Out of Gas
I spent most of the morning trying to get my wife's car to start. Since I am not automotively-inclined, I am piecing together the anatomy of what went wrong to cause the problem:
1) We had to keep her car out in the driveway for a couple days because her side of the garage's garage door mechanism was broken (that was an issue that our wonderful neighbor Mike fixed for us...I was like a novice nurse with an experienced surgeon handing him his tools and providing an extra hand but little brain power and expertise to the surgery).
2) It has been colder than Moscow in Pennsylvania. I had offered my side of the garage but she declined (we didn't know the weather was going go go freon on us). I should have given it to her anyway (chivalry should live).
3) She has a tendency to run low on gas. Being efficiently-minded, she doesn't want to go to the gas station more than necessary, so she used her low fuel warning light and sound as a alert that she needs gas. Me, I am at the gas station no later than when I am down to a quarter tank.
I could go on a rant how her "efficiency" mantra can become inefficient (like when she runs out of stuff that she needs, when she could have bought more easily before...like er, gas? Not that this has happened previously under normal weather conditions).
I routinely overbuy and overstock which has caused me to throw years-old food away and tossing out stockpiled pens whose ink has dried up. Don't even ask about the 20 cans of furniture polish that I had in reserve at my bachelor pad in case I ever had the inclination to dust--which I did not.
Although when we went to go and rent out the place, I used almost every can of the furniture polish I had cleaning the dust off of the woodwork. Pretty ironic. Before that, my pad looked like Winter Wonderland (or Dirty Dustland, depending on how you look at it). But there are times when I need to get something that I have bought and stocked-up to help her with something that she needs. As a rule, her approach is better and does save time and money. But I am right in my approach enough to argue the point and be at least somewhat smug.
4) 1,2, & 3 conspired to cause the water in the gas tank and the fuel lines to condense and freeze. Apparently, according to something I read on the web, one should keep at least a half a tank of gas in the gas tank when it gets very cold outside. In the process of trying to get the car to start, the battery ran down. It had almost turned over but by the time the engine was warm enough to start the battery was too low on power. I knew that this could happen. Lesson: Sometimes when trying to solve one problem, we create others.
So, I called my wife and got the Triple A information from her for her car. A little more than an hour later, the Triple A guy showed up. In trying to jump start our car, I depleted his portable battery charger. So, we had to roll the car out the driveway and do the jumper cable thing. After he revved his engine, my wife's car turned over. Then, I went down to Turkey Hill and bought a tank of gas.
This whole process reminded me of a book that I have been reading called "Inspirit Revolution: The Art of Transformative Encouragement." (click "Out of Gas" title for the link to Amazon). It got me thinking of a parallel. People are often so discouraged (a combination of within and without) from the cold of life and being out of gas/low on batteries (so the speak) to the point where someone from the outside has to come out into the cold, give them a jump, and fill them up. Kind of a spiritual Triple A. I did have an extra can of gas but, of course, no spare battery.
Yesterday in church, I read a Scripture verse in the bulletin that was the Benediction...the phrase was "eternal encouragement." I think it was out of Colossians somewhere (I have not been able to find the verse in Colossians).
But I did find the same phrase in 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17 in the NIV:
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
"Eternal Encouragement" wow! A power that never runs down and low. As we seek out God, He fills and charges us up. Then, we can help "jump start" others and give them some gas to get them back on the road.
1) We had to keep her car out in the driveway for a couple days because her side of the garage's garage door mechanism was broken (that was an issue that our wonderful neighbor Mike fixed for us...I was like a novice nurse with an experienced surgeon handing him his tools and providing an extra hand but little brain power and expertise to the surgery).
2) It has been colder than Moscow in Pennsylvania. I had offered my side of the garage but she declined (we didn't know the weather was going go go freon on us). I should have given it to her anyway (chivalry should live).
3) She has a tendency to run low on gas. Being efficiently-minded, she doesn't want to go to the gas station more than necessary, so she used her low fuel warning light and sound as a alert that she needs gas. Me, I am at the gas station no later than when I am down to a quarter tank.
I could go on a rant how her "efficiency" mantra can become inefficient (like when she runs out of stuff that she needs, when she could have bought more easily before...like er, gas? Not that this has happened previously under normal weather conditions).
I routinely overbuy and overstock which has caused me to throw years-old food away and tossing out stockpiled pens whose ink has dried up. Don't even ask about the 20 cans of furniture polish that I had in reserve at my bachelor pad in case I ever had the inclination to dust--which I did not.
Although when we went to go and rent out the place, I used almost every can of the furniture polish I had cleaning the dust off of the woodwork. Pretty ironic. Before that, my pad looked like Winter Wonderland (or Dirty Dustland, depending on how you look at it). But there are times when I need to get something that I have bought and stocked-up to help her with something that she needs. As a rule, her approach is better and does save time and money. But I am right in my approach enough to argue the point and be at least somewhat smug.
4) 1,2, & 3 conspired to cause the water in the gas tank and the fuel lines to condense and freeze. Apparently, according to something I read on the web, one should keep at least a half a tank of gas in the gas tank when it gets very cold outside. In the process of trying to get the car to start, the battery ran down. It had almost turned over but by the time the engine was warm enough to start the battery was too low on power. I knew that this could happen. Lesson: Sometimes when trying to solve one problem, we create others.
So, I called my wife and got the Triple A information from her for her car. A little more than an hour later, the Triple A guy showed up. In trying to jump start our car, I depleted his portable battery charger. So, we had to roll the car out the driveway and do the jumper cable thing. After he revved his engine, my wife's car turned over. Then, I went down to Turkey Hill and bought a tank of gas.
This whole process reminded me of a book that I have been reading called "Inspirit Revolution: The Art of Transformative Encouragement." (click "Out of Gas" title for the link to Amazon). It got me thinking of a parallel. People are often so discouraged (a combination of within and without) from the cold of life and being out of gas/low on batteries (so the speak) to the point where someone from the outside has to come out into the cold, give them a jump, and fill them up. Kind of a spiritual Triple A. I did have an extra can of gas but, of course, no spare battery.
Yesterday in church, I read a Scripture verse in the bulletin that was the Benediction...the phrase was "eternal encouragement." I think it was out of Colossians somewhere (I have not been able to find the verse in Colossians).
But I did find the same phrase in 2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17 in the NIV:
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
"Eternal Encouragement" wow! A power that never runs down and low. As we seek out God, He fills and charges us up. Then, we can help "jump start" others and give them some gas to get them back on the road.
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