Michigan, our power had been restored!  It had been out for around 3 and 1/2 days.  We don’t know how many utility poles had to be replaced in total, but it was a large number.

Since I had Internet access, I was always keeping up on the news.  Our township trustee had organized a volunteer day, to help with tree & debris cleanup.  This made all of us happy, and was the first step in putting my heart and soul to ease.  In the end there were a total of 3 volunteer days, but the news that an IU student had disappeared shifted the focus, and the volunteers.

We returned from Michigan on Memorial day, and reality set in.  While I had no damage to my home, we had lost about 10 trees; including our beloved apple tree.  Many of these trees formed a ‘natural’ fence along my property line.  They provided large amounts of shade and oxygen, they were also wrapped in vines.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a “jack of all trades.”  I have had experience in cutting trees since I was about 12, when I helped my then step-dad do just that for a living.

We had already lost our weeping willow tree and a maple tree due to wind and ice storms that occurred earlier in the year, we purchased a chain saw so I could clean them up; I was prepared.  Little did I know how difficult the task would be when vines were involved.  This was a task I couldn’t handle, this task needed a quantity of experience people.

We decided to get estimates from tree-trimming businesses.  I called around 5 companies, only one showed up and gave me an estimate.  It was more expensive than we wanted to pay, and under our homeowners insurance deductible.  I wasn’t going to feel at ease until this was taken care of; I was literally stuck between a bunch of trees and a hard place.

I turned to our township trustee’s office.  I called them and asked for assistance, but let them know that I should be placed on the bottom of their list.  I let them know that it was simply downed trees that needed to be cleaned up, there was no damage to my home and that it shouldn’t be a priority.  While we could have paid for the cleanup; it would have presented a financial burden that we might have not recovered from.

A few days go by and as I arrived home from class an Mennonite looking fellow was at my house.  He said he was surveying what needed to be done; he was assembling a crew.  The next day when I arrived home, the trees were almost cleaned up!  It was a group of boys and a man.  At the time I presumed they were Mennonite, since they used technology.  It turns out I was wrong; it was the Worthington Amish Youth Group.  I thanked each one of them personally, and asked if they needed anything at all.  They requested some water, which I promptly fetched and then they went about their business.

With all the property damage and the trailer court in ruins, I was blown away that they decided to help ME.  My whole family is in their debt and are working on a way to pay it forward and show them how much we appreciate what they’ve done for us.

After they finished cleaning up the trees, a larger group, including women went over to the trailer court and assisted cleanup.

The effects of this tornado will be felt and seen for many years to come.  Not just from the people (like me) who live where it happened, but by the thousands of travellers that take that section of Highway 45.  I went through many years of emotional issues as a child, which I thought had toughened me mentally.  I learned the hard way that I was wrong.

While we are mainly healed from this event, our souls will never forget it.  That storm took something from me.  Even though I don’t exactly know what “it” is, I feel incomplete inside.  I don’t know how to move on from this experience.  Writing this has certainly helped.

 

The Little Girl is Dead

Those are the words my mind tricked me into believing were true.  I heard a fireman say something that sounded like that on the night of May 25th, the night a EF1 tornado touched down very close to my home.

My wife, a person who is always concerned with the weather told me that the night was going to be a rough one.  I hear this on a fairly common basis, but something told me that I should stay on alert that night.  She had radar from WRTV 6 up on her computer, and we had a combination of the local weather and The Weather Channel on our TV the entire night.

I remember the exact moment when I knew we were going to be in for something.  While watching the TV, they were showing all of the tornado warning/watches in Illinois.  The state was covered in red; meaning the state was covered in tornado warnings.

Around 10:19pm our power went out, and almost instantly after that our weather radio went off; it was a tornado warning for us and we knew that this was serious.  My wife headed for our basement and told me to grab Amelia from her crib if I thought it was appropriate.  While I knew this was a serious situation, I had to see it for my own eyes.  That’s when I picked up my flashlight and looked at the large maple tree in my backyard.  It’s large canopy was swirling in a clockwise motion, something I had never seen before in that large of a tree.

I immediately ran to grab Amelia from her room and rushed to our utility room where Rachel was waiting.  Even though I had experienced a similar event when I was 12, I had never felt the urgency or threat that I felt at that moment.  It was the first time we had ‘ran for shelter’ from a storm.  While in our utility room, we could hear the intensity of the storm.  There was no sound like a train, rather the sound of a large volume of air moving at a high rate of speed.  It went away after a minute or so, but we decided to stay in our safe place for a few minutes, just to be sure.

Immediately, I went outside to inspect for damage.  The first thing I noticed was that a large limb from one of my trees had broken and fallen on my neighbor’s fence.  I called him to let him know, and that was when my mental state took a dive that it hadn’t had in a very long time.


He told me that his daughter had called him and by listening to the scanner, she had heard that the trailer court right next to our neighborhood was completely wiped out.  I felt a tremendous urge to go see what I could do to help.  I got in the Kia and discovered that a war zone now existed less than 1/4 mile away from my home; I was also trapped in our neighborhood.

I discovered another one of my neighbors outside, I asked him what he knew.  He said that there were several children trapped in one of the trailers.  He told me that he offered his assistance, but they didn’t want anyone who wasn’t trained in search & rescue to help out of the fear that they might also be hurt.

I then heard those words that I couldn’t get out of my head, “the little girl is dead.”  I had to run back home, I couldn’t help and I could barely hold my tears back.

Out of what seemed to be pure survival instinct, I started tweeting.  Besides our land line, it was my only way of communicating with the outside world at that point.  Here they are:

  • I’m a prisoner in my own neighborhood and there are people dead less than 1/4 miles away from me
  • Trailers stacked on top of trailers, it’s a sickening sight! If I only had a line to the outside world besides this
  • I can’t sleep knowing that my poor neighbor children lost everything, almost their lives tonight. I also confirmed with the fd, no death …
  • I now wish it would stay dark so I cannot see the remains of what was #didthisreallyhappen
  • I’ve only lost a few trees, which I loved -I feel bad for mentioning it, but I think it should be noted.
  • Please put the children who just lost everything in your thoughts and/or prayers. They really didn’t deserve this
  • You never realize how much you appreciate freedom until that freedom is taken – quote me

I then went back and found a larger group of my neighbors.  One of which had a friend over who is a policeman.  We went back and actually did some searching with the fire department.  I snapped some photos on my phone, but due to the atmospheric conditions, they didn’t turn out too well.

I went back home and told Rachel that I couldn’t go to sleep, and that I was going to leave as soon as I could.  I felt disconnected from what was happening, I needed information.  Around 3am, I started seeing headlights from cars driving around our neighborhood – the road must have been finally cleared.  I packed up my laptop, phone and associated cables to charge everything and headed into the unknown.  My destination was the IU Wells Library, but I wasn’t sure if I would make it.  I had to try.

The journey is only about 6 miles, but it seemed like 50.  The entire west side of Bloomington was pitch black.  No stop lights or street lights.  When I finally made it to campus it was even worse.  Trees were down everywhere, what is normally a somewhat linear route ended up to be a criss cross puzzle.

I finally felt okay.  I sat with some of my TCC co-workers and briefed them of the situation.  I logged onto a computer and started my hunt for information.  I printed every article I could find, from the Herald-Times, to the Indy Star to even MSNBC.

Once everything was charged, and my search for information was complete I headed back home.  Little did I know that the drive home would be even more treacherous than the drive in.

Still no lights or businesses open.  It was daylight now, I what I had feared was true; it had to have been a tornado that came through.  While there were spots here and there in town and on campus that had tree damage, there was a defined path of destruction starting just west of Curry Pike/Leonard Springs Road on Highway 45.  This defined path followed me on my journey home, and that’s when I encountered the sheriff’s deputy blocking the road to my home. “And where do you think you’re going?” he asked me.  “Home” I passionately stated.  He let me through.

The next day we left on a planned vacation to Michigan.  We felt it would be better to leave the sadness and destruction, than to stay and be constantly reminded of it.

I’ll continue this tale in my next post.

 

 

Catching Up

It has been too long since my last posting.  I’m going to sum up what’s happened since my last post, and then write individual posts for the more important things later on.

A EF1 tornado hit my area.  It started a few hundred feet away from my home and travelled a couple of miles east.  Nobody was killed thankfully, but some were injured.  It wreaked havoc on my family’s emotional state for a period of time.

Our beloved family member Oreo lost a battle he could not win.  Over the past several months, he lost a lot of weight.  So much so that we decided to take him to the vetinarian.  After doing some blood work, it was discovered that he was in renal failure.  To make it worse, there wasn’t anything we could do to cure him, we could only try to make him comfortable.  We still miss him greatly.

We’re now into Summer Session II at Indiana University.  Session I went very well for me.  I took a computer science course which was an introduction to Python.  I am now taking a Survey of Hip Hop & Rap cultural studies course.  While I’ve never been a large fan of the genre before, I’m beginning to enjoy all aspects of it!