The shirt off my back.

Yesterday, a cold front settled across Texas. Unlike more tolerable climates, a cold front here means that it dropped into the 70s. There is now hope for the masses who come innocently looking for a Kayla photo and are subjected to the spectacle of my shyly clad body.

What you can’t see from so far away is just how hot it has been here. Until yesterday, it was in the 90’s, and frequently above 100, every single day. The weather people say this was the hottest September on record. I’ll take their word for it. We’ve survived by setting the thermostat down to 81°F, and wearing very little.

This has practical consequences, like fewer publishable photos. Another is that our electricity bill for the last month was “only” $280. While that is a 700% increase over our summer electric bill in Michigan, it would have been more if we cooled down to a pleasant 78°. This is (tongue in cheek) offset by doing less laundry. I talked to a couple home efficiency experts here and have been told that is normal and it will decrease significantly when winter finally arrives.

A few of you asked about Kayla’s exercise plan. She was a bit jealous that I would go to a gym to work out instead of spending every possible minute with her. We struck a compromise that lets me go to the gym on school mornings (Tu,Th) while she is still sleeping. Every other day we stretch together.

Computers and Memory

You’ll seldom find an old-timer in the computer industry with a computer wanting for memory. However, that’s exactly the predicament I’m in. Allow me to explain, and then offer a quick lesson to the less computer savvy. Until yesterday my PowerBook had 1GB of RAM, and life was good. A friend need to run Windows on her iBook for a class she’s taking. I installed Virtual PC and Windows 98 but she had only 256MB of RAM. That is adequate for running Mac OS X, but not a “heavy” application like Virtual PC. After Virtual PC drug her her iBook to it’s knees, I pulled a 512MB chip out of my PowerBook and installed it in her iBook. Voila, one problem solved.

Today, while using my PowerBook, it was quite sluggish when working in iPhoto. A simple operation that should take 10 seconds would take two minutes. Since Greek has my brain running on overload, it took a while before I remembered that I only have 512MB of RAM now. The major clue was that my hard drive was very busy during that “long pause.” That’s a symptom of “swapping” and a huge clue that you need more RAM. With 2,900 photos in my library, 512MB of RAM is inadequate for the task.

When a computer runs out of memory, it starts using hard drive space as “virtual memory.” This is called swapping. It’s a reasonable solution, but hard drive space is at a few orders of magnitude slower than RAM. The only way to get the best performance from your computer is to make sure you have enough memory that it never swaps. For a few people, 512MB is sufficient. For anyone that uses the media features on a modern OS (Mac OS X, Windows XP), you need at least 768MB.

So, I ordered myself a 1GB module. When it arrives, my PowerBook will be back to it’s speedy little self. For reference, the Apple Store wants $500 for a 1GB memory module. I paid $130. I also purchased four extra 512MB laptop SO-DIMMS for $50 each. If you have an Apple laptop that’s running short on memory, come see me and I’ll even install the RAM for you.

Theology, and a Kayla Photo

Learning is a lot of work. I spend a little time with my girls, a lot of time with Greek, and what’s left gets spread around to everything else.

Becoming a “theologian” wasn’t near the top of my list of reasons to come to Dallas Theological Seminary. In fact, it wasn’t even on the list. Like many other students, I’m here because many leaders that I admire came here. I came to learn what they learned. We came to learn how to effectively meet the needs of others. The first thing I’ve learned is that to some degree, I am a theologian and so are you.

Theology is not what I so adamantly opposed. Theology is simply thinking about, or studying God. I’ve been a theologian (albeit amateur) for many years. Even the agnostic who questions God or the atheist who denies Him is practicing theology. So, it’s not theology I was opposed to, it was bad theology. So, what is bad theology?

If you are even slightly interested in what theology is, I highly recommend a very easily read book: Who Needs Theology by Stanley Grenz & Roger Olson. It explains what theology is all about and outlines the degrees of theology which range from “don’t confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up” to “I will believe only what I understand.” Obviously, good theology is neither of those extremes. Theology is not (yet) what I expected, it’s better.

Unexpected treats

The past two months have been marked by unexpected good fortune. I’m quite fond of the quote “luck is the result of fate intersecting with preparation”, but all the recent good fortune exceeds any rational explanation, and can only be explained as confirmation that we are where we’re supposed to be, doing what we’re supposed to be doing.

After getting moved in, it was time to get connected. We started out visiting our neighbors, one house per evening. We’ve met all our immediate neighbors and a few more of the near ones. We are thankful to be surrounded by some extremely good neighbors all the way around us. What a blessing.

Now we’re church hopping, searching for a church home that we’ll enjoy and grow in. This morning we went to Fellowship Church over by Lewisville. It’s not the church we’ll be attending but boy did we have a good time. We just happened to visit the Sunday when Newsboys were live in concert. Better still, they played three of my favorite songs. You know it’s a great worship service when your voice is strained afterward.

Classes begin Tuesday. On Thursday, Jen and I attended orientation. Orientation is basically an interactive way to give you the laundry list of things you need to do. Get your ID card. Get a parking permit. Find your mailbox. Figure out how to open it. Read your student handbook. The library is there, sign up for a guided tour (yes, it’s almost necessary). Deadlines for X are on Y date, etc. All very exciting stuff. Yawn.

Friday was far more fun, consisting of two entrance examinations and two take home assignments. The first test was the MMPI (Minneapolis Multiphase Personality Inventory). The instructor told us it’s a way to help them determine how well we adjust to personal and social change. S-u-r-e, that’s one of the uses, but it’s also used to assess mental disorders. With more than a few of the 567 questions like “someone is out to get me: T/F?”, and “I’m being followed: T/F?”, it’s evident what they’re looking for. “Sir, your results are in. Would you mind wearing this jacket while we take a little walk?”

The other test was a biblical & theology knowledge test. We get to take this test at entrance and graduation. The goal is that you do better the second time. That won’t be hard to do. The test was very humbling. I’m guessing I scored about 6%.

One of the take-home tests was actually a pretty enjoyable one. It’s called “PROFILES of Ministry” by the Association of Theological Schools. The test consists of 24 scenarios. Following each scenario description is a selection of possible responses. You rate each response based on your likelihood of using it. Finally, you are presented with a selection of motives for choosing the responses. Again, you choose how likely you would be to have each motive. I expect those test results to be quite valuable and interesting.

Last, but certainly not least is Kayla. We’ve now passed two parenting milestones. We’ve left her in nursery twice now. That’s no small step for a first time mommy. Kayla is now 24″ long and weights 13 lbs. She started out on the small side but has made up for it since. We’re almost certain she spoke. When Grandpa called from Alaska today, I heard her say “Halibut” and lick her chops.

Settled In

Although we’ll be adjusting (to) things for some time to come, we are now “settled in.”

The hardest thing to get used to is the heat. It’s been over 100 every day of the last week, and it doesn’t cool off to the mid eighties until early morning (5-9 AM). Thankfully, the humidity stays right around 70% so the heat is only mildly intolerable. To help get used to it, we keep the thermostat in the house set to 82°F, which is barely below misery for a northern boy like me.

Kayla’s latest kick is standing up. Forget about crawling, this little chic wants to stand. If we fail to oblige her, she’ll remind us. She really enjoys being upright, and it’s a fine digestive aid. It helps her relieve unwanted pressure from both ends.

Simerson Housing & Moving

Wow. So much has happened in the last few weeks. The biggest news is that our house in Michigan is SOLD! That happened on July 23rd, days before we lit out of town for Marco’s wedding in Nashville. This blessing came as a big surprise. For starters, there’s an excess of houses on the market in Cadillac, almost a years worth. Our listing price was $25k higher than the next most expensive house on our street. Our neighborhood isn’t the cities finest.

Because of those considerations, we expected to sit on the house for at least a year or two. We expected it so much that we had a renter all lined up and ready to move in as soon as we moved out. Then, as divine providence would have it, we got two excellent offers, a day apart. We had only to pick the best offer (cash, no contingencies) and just like that, our house was sold. Yesterday we signed all the closing documents and overnighted them back to Michigan. The closing will be completed next week.

In previous posts I made note of the moving out party and the blessing our friends were. I’ll pick up the story on Friday evening, the day before the truck arrived with all our stuff.

Because Jen didn’t want me to unload the entire truck by myself (again, as I did in our Atlanta to Cadillac move) we made arrangements to get Jordan (1st cousin, once removed) from the Air Force base in Wichita Falls. On Saturday AM, we discovered it was a 3 hour drive to get him and booked him tickets on a greyhound. The plan was to have the truck unloaded by Sunday evening, in time to take him back to the base.

The truck arrived at 9:20AM and Jordan would be arriving around 2PM, so I set to getting a head start on the unloading. As I was working, Omega, my neighbor across the street saw me working away. He inquired, and then changed his clothes and set to work helping me. Omega is about my size but with an apparent muscular build, hardy work ethic, and is acclimated to the heat. That man worked non-stop with me, all morning long. By 2:30PM when Jen and Jordan arrived, we were hauling in the last big piece of furniture.

For the rest of Saturday and Sunday, we 3 kings of unpacking were. We worked from one room to the next, tearing into boxes and dispersing their contents. Excepting the living room (due to a lack of bookshelves), there are no boxes left in the house. We have the following rooms in order: master bedroom, Kayla’s room, master & guest bath, and kitchen. It’s taken two days to arrange the office.

The office is complex due to sawing and installation of the rack in the guest room closet, stringing Ethernet cables through the attic from room to room, and setting up all the computers in their new environment. The file server is all set up in the server closet (instead of on Jen’s desk) and Jen’s primary computer is now the PowerBook (connected to the 20″ display and external keyboard/mouse).

Home, sweet home

We arrived last night to find we had no water or electricity (it should have been on). A phone call cleared that up, but the technician didn’t arrive until 2:00PM today. The Cable modem installer arrived at 11AM. I had already wired up the access point, switch, cable modem, and IP phone. They were being powered by the DC inverter in my car via an extension cord. By the time the cable lady had it wired up outside, I had everything in the house on-line.

Now the carpet cleaners are here, removing the aromatic evidence of the previous owner’s cats. The process is pretty cool, they use a black light to find the affected areas and then replace the padding and treat the entire carpet. When they’re done, they guarantee the job. Fortunately, the utility guy showed up and turned the power on, now their machines can work. 🙂

Tomorrow morning at 9:00AM our truck will arrive. We’ll have Jordan (my cousin Kevin’s son) here to help and maybe a buddy, Rick. At least we’ll have good weather, it’s only 93 degrees today.

Texas or bust!

5:41PM – Garland, TX (home)
11:00AM – Springfield, MO
8:00AM – St. Louis, MO (depart)

Simerson’s are playing leapfrog while driving to Texas. Our stuff was packed into a commercial truck and left Cadillac on Monday. We left Cadillac this morning in our very full Jetta. After passing Bloomington, IL we checked in via the internet to see where our truck was. It’s due to be in Springfield, IL tonight so that means we passed it sometime earlier today. We are approximately 3 hours ahead of it.

5:15PM – Bloomington, IL
3:15PM – Chicago Construction
2:35PM – Indiana
12:05 – Grand Rapids (gas)
11:05 – Depart Cadilac

We’re on our way!