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Saturday, September 17, 2011

From Albatross to Awesome-tross

In 2009, I spent $2,000 on something that I didn't want.
I had no desire for it.
I thought it was a waste of money.
But...my wife really wanted it.
She doesn't ask for much.
So...I bought it.
I bought my brother-in-law's 1990 Coleman pop-up camper. They stopped using it in 2003. It was closed up and parked behind an auto-dealership for 6 years. It was a quick sale. He and I popped it up together....it was dingy and smelled like mouse pee. I still bought it.....although I didn't want to.
In the Spring of 2010...I hauled it north from New Jersey to Massachusetts and parked it in my side yard..I popped it up one more time, only to reveal some significant structural damage to the interior roof caused by a water leak. I closed it up ...and let it sit. I was still not convinced that it had any value whatsoever. I knew that I'd get around to looking into it sooner or later. Or maybe I'd talk Chrissy into just getting rid of it.
Well.....sooner or later became October 2011.....we planned a camping week in western PA with Chrissy's twin sister and her family....It was time to get to gettin' and rebuild and restore this albatross.
2 weeks ago, I pulled into the front yard and set it up **insert red-neck, hick joke about having a camper set up in your front yard here** There was much more mouse damage, droppings, and awful urine-smelling foulness than I had expected. At first, I was ready to stick it on the curb with a "free" sign on it.
But....
I got to work.
The first order of business was pressure washing the outside and then to the structural stuff. My grandfather and father have blessed me, generationaly-speaking, with a fairly well-rounded workshop. I've pretty much got on hand everything I need to build, weld, grind, drill, cut, torch, bolt, wash, repair, rebuild, anything that comes my way.
After day 1....I had repaired the structural stuff...but I still didn't want the camper. Then came the cleaning.
I spent a few hours everyday just scrubbing, cleaning, scrubbing, cleaning....bleach-water became my best friend. I must have pulled 5 million pebbles of mouse poo out of this thing. We took down all the curtains, took off mattress pads, and ran them through the washer a dozen times. I rented a carpet/upholstery cleaner and cleaned the daylights out of the dinette cushions. I should have taken pictures of the entire process....just to remember how utterly disgusting this mouse-motel was....but I didn't.

Anyway....the dust settled today. She's back. No longer an albatross...but rather a Phoenix, rising from the mouse-crap laden ashes....my "brand new" 1990 Coleman Plantation camper:

Here she is from the outside. She's a beast. 26 1/2 ft. long when it's all opened up. I had to patch a few spots on the canvas where the mice chewed through. I found a place online that will replace all the canvas brand new for a grand....maybe in a few years. For now....I need to settle on a home-grown solution.

Here's a shot from the back-bed looking across the galley. It's something like 160 sq. ft. of living space...bigger than my first dorm room. BTW...the little girl doesn't come standard...I added that accessory myself :^)

Sink, Fridge, 3 burner stove with oven...cuz you never know when you might want fresh baked cookies while camping. This beast also flaunts a hot water heater, furnace, 2 queen beds, air conditioner and....

A hard-walled shower and....

turlet....privacy, baby...dig it.

Anyhow...today, I worked most of the morning on it...finishing up the details....Tonight was pretty much the first night that It was all set up...all cleaned...and restored...and ready to go. Well...In true Leo Family fashion...there was only one thing to do:

Eat dinner in it!! Hot dogs, beans, and beer....a good old American meal for a good old American camper.
We hung out in it afterwards....jumped on the beds...did some puzzles...ate some cookies...watched a movie....




In 2 weeks we're hitching up this baby and cruising out to Amish Country, PA for a week of camping. The Amish make a lifestyle out of generational blessing, fixing what they break, making what they can, restoring what they have, and generally being resourceful and good stewards of what they have been blessed with. Although my camper is a bit modern for their taste....the work and commitment that it took to get it there is right up their alley.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Irate, Informed, and Graced

I need to be more like Jesus.

Don't we all.

Jesus taught radical truths and, as such, spend lots of time surrounded by those who didn't share his conviction...some who you may even call "ignorant". But He didn't focus so much on the ignorant attitudes of those with whom He came into contact with as much as He did His response to them.....mercy....understanding....grace.
MAN....couldn't we all use more of that.
I mean, even Peter....a guy that had been with Him since the beginning....was so content to continually screw up, doubt, and not get it....it makes you wonder "what chance do WE have?....if a disciple who SAW Jesus do this stuff and heard His words first-hand and still screwed up so royally...what chance do I stand?"

The answer is "none". It's all about Grace.

I had an opportunity this weekend to make a choice. A Proverbs-teaching, cut and dry, wisdom-or-foolishness choice. I both succeeded and failed.

Ivy got Chicken Pox. We have dozens of friends who do not subscribe to the typical unquestioned, lobbyist-influenced, health care system that totes shots and vaccinations as the be all and end all of disease prevention. Does modern medicine have some things right? sure. Do they have TONS of things that they grandstand about for their own selfish gain while putting millions of children at risk for future permanent negative consequences to their self-proclaimed "universal solutions"? ...absolutely.
So within that parameter lies the role of the informed parent, needing to make a decision.
Our decision is a simple one....Chicken Pox has been around forever....If one of our kids catches it...we'll let the others catch it, get "infected" and get it over with. We even went so far as to invite other families with young children over to contract the virus from our daughter in hopes that they could also get it "over with". We had many takers. Over this past weekend...close to dozen children circulated through our home....playing closely with Ivy...with parents in hopes of their kids catching the virus themselves....and they also "getting it over with".

I guess that I should have expected for this idea to be met with some resistance. Especially in this uninformed, Ignorant-reactionary, believe-what-you-are-told-on-the-internet culture. But I didn't.
We didn't receive TONS of resistance...but the resistance we DID get was from radically ignorant, uninformed, uneducated, sad sources. From parents who think that what WE are doing is absolutely crazy and irresponsible but yet don't spend 2 seconds researching and educating themselves on the scores of vaccines that are being injected into the bodies of THEIR children. No thought is given as to the need for these injections...their overall effectiveness, or the contents in them (if you've read this far and have a 2 year old child who has all of their vaccine shots....they've already been injected with aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG (the same stuff that's in Chinese food), human DNA (including that of aborted fetuses), Guinea Pig or Cow embryos.....shall I go on? Yet somehow....it's my wife and I who are the "irresponsible" ones for allowing our children to be exposed to a non-lethal (at least at their age) virus with which they'll be immune to for their whole lives instead of allowing modern medicine to inject their crud-laden ( and hugely controversial) "vaccine" into our child's bodies....which may or may not even work.

Here's the part where I get pissed. Here's where I fail.

Or at least it's the part where I used to get pissed. Now...I just get sad. here's the part where I grow.
I get sad at the ignorance of our culture....and not even just the secular culture. The Christian culture that we live in has become so uninformed and secularized....so many uninformed decisions are being made for Christian children. I want to scream. It's not just the vaccinations. It's the hours that parents allow their children to be influenced by Xbox or PSP....the days and days that they allow their children to be molded by a secular coach or dance instructor in the name of "building character" while, in reality, are being corrupted by worldliness. The shopping out of their parental responsibilities to train up their children. I want to claw my eyes out. But Christ showed grace....so must I. Grace that is Greater than all Our Sins. I don't nearly have the tolerance or capacity that Christ Had. But I don't need to.
I need to daily praise Him for the education and conviction that he has given me and my family....and pray for those who need it. His grace is the only reason for any vision or guidance that we receive. I'm certainly not perfect. I'm a selfish sinner in need of huge amounts of growth. In 10 years...I hope to look back on where I am now and see HUGE amounts of growth in the life of me and my family from where we are right now. It begins by understanding, and receiving His grace.

Would you this moment His Grace receive?