On Wednesday, the Sorianos closed on the house they sold. They have been living with us since May while they tried to sell their house. Having to pick up after 4 kids every time before a showing seemed like too much to do so they moved in with us. Having 6 or 7 (sometimes Bing, the father in law is here also) extra people around the house has mostly been enjoyable. We have all gotten along quite well.
They have an offer in on a house (a short sale) in West St. Paul. That would be closer to where both of them work. Their offer was accepted by the couple so now it is a matter of waiting for the bank to approve the sale and that could take anywhere from a week or two to several months.
In the meantime, we have begun work on Park House in earnest. A crew of 9 friends came over on Saturday and we pulled down the ceiling in Daniel's old bedroom, repaired the hole in the kitchen floor, dug up and removed the jungle gym that had been competing with the Leaning Tower of Pisa for most acute angle while still standing, removed the (for 15 years) non-working dishwasher, removed several old screen doors, pulled down the wallpaper in the kitchen, primed the front entryway and hauled 21 contractor bags of debris and old insulation out to the back yard. The metal from the screen doors and the jungle gym disappeared rather quickly as it sat by the alley in the backyard.
Tina lost her cellphone and it took quite a while to locate it in one of the bags of insulation. The insulation muffled the ring tone. We had almost given up when we tried one last time to hear it.
We still have a TON of work to do. A carpenter friend came over yesterday and gave us some advice about what we need to do to prepare Daniel's ceiling to put in a suspended ceiling. A stone mason stopped by in the afternoon and gave us some advice about repairing the crumbling foundation in the laundry room for a lot less than what we had thought it would cost. He said stone masons are a dying breed as houses are no longer built with limestone foundations.
Monday night some other friends came over and helped paint the entry way and did more work on the kitchen walls.
We are blessed to have such good friends.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Ancient of Days
The Park House has hot water heat so it has a boiler, rather than a furnace. Saturday, the heat would not turn off so CenterPoint Energy had to come and turn it off. It was 81 degrees in the house. The problem was that the boiler was dirty, the soot made the flame explode out of the front of the combustion chamber and burned a couple of wires that controlled the turning off function. So we were without heat at Park House for a few days. The weather was in the high 30's most of the time so it wasn't a huge problem. The inside temperature dropped only to 54 with the addition of some free space heaters provided by CenterPoint.
Today the cleaning man came and did a very thorough job on cleaning out all the soot. Then another CenterPoint Energy man came and restarted the boiler and checked it and tested it and it looks good.
He noted that the boiler was installed in 1954 so it is 58 years old!!! That is a pretty long life so I suspect we will be in the market for a new one in the next few months.
He also told me that there were two pilot lights on the boiler, something that I had somehow forgotten in the last ten years. The other pilot light is in the back and I think I may have lit it by accident a couple of times in the 31 years I have started the boiler, but I have never opened up the back of the boiler (where it is) and lit it. I have occasionally had a very, very faint smell of gas around the furnace and he said that is probably why. He tested the connections for leaks and for CO2 and said it tested perfectly. He was actually somewhat impressed it was working as well as it was.
Tina and I (mostly her) spent many hours this past weekend cleaning out the laundry room and work room. We managed to sort things into give away to people we know, donate to thrift stores and put in the trash. We already gave some stuff away to people. It feels great to be getting stuff out of here.
A month ago, we had the floors sanded in the living room, dining room and front hall. They look very nice. We tossed the living room furniture which was old and falling apart and bought a new couch and two recliners. Daniel and Luke spend a lot of time watching the gigantic TV in the living room so the recliners work well for them.
Last Sunday, we had an Area meeting of about 30 people at Park House and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and mostly see each other. Lots of positive comments on the improvements that we have made so far.
Still tons of work left to do, but that is another story.
Today the cleaning man came and did a very thorough job on cleaning out all the soot. Then another CenterPoint Energy man came and restarted the boiler and checked it and tested it and it looks good.
He noted that the boiler was installed in 1954 so it is 58 years old!!! That is a pretty long life so I suspect we will be in the market for a new one in the next few months.
He also told me that there were two pilot lights on the boiler, something that I had somehow forgotten in the last ten years. The other pilot light is in the back and I think I may have lit it by accident a couple of times in the 31 years I have started the boiler, but I have never opened up the back of the boiler (where it is) and lit it. I have occasionally had a very, very faint smell of gas around the furnace and he said that is probably why. He tested the connections for leaks and for CO2 and said it tested perfectly. He was actually somewhat impressed it was working as well as it was.
Tina and I (mostly her) spent many hours this past weekend cleaning out the laundry room and work room. We managed to sort things into give away to people we know, donate to thrift stores and put in the trash. We already gave some stuff away to people. It feels great to be getting stuff out of here.
A month ago, we had the floors sanded in the living room, dining room and front hall. They look very nice. We tossed the living room furniture which was old and falling apart and bought a new couch and two recliners. Daniel and Luke spend a lot of time watching the gigantic TV in the living room so the recliners work well for them.
Last Sunday, we had an Area meeting of about 30 people at Park House and there was plenty of room for everyone to sit and mostly see each other. Lots of positive comments on the improvements that we have made so far.
Still tons of work left to do, but that is another story.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Online At Last
This week, my business's web site, ResurrectionC.com, went live with online ordering for the first time. Customers will now be able to download MP3's of the talks I record at conferences as well as place orders online for CDs or DVDs to be shipped to them. Up until now, if a customer wanted to place an order, they either had to call me with their credit card information or mail in an order form with their check. They still have those two options, but now have 2 additional options (download MP3, place CD/DVD orders online 24/7). I have already received my first order for 4 MP3s.
This has been a long process that includes Winston, my web designer, my daughter, Cathy, who has been creating MP3s from hundreds of past conference CDs and myself trying hard to figure out the best way to do this that is both simple and clear.
Now I have the daunting task of putting all the talks online, going back 20 years. Once I do this, however, I won't have to do anything more but add the new conferences I am recording. But adding the past conferences will take me 6 months, if I am able to do at least one conference a day. Today, I have both of the 2012 conferences and my best-selling 2011 conference online. I will work my way back through 2011, and then 2010, etc.
Today I received an order in the old-fashioned mail that included conferences from 2011, 2010 and 2006 plus all 6 of my CD's. It was over $500, one of the largest mail orders I have ever received. That comes from posting all my past order forms online.
Cathy has also been working on updating my past order forms so that they will be accurate when I re-post them online. I had made a decision a few months ago to no longer sell audiotapes and VHS videotapes. I was still getting occasional orders for them but they were getting fewer and fewer. So I gave away most of my analog recording and duplicating gear. I still have lots of blank audiotapes to get rid of. I still have some more equipment to get rid of also. But that meant changing all my past order forms that included the option of ordering audiotapes and VHS videotapes. So Cathy has been going through all of those old order forms and updating them to CD, DVD and MP3. As I get to those conferences, working my way back through the years, I will be posting these corrected versions.
So I feel like a HUGE leap forward has happened and while it has taken thousands of dollars and many, many hours (and will continue to take many, many hours), it is a very satisfying feeling to have made this step in the direction of being able to serve my customers better.
This has been a long process that includes Winston, my web designer, my daughter, Cathy, who has been creating MP3s from hundreds of past conference CDs and myself trying hard to figure out the best way to do this that is both simple and clear.
Now I have the daunting task of putting all the talks online, going back 20 years. Once I do this, however, I won't have to do anything more but add the new conferences I am recording. But adding the past conferences will take me 6 months, if I am able to do at least one conference a day. Today, I have both of the 2012 conferences and my best-selling 2011 conference online. I will work my way back through 2011, and then 2010, etc.
Today I received an order in the old-fashioned mail that included conferences from 2011, 2010 and 2006 plus all 6 of my CD's. It was over $500, one of the largest mail orders I have ever received. That comes from posting all my past order forms online.
Cathy has also been working on updating my past order forms so that they will be accurate when I re-post them online. I had made a decision a few months ago to no longer sell audiotapes and VHS videotapes. I was still getting occasional orders for them but they were getting fewer and fewer. So I gave away most of my analog recording and duplicating gear. I still have lots of blank audiotapes to get rid of. I still have some more equipment to get rid of also. But that meant changing all my past order forms that included the option of ordering audiotapes and VHS videotapes. So Cathy has been going through all of those old order forms and updating them to CD, DVD and MP3. As I get to those conferences, working my way back through the years, I will be posting these corrected versions.
So I feel like a HUGE leap forward has happened and while it has taken thousands of dollars and many, many hours (and will continue to take many, many hours), it is a very satisfying feeling to have made this step in the direction of being able to serve my customers better.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Extremely Dirty and Incredibly Close
Tina and I worked at the Park House on Saturday. She bagged up 15 bags of moldy clothes from under the basement stairs, food from the basement freezer with 2004 expiration dates and many other treasures that would have amazed many a pack rat. The dust was so bad she ended up using a face mask. I hauled the stuff upstairs and Luke hauled it out and put it in the back of the trailer. This week, we will take the trailer to the dump and unload all of its precious cargo.
Then we went out to dinner and a movie. As you can guess from the title of this post, we saw Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. A well made movie with good acting from most of the major parts. A young boy with Aspergers is trying to find something he thinks his father, (who died in the WTC on 9/11) has left him. A couple of interesting plot twists made the film extra interesting.
Then we went out to dinner and a movie. As you can guess from the title of this post, we saw Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. A well made movie with good acting from most of the major parts. A young boy with Aspergers is trying to find something he thinks his father, (who died in the WTC on 9/11) has left him. A couple of interesting plot twists made the film extra interesting.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Update on LaVergne kids, Jan 2012
Greg is living on a farm in southern Oregon. He is helping out. His delightful girlfriend, Lydia, is also living with him on the farm. They just moved there two months ago.
Cathy is living in NE Minneapolis and is attending St. Kate's University with a hope to get into their nursing program. She has been helping me with my web site upgrade project by converting my hundreds of conference talk CDs into MP3's.
Daniel is living at Park House (the name I use for 3120 Park) and is working as a security guard at Calhoun Square. He continues to take online classes, currently in Mass Communications. He is still as friendly as ever and connects with his friends frequently. I never know which of his friends will be asleep on the living room couch or one of the extra beds.
Ben lives with Monika and Irena in Manchester, NH with Monika's family. He still works part-time for UPS, which covers his health insurance. He was just accepted into the U of New Hampshire Masters program in computer science. He already has a Masters in English from the U of Dallas but that has not generated a full time teaching or writing job for him so his fascination with web design and the Ubuntu operating system have led him to pursue computers as a career.
Anna and Ken and their five children live near Portland, OR. Ken is working a long-term temp job in accounting. Anna homeschools the kids and is also active in her parish catholic charismatic prayer group.
Luke lives at Park House and because everyone who lives there seems to work security, he does too. He provides security for a computer chip manufacturer in one of the suburbs. He loves reading and watching movies. He thought about becoming a doctor and went to the U of M, graduating in biological sciences, but decided not to pursue that field. He also has two black belts and spent 4 years in the Marines.
Caleb doesn't live anywhere. He works for Ebay but as of January 1, he maintains a legal address in Seattle but travels from there to all points of the globe. Last I heard he was in the Bahamas. But he has been in Korea, India, China, and many other places over the last year for Ebay. He is still employed by Ebay but works via Wi-Fi connections from hotels and offices all around. He hopes to see Africa, South America and other parts of Asia as well. He still loves Pearl Jam and manages to coordinate his travel with their travel. I don't think they use the same travel agent, but who knows?
Anyway, I have wonderful kids and love them all immensely. In their different ways, I am proud of each of them.
Cathy is living in NE Minneapolis and is attending St. Kate's University with a hope to get into their nursing program. She has been helping me with my web site upgrade project by converting my hundreds of conference talk CDs into MP3's.
Daniel is living at Park House (the name I use for 3120 Park) and is working as a security guard at Calhoun Square. He continues to take online classes, currently in Mass Communications. He is still as friendly as ever and connects with his friends frequently. I never know which of his friends will be asleep on the living room couch or one of the extra beds.
Ben lives with Monika and Irena in Manchester, NH with Monika's family. He still works part-time for UPS, which covers his health insurance. He was just accepted into the U of New Hampshire Masters program in computer science. He already has a Masters in English from the U of Dallas but that has not generated a full time teaching or writing job for him so his fascination with web design and the Ubuntu operating system have led him to pursue computers as a career.
Anna and Ken and their five children live near Portland, OR. Ken is working a long-term temp job in accounting. Anna homeschools the kids and is also active in her parish catholic charismatic prayer group.
Luke lives at Park House and because everyone who lives there seems to work security, he does too. He provides security for a computer chip manufacturer in one of the suburbs. He loves reading and watching movies. He thought about becoming a doctor and went to the U of M, graduating in biological sciences, but decided not to pursue that field. He also has two black belts and spent 4 years in the Marines.
Caleb doesn't live anywhere. He works for Ebay but as of January 1, he maintains a legal address in Seattle but travels from there to all points of the globe. Last I heard he was in the Bahamas. But he has been in Korea, India, China, and many other places over the last year for Ebay. He is still employed by Ebay but works via Wi-Fi connections from hotels and offices all around. He hopes to see Africa, South America and other parts of Asia as well. He still loves Pearl Jam and manages to coordinate his travel with their travel. I don't think they use the same travel agent, but who knows?
Anyway, I have wonderful kids and love them all immensely. In their different ways, I am proud of each of them.
Martin Luther King day
Every year on this memorial to Martin Luther King, I listen to his "I Have a Dream" speech. It moved me again this year as it has done for many years. You can watch it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs
His great line about dreaming of a day when people will be judged "NOT by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" is still in front of us as a dream to be fulfilled. Things have improved in many ways, but there is still a lot of work left to do to overcome the bias, the fear and the inequalities that still plague our nation. I ran into a man this past year who told me that he used to like the Boston Celtics basketball team because "they were all white boys."
There is not just one solution that will solve these problems. Liberals want the government to throw more money at the issue. Conservatives want blacks to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. But what is needed is a careful combination of public and private initiatives that especially focuses on increasing employment of black youth, on motivating black men and women of integrity to get involved in being realistic role models, on finding ways to make higher education more of a common expectation in the black community, etc. Through owning Resurrection Books, I met a number of black men and women who told me they were the first member of their families to ever attend college.
I am very grateful to look around at our society and see that more and more people, especially those under 30, have good friends who are from different ethnic backgrounds. This is a great advance over my generation. Despite the challenges that blacks still face, there have been many gains in housing, employment and educational opportunities.
And some of this would not have happened without the remarkable leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King was not perfect. He had flaws like the rest of us do. But he was a flawed person who changed the course of our nation's history by holding up a high standard of justice and unity and was willing to go to jail and eventually to his death in order to advance what he believed (and I believe) to be God's vision for this country.
I am profoundly grateful to Dr. King.
His great line about dreaming of a day when people will be judged "NOT by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" is still in front of us as a dream to be fulfilled. Things have improved in many ways, but there is still a lot of work left to do to overcome the bias, the fear and the inequalities that still plague our nation. I ran into a man this past year who told me that he used to like the Boston Celtics basketball team because "they were all white boys."
There is not just one solution that will solve these problems. Liberals want the government to throw more money at the issue. Conservatives want blacks to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. But what is needed is a careful combination of public and private initiatives that especially focuses on increasing employment of black youth, on motivating black men and women of integrity to get involved in being realistic role models, on finding ways to make higher education more of a common expectation in the black community, etc. Through owning Resurrection Books, I met a number of black men and women who told me they were the first member of their families to ever attend college.
I am very grateful to look around at our society and see that more and more people, especially those under 30, have good friends who are from different ethnic backgrounds. This is a great advance over my generation. Despite the challenges that blacks still face, there have been many gains in housing, employment and educational opportunities.
And some of this would not have happened without the remarkable leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King was not perfect. He had flaws like the rest of us do. But he was a flawed person who changed the course of our nation's history by holding up a high standard of justice and unity and was willing to go to jail and eventually to his death in order to advance what he believed (and I believe) to be God's vision for this country.
I am profoundly grateful to Dr. King.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Missing Barbara
Today is the 18th anniversary of Barbara's death. Daniel, Cathy and I went to her grave and spent a half hour there until our toes were numb. We shared some memories and reflections on her life. I shared how difficult it had been for me after she died, trying to be a single parent. I prayed for my kids and expressed my gratitude for having known Barbara. Cathy placed some roses on the grave.
I would say this was one of the 'best' times at her grave I've experienced in quite a few years.
I am not sure why, but I have been missing Barbara a lot these last two weeks. Things are going wonderfully well in my new marriage with Tina so that is not the source of my strong feelings. I really don't know why.
Last night I attended the wake for Jim Bittner, whose daughter Joan lived with Barbara and me for 8 years in our community household. This morning I attended his funeral where Joan did one of the readings. I was teary most of the way through and saw such dramatic sadness on the faces of Jim's children. They are a family of faith so they will come through this tragedy eventually to a place where the grief is not a sharp, daily pain, especially as they recall Jim's smiling exuberance for Jesus.
Tonight is a wake for another Jim, Jim Hepp and tomorrow morning his funeral. It is a grief packed 3 days.
I would say this was one of the 'best' times at her grave I've experienced in quite a few years.
I am not sure why, but I have been missing Barbara a lot these last two weeks. Things are going wonderfully well in my new marriage with Tina so that is not the source of my strong feelings. I really don't know why.
Last night I attended the wake for Jim Bittner, whose daughter Joan lived with Barbara and me for 8 years in our community household. This morning I attended his funeral where Joan did one of the readings. I was teary most of the way through and saw such dramatic sadness on the faces of Jim's children. They are a family of faith so they will come through this tragedy eventually to a place where the grief is not a sharp, daily pain, especially as they recall Jim's smiling exuberance for Jesus.
Tonight is a wake for another Jim, Jim Hepp and tomorrow morning his funeral. It is a grief packed 3 days.
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