Friday Blog
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- By: Jon Turk
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A few months ago the key fob that I carry to unlock the doors to our Buick Enclave started acting up. The buttons would stick down causing the lift gate to open or the alarm to go off spontaneously. After several attempts to clean the fob it became evident that I was going to need to replace it. After researching my options I discovered the key fobs for my model and year were NOT end user programmable. While I could buy the fob on Amazon I would need to take it to a locksmith (or worse, a dealer) to have it programmed. I consider myself a resourceful individual so I figured since the control board inside was fine it was just the button covers that were sticking, and it is the same shape and size as the original, I could purchase a new fob and just swap out the board. Little did I know that inside the battery contact setup was different - the new fob had a clip on the board to hold the battery but in the old fob the battery was secured in the case - making it difficult to swap out the boards. I did it anyway and tried to tape the battery in place with very limited success - the fob would open the doors one or two times before the battery would slip, losing contact so the fob stopped working. For the past two months I have been opening the doors with the key which triggers the alarm until the car is started. This has been very frustrating and I was coming to the conclusion I would have to give in and pay a locksmith to reprogram the fob.
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on them!
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This past week has been an interesting and thought provoking week for me. Last Friday I received a phone call from Stephanie Sheehan, Dean of the School of Business at Southern Adventist University, continuing a conversation that began about three months ago. We had been dialoging about an open faculty position in the School of Business at Southern that had taken several intriguing twists and turns over the course of the months long conversation. The simple summary of the phone call on Friday was "with everything that has transpired, are you still interested in teaching at Southern." On Wednesday of this week I received an official invitation from the Academic VP's office to join the School of Business faculty. Throughout the past three months both Lisa and I have felt like every time the door seems to be closing on this opportunity God has pushed the door open again (the post from March 13 is a response to incidents that happened as part of the ongoing dialogue!) Due to the vast array of evidence that seems to point to God's direction in this matter on Wednesday evening I accepted the position.
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When I was younger my brothers and I would often camp beside the pond at the top of Tumbledown Mountain in Weld, Maine (unfortunately camping is now prohibited on the mountain.) Most of the time we would be the only campers on the mountain providing a peaceful solitude away from the busyness of life. We would start at the drive-in base camp located on a long dirt road off the main highway leading into Weld and hike the nearly 3 miles along the Parker Ridge trail to the top. From this bare summit we could look down on Tumbledown pond or we could look to the south and east toward Webb lake and Mt. Blue. One of the defining features of this hike was the climb through the woods to a steep ascent that lead over three succeeding rock ledges before finally ascending Parker Ridge. As you came out of the woods all you could see was the crest of the first ledge. For a first time hiker it appears you are about to reach the summit, only to be disappointed when you finally get there and discover there is another ridge. That experience was repeated two more times as you crested ledges two and three before finally reaching the (almost) summit (if you continue on the loop trail that goes around the lake you will ascend to a higher summit before descending back down through the "chimney" and "fat man's misery" - it is far better to come UP that trail rather than try to go down!)
Fresh Articles
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At Your Age You Shouldn't Do That
"For someone your age you really should stop doing ..." Not the words you want to hear from anyone but those were precisely the words the Emergency Room doctor used to begin the conversation with me last Sunday evening. To set the full context for the conversation I had been working on replacing some rotted out fascia boards on my house that included the "bird box" on the gable end. Since this house is built on a pier and beam foundation with a 3 foot crawl space the roof line is about 10 feet off the ground. I had set up an adjustable step ladder and was standing on the second from the top wrung piecing the bird box together. The ground was a little bit uneven and the piece I was replacing was about 5 feet long so it required stretching a little bit to reach the ends if I didn't want to reposition the ladder. As I was stretching to the uphill side the ladder decided it no longer wanted to stand upright and deposited me on my back on the ground below. In my mind my ego was far more damaged than my body but my wife and daughter insisted I get medically checked out.
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Who Am I?
Last week on Thursday and Friday two candidates for President of Southwestern Adventist University were on campus and met with faculty and staff. Both candidates were asked to describe their plan for engaging faculty and staff with the vision and mission of the university. One of them, Nelu Nedelea, presented a very interesting concept - "I like to ask three questions, Who am I?, What is the context?, and What is my role." He went on to explain that generally the core of who we are doesn't change, we may grow and expand our sphere but our core beliefs and values do not change. The context and our role influence how we apply who we are to any given situation, but in the end who we are ultimately determines how we act.
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Irreplaceable?
This morning I had several people stop by the Innovation Studio to inquire about completing various projects. Most had become aware that with the school year wrapping up I would be working on tying up loose ends in preparation for our move to Tennessee. A couple of them commented to me "what is the University going to do when you are not here to run this place and do these projects?" Since I have been very intimately involved in the development and implementation of the Innovation Studio over the past three years that question, in one form or another, has been lingering in the back of my mind. I have a passion for this place and the possibility of it closing weighed heavily on my mind when I made the decision to move back to the Collegedale, Tennessee area a few weeks ago.
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What is Right with the World?
A few months ago I was watching an episode of the Canadian TV series Highway Thru Hell where Jamie Davis, owner of Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue, comments about a tow truck that is sitting in a parking lot lit up like a Christmas tree. His observation is how unnecessary it is to have all the lights flashing and that it actually increases danger rather than reducing it. His contention is that the flashing lights draw your attention away from the road toward the source of the lights increasing the probability of an accident because you miss what is right in front of you. I have heard for years that broken down cars parked on the side of the road with their hazard lights flashing at night will draw you to them causing you to wander off the road and onto the shoulder.
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Smoke or Fire
Sitting in front of my fireplace watching the logs smolder I began contemplating why the fire burns well sometimes but at others it just sits there and smolders. I know there have been times that I have brought in "green" wood that is still so wet it doesn't want to burn but there are also times when I use seasoned wood that just sits there smoldering!While growing up my family spent many weekends camping. One of the things I remember my dad doing on some of these camping trips was filling a paper cup with water and placing it in the middle of the fire. We all know that paper burns readily, much easier than wood, but the paper cup filled with water does not! As an adult sitting around a campfire with friends I demonstrated this to their teenage son. We even went so far as to boil an egg in the cup in the middle of the fire.Complicating the Simple
A few months ago the key fob that I carry to unlock the doors to our Buick Enclave started acting up. The buttons would stick down causing the lift gate to open or the alarm to go off spontaneously. After several attempts to clean the fob it became evident that I was going to need to replace it. After researching my options I discovered the key fobs for my model and year were NOT end user programmable. While I could buy the fob on Amazon I would need to take it to a locksmith (or worse, a dealer) to have it programmed. I consider myself a resourceful individual so I figured since the control board inside was fine it was just the button covers that were sticking, and it is the same shape and size as the original, I could purchase a new fob and just swap out the board. Little did I know that inside the battery contact setup was different - the new fob had a clip on the board to hold the battery but in the old fob the battery was secured in the case - making it difficult to swap out the boards. I did it anyway and tried to tape the battery in place with very limited success - the fob would open the doors one or two times before the battery would slip, losing contact so the fob stopped working. For the past two months I have been opening the doors with the key which triggers the alarm until the car is started. This has been very frustrating and I was coming to the conclusion I would have to give in and pay a locksmith to reprogram the fob.
