1 down 15 to go

That would be my weeks in the semester count. My physics professor is quite funny, sometimes without even realizing it. Today he sat on a cart and blew himself across the room with a CO2 tank. He spends all his time doing lab type demonstrations and stuff though, so I haven't learned much from him. He ought to try and explan what we need to know to do our hw instead of playing around with inertia and force vectors. My powerplants and a/c systems professor (same guy for both) is very good. I am learning quite a bit in those classes. And instrument ground is instrument ground. Enough said. I met an asian guy from Washington today. He is studying to be an Air Traffic Controller. I admire air traffic controllers. I need to go read some more Federal Aviation Regulations.

Ahh Saturdays

Full of homework and fun. Ross and I went to the grand opening of Prophetstown State Park today. They are going to charge $4.00 per car to get in, but today it was free. We were excited because they advertised hiking and biking trails. So we loaded our bikes into the back of Ross's truck and headed over. We found out that the bike trail was still under construction, so we couldn't use it. The hiking trail, on the other hand, was ready to use. It was a 1.7 mi roughly mown path through the seven foot tall prairie grass (and poison ivy) that was home to the Miami Indians. The park has two playgrounds and a campsite (which costs even more to use). So unless you really want to walk 1.7 miles through tall grass, I would advise that you save your money at least until the park gets another trail or some Indians move in or something of that nature. I was reading more FARs for homework today. Indianapolis is mentioned in FAR part 91.145 (a) (11) under guidelines concerning management of aircraft operations in the vicinity of aerial demonstrations and major sporting events! So exciting! I made spaghetti for the three of us tonight. It turned out pretty well considering it was the first time I ever made spaghetti.

Great housemates and Stupidity

I have really great housemates. Last night, when it was around 120 degrees and 99% humidity, Ross walked past my room and saw all the sweat pouring off my bed, and he donated one of his fans to the keep Josh cool foundation. Then Shu saw me eating my lunch of green beans and some fig bars, and he let me have some of his Japanese food. Actually it was hamburger helper, but it was cooked by a Japanese guy so it counts right? Anyway, I had my first real bike wreck of the semester due to my own stupidity. I was coming down the hill in front of my house, and I saw Ross get out of his truck and start walking across the street. So I came up with the brillitant idea of riding as fast as I could towards him and making a steep right turn towards our driveway when I was right behind him. Well the speed limit was 25, and I should hve regarded it, because I was probably doing 30 when I reached Ross. (I don't know because I don't have a speedometer) Well, I started my turn successfully, but I forgot that road bike tires on a road don't have a much friction as mountian bike tires on terrain. So I leaned all the way over (like I usually do for all my turns) and my forward inertia kept me going that direction even though my bike was sideways. I slid about ten feet in front of Ross and started laughing. (probably because my subconsious was glad to be alive) Ross said afterward that he had glanced back and seen a biker coming down the hill and thought "That kind of looked like Josh." Then he heard a squeal and saw me go sliding past and was like "Yep, that was Josh." Life on the edge is so much fun. And I have a physics recitation TA who actually speaks english (unlike my lab TA).

quick post

I have to make this quick because I still have to read the last 70 pages of FAR part 91 before tonight. And do a reading, quiz on the reading and go to a lab for physics. I just got finished flying. It took us three tries to finish up flight lesson 1 because of the weather, but we got it done. I hopefully do a short x-c to Huntington tomorrow. I had to go buy an AT 210/211/325 packet at a place that has a monopoly on them so it cost $100 for a little book. Oh well, that's all for now. I just realized what else I forgot. It was my Psalms of Praise Vol. 1 CD and my shovel.

Forgetfulness & instrument Ground Classes

I only left a few things home this year. Among my biggest losses were my good hammock and honey. I need honey to eat my oatmeal, so until I can get some, my meals will consist of cereal and bagels. As far as instrument ground goes, I was really excited about the semester until I went to it. Dr. Kliem who teaches it is a very hard woman. So I will be doing good to get a low B, and with my few credit hours, that has the potential to really hurt my G.P.A. So I will be spending much time locked in my room memorizing a bunch of rules that will change next year. But all is not lost, as I have all Tuesday mornings to study.
I just got done flying a while ago. We only got .7 hours because a bunch of low clouds were rolling in.

Homework & Old Computers

I slept in this morning. Or at least I thought I did until I realized that I set my clock an hour later than it was. Good thing I didn't use it to know when to leave for class. So I got up and went to look for a job. Didn't find it. Came home and pulled all the poison ivy and honey suckle out of my garden/flower bed that has no produce or flowers. Donations are appreciated. Then I cleaned up and did some assigned reading from physics and a/c systems. Mostly booring review stuff. then I loaded AIM on this computer (win 95 Lafayette home base computer) and I got a really old version that dosen't even have smiles. Or my buddy list. But now I will be once again operating under my jb85atpurdue name, so if you see me holler so I can put you on my list.
I think I will load hello now, so I can put pictures up.

Purdue

Well, I am now back at Purdue for another year. (They actually let me come back after I got down on my hands an knees and told them that I would be good this time!) So I moved up on Saturday afternoon and spent the Sabbath with the Lafayette congregation. There are probably about 20 incoming freshmen that attended services (Including David Kissick) (who said he was going to try to get a bunch of his friends from Covenant to come) (also including a bunch of kids from Heritage on Rut's recommendation) (I would have hated to be called a kid as a freshman last year) so getting back to my original sentence, the college class almost doubled. (Praise the Lord) Pastor Long had a meeting at his house last night and kind of went over what we would be trying to do this semester, and I for one am very excited. Today I had my first round of classes starting at 7:30-9:20 with flight, 10:30-11:20 with aircraft systems, 12:30-1:20 physics (On the far NE corner of campus), and Advanced power plants from 1:30-2:20 (On the far SW corner of campus). Tomorrow I only have Instrument ground class from 5:30-7:20. Maybe I will write about it on my free off-campus dial up connection from Purdue that Ross found for us.

Been a while.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been quite busy packing, working on Stacey's room, finishing up my last week at work and doing my wrist therapy whenever I get a chance between all that. But I finished working my last night just a few hours ago, and now I am fooling myself into thinking that I will be able to get up in time for my doctor's appointment (hopefully my last) if I finish this post in a reasonable amount of time. I finished up all of my flying on Wednesday, Thank the Lord for great weather! And I will be going up to Lafayette tomorrow. :( I will be kind of sad to leave the security and love of home, but I am trusting God to keep me during my stay in the world. I can't really think of anything else to say, so I will bid you all good night. or good morning. depending on how you look at it.

Summer Days

are almost gone. I leave for school in less than a week. It's a good time to look back over my break and ask myself what I accomplished with it. Did I achieve all the goals I had set out to go for this summer? I think I did a lot of what I was hoping to do. I got a job and tried to save up some money for rent and such. (Of course I ended up blowing it all on my airplane rental.) One of the biggest disappointments of the summer though, was that I never got to go mountain biking with Stacey. :( We've been loving the sport for years now, but haven't ridden together yet. It didn't really help any that my bike was stolen either. Oh well, maybe next year, if God see fit to give us that much time. I'm sorry if you were looking for an upbeat post right now, but the prospect of leaving my family, food, and friends behind once again has me in kind of a melancholy mood so I can't really help it. My managers all say they are sorry to see me leave. That might be a good thing because that means they will probably want me back next summer.

flyin' high

I went flying again today. Flew all the way out to the middle of Iowa and landed in the middle of a corn field. (It was a paved runway, but there was corn growing within five feet of every side.) So I refueled and came back across the Iowa, Mississippi, and Illinois rivers to my sweet Indiana home. I got up to 7,000 feet when I found a hole in the clouds, but I decided I ought to go back down through the same hole so I wouldn't get stuck up there. Flying above the clouds is so beautiful. Anyway, after seven hours I got home and went to work. Nothing eventful happened at work. But I did get to IM Brad when I got home.

Flyin' low

Yesterday Ross and I went to Lafayette (where I stopped by Wal-Mart and asked for a job) and then to Terre Haute and back to Eagle Creek. We saw a house that was just finishing up getting burned to the ground. :( But the weather was beautiful! :) We had clear blue skies and smooth air. I got current to take passengers. (Ross is a flight instructor so I could take him.) Today I flew to Danville Ill. and back very slowly. I was going to go north after I reached Danville, but I saw a ton of clouds and decided that it wouldn't be so great for me to fly into them. Eagle Creek is under Indianapolis class C airspace so I have to make sure I stay low so I don't bust into it. I've got a grand total of 5.8 hours of flight so I still need a lot more to get all 15 in. Yes! Bible study tonight! and I didn't have any freak accidents in the plane like some Australian Sparrow getting stuck in the engine intake and causing engine failure. Or a dogfight with an Elephant bird.

running like crazy

This is going to take a long time to type because I have to keep scratching muffin with one hand or she will get up and leave. It is rare for her to let anyone scratch her, so I must treasure the moment and leave my right hand to type alone. Anyway, Brian and I, who both had the day off, got up really early so we could go running with Eric before he had to go to work. Early as in 5:30 am. So we were supposed to meet at Holiday park at 6:00. Well I got there at 6, Brian got there a little later because he turned off his alarm too soon, and the two of us started running at 6:45 after we assumed that Eric had forgotten or slept in and decided it was to late to come when he got up. We had a great run, and decided that we were both really out of shape. When I got home I found this hilarious message on my phone by the missing member of our group. He was sooo groggy he could hardly talk and he was like "I am really sorry Josh, I just woke up and slept through my alarm.... and.... Uuughhh uuuhhhh (breathing).... ummm....I'm really sorry...." It was really funny, and I am sure that Brian and I are none the worse off for getting up early. (aside from the fact that I will only have had five hours off sleep before my first flight in months unless I take a nap) So I took my car (Dad's car) over to Ziebart to get the mirror fixed, and the guy writes down my name and takes my keys and stuff, then he grabs the mirror and heads out to the car, I was thinking "wow this is going to be fast" but the guy takes the mirror out of the box and it slides to the ground and shatters. He stood there for a second in shock and said Something Something Something in a little more colorful language. Then he apologized and said that he would get a new one in by the afternoon. So I went to rehab and came home to finish writing this post. I can't wait to download hello so I can start putting up my pictures.

Time to fly

With only a few weeks left before school, I really need to get my 15 hours in. So I am scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and only one person has asked to fly with me. Prayers for good weather on aforesaid days would be appreciated. Not much happened today, so I will go work on my other blog.

booring night

I got home from work to an empty house tonight. Stacey went camping and canoeing with CYA (which I couldn't do because I had to work :(. ) and everybody else went to Evansville. So it is the prefect setting for HOME BY HIMSELF 1! Yeah. Whatever. I will probably finish this up and go to bed.

rehab

The rehab program I am on is kind of painful. But I just think of Mrs. Long sitting at home and then it's not so bad. I finally got permission to fly from my AME (Air Medical Examiner) so now I need to start renting planes. If any of you have an extra line at the end of your prayers, could you ask for nice weather for me? Thanks. I had a day off today so I worked on mudding Stacey's room. I lost a lot of skill from not mudding for a year. Might also be that I can only use my left hand. I decided that mudding is not my calling. Sanding I can do, but my hands aren't steady enough to mud. Well, I got to go do some more therapy. Hang in there Mrs. Long.

Marriage

When at Calvin, I was quizzing Aaron on the catechism and we got to the question on "What is a Sacrament?" the answer is "A Sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to believers." So I was looking over a list of sacraments and saw only Baptism and the Lord's Supper. So we were wondering why marriage was not included. Is it not a holy ordinance? Was it not instituted by Christ? And are not the benefits of the new covenenat (in that we as a church shall be the bride of Christ) represented in it? So my question is "Why do you think it should or should not be a sacrament?"

life as a cashier

Ahh... the wonderful life of a cashier! (I got to go back since I got my cast off) with people blowing up in your face because you can't take visa as debit, or getting $15 worth of stuff and giving you a hundred dollar bill, or getting $185 worth of stuff and giving you 185 ones. (all of which happened to me today) Then there are my pet peeves like the folks who walk right past the belt and expect you to pull all the stuff out of their cart for them or ask if they should have put their stuff on it. (No way! don't put anything on the belt! It's just there for looks!) This may sound kind of mean, but it is all worth it when one of those types are followed by a regular customer who actually laughs out loud about their actions. The guy that blew up about not being able to use his visa was like "Do you take cash?" and when the next guy came up to me, he was like "Do you take cash?" and he started laughing so hard he almost fell over. Yeah. Anyway, I had a pretty eventful day without anything really happening. Goodnight.

Wednesday

My last full day of conference, I did the usual prayer meeting and breakfast. Then after some singing of Psalms, Pastor Donnelly spoke on "Living out our calling." One point that hit me was when he spoke about the sinfulness of trying to escape the Earth. I realized that I have not really been content with my life down here, and a lot of my time is spent hoping that I will die as soon as possible and thereby gain Heaven that much sooner. It's not that I hate life, it's just that I would much rather be living in perfection. But God has a current purpose for my life now, and I need to focus on obeying that call. Who am I? That I should think myself worthy enough to shun my fellow man and fly to the arms of my Savior without so much as even trying to bring one or two with me? As Thomas Watson said: "Had we the kingdom of heaven as soon as ever grace was infused, then God would lose much of His glory. ... Where would be the active service we are to do for God? Would we have God give us a kingdom and we do nothing for Him before we come there? Would we have read before labor, a crown before victory? ... Paul was content to stay out of heaven awhile that he might be a means of bringing others thither." After the college class we had lunch, and most of the college group went to Lake Michigan. We threw frisbees around for a while, but when everybody started organizing different sports, I was left to wander the dunes with me, myself, and my cast. It was nice to see all of God's good creation, but it got kind of boring after awhile. The bus ride there and back was really good though. I took about an hour each way, so I got to have some really deep conversations, and get to know some people a lot better. While we were gone I got to miss the chamber music concert. :( bummer. But I did get to see the end of the Bible bowl GO Southside! and the Wittnesses unto me program- quite moving, especially since mist of the book of Acts was read, and I had just been studying it. Isn't it amazing how God can work two unrelated programs together to complement each other for His glory? Amen! Anyway, I went to the Short terms missions thing which pretty much encouraged me to go on a short term mission trip. Then we tried to get into the observatory, but it was locked! oh well. Went to bed. Got up the next morning, had breakfast with Jared (the new Lafayette pastor) and hit the long road home. For a long time I drove in silence and contemplated the conference, but half-way into Indiana I decided to see how many of my tapes I could play before I got home. I think it was four.