What Is That Smell?

It’s been a long time since I’ve gone camping. Now, I don’t really considering staying a cabin to really be camping, but it’s the closest I’ve come in quite a few years.

This weekend was a really good one. I left with a friend at about 3pm to head ‘up north’. We made a stop at Birch Run to walk around and do a little shopping. We went to dinner at Pizzeria Uno, then headed up. We got there at about 8:15pm; there were about 10 people there already. By about 9:30 or so everyone was there, about 40 people.

We had a bonfire each night. The ‘keeper of the fire’ did an impressive job with keeping the fire big and hot. Saturday night’s fire was so hot that the flames were actually blue. I felt like I was sitting on planet Mercury warming myself by the sun.

We had three study sessions on Saturday, and one on Sunday morning. The topic was very interesting. We talked about Jesus’ presence through out the Old Testament. The pastor that led the discuss showed us how to read the writings of the prophets and constantly ask the question, where is Jesus in this. In particular we read through Psalm 1, and analyzed it verse by verse. It was pretty interesting. This is apparently one of the approaches that Luther took in his studies.

Anyway, like I said the weekend was really good. I met lots of people that I didn’t know. I met a couple people that I went to high school with, and one person that I haven’t seen since I was in school at St John.

The one and only low point of the weekend was an unidentifiable aroma that almost visibly hung in the air of one of the guys bunk rooms. The question most heard in that room was ‘what is that smell’?
The weather was hot and sticky. The air in the room was heavy with musty humid moldy smells, along with the sweat that naturally occurs in that weather. Being in the woods we were all wearing bug spray, which added another layer to the smell. The smell of smoke from the bonfires was also distinguishable. What wasn’t distinguishable was several other layers of odor that I think I am a better person for not knowing their source.

We left on Sunday right after lunch. We made it home by about 4 or so. The first thing I did was jump in the shower, and throw my clothes in the laundry, to get rid of ‘that smell’. I had a few people come over to watch the Pistons game. A couple that I met at the retreat came over as well as a couple other friends. As the game progressed ‘that smell’ became detectable again, but this time it was coming through the TV and it’s source was down in San Antonio, Texas.

Busy Days and Broken Toilets

It always seems that as the temperature climbs my calendar gets fuller, especially the weekends. I am coming off my first solo close at work. Which has kept me very busy during the day. Life in general has kept me very busy in the evenings.

This coming weekend I am going on a retreat up at Loon Lake (I never heard of it either). It should be fun though. I am going with a bunch of people from my Bible study group, we call ourselves ‘FaithWorks’ (http://faithworksstjohnrochester.blogspot.com/).
In a couple of weeks a few of us are going to a music festival thing down in Ohio. It’s a Christian music thing. There is going to be a couple dozen bands, speakers, seminars, in addition to other things like a water park and various other activities. I am taking Michael with me. I figure this will be a good opportunity to spend time with him, expose him to different kinds of music than what he normally listens too, and let him meet some of the kids that he’ll be in the youth group with next year.

I have spent the last several days getting things together and figuring out what I need to accomplish prior to each of these trips. On Monday night I got home from running errands, just in time to watch the Pistons win game 7 of the conference finals. I sit down on the couch and I notice this odd noise, like water running, but not a noise I normally hear. Going to investigate I realize the noise is coming from the tank on my toilet. It was making this odd hissing noise. I pulled up the plunger thing and made the noise stop. This stopped it but only for a short time. But the game was on so I put it out of my mind.

Getting ready for bed that I used it and it flushed just fine. I decided to look into fixing it the next day after work. Tuesday morning after using it I flushed and…nothing happened. Opening the tank I realized the plunger thing was all the way down and the water was rushing in non-stop, but the tank was not filling. Inspite of not having any caffiene yet I knew I needed to turn off the water. I also knew I was in for a lesson on how toilets work. At work I found a website called toiletology 101. It was full of very helpful information. I learned things I had no idea about. Like the valve thing at the bottom of the tank that seals it allowing the water to fill up has a name. That valve thing is called a ‘flapper’. And every other part inside your toilet tank has an actual name as well. This all makes perfect sense but have you ever opened your toilet and asked yourself ‘what is this piece called?’ I never had.

Anyway, I figured out what I needed to do to get it fixed. I went to Home Depot and bought the replacement parts. With a little bit of help from my Dad (he had the tool that I discovered I didn’t have and didn’t realize I would ever need) I got the job done in less than an hour. Now the toilet is fixed and is much quieter than before. So things are good again at the Ragryph house.

I’ll fill you in on the happenings of the retreat when I get back.