Happy 200,000th, The White Whale!

If you've ever seen what I drive, you've wondered why I drive what I drive.

Good question! Well, it all goes back to my old Vanagon days (sorry, no picture handy, if you're not familiar they look like this. I loved my Vanagon! Anyway, when I was working at the pipe organ shop, I still had the Vanagon but the transmission was on its way out. The shop had this The White Whale (Ford Club Wagon) and it was about to be replaced, and the owner thought I might want it as a replacement for my Vanagon. I really didn't want it. The Vanagon was cool. There is nothing cool about The White Whale. But I thought about it because I thought I might get a good deal on it and then could fix a few things and resell it at a profit.

One day the brakes went out on The White Whale, just after an expensive cooling system repair, and the boss was not happy. Knowing that there was likely to be a discount for a van with no brakes, and knowing that I could fix it, I inquired once again about the van. He said "if you get it out of here, its yours!".

Oh!! Well, ok, then.

So I drove it home, sslloowwwlllyyyy, in first gear (the parking brake didn't really work either, but was slightly better than dragging feet), repaired the brakes, and had this... van. thing. So I thought... cool! I can probably get a couple thousand for this thing! Oh, but wait, dad needs to haul some lumber first. We'll do that, then I'll sell it.

Then all of a sudden, uh, oh, I need to move to Burlington to do a summer training program with the Navigators in Burlington. An 8 passenger van would be hugely useful for that. I'll sell it after the training program is over.

Then, woops, suddenly I'm doing odd jobs and home repairs to make money while returning to school... It'll be really useful for picking up supplies.

Then I got a normal (sort of) job. Now I can sell it, right?!

Uh, oh, but wait. Now a church friend needs help with a move. Another bought a large item and needs to pick it up. And then another friend. And another move.

And so it looks like I may be stuck with The White Whale for a while longer. But as soon as God doesn't have any more uses for it to serve the body of Christ....

.... I'm gonna sell it.

New Hampshire Wedding (Peter and Betsy)

My 2006 wedding organ-playing gig was in Lyme, New Hampshire this past Saturday. A great time! While I was practicing, I was thinking my days of playing for weddings for free would be over after this. That final week was some grueling practice! (And I really needed more, will make sure to start sooner next time!) But then the weekend started, and it quickly all seemed worth it, as it always does. There's nothing like a Christian wedding. From now on I'm going to play at all the Christian weddings I can (for people I know at least). I didn't know very many people there, but most of the people had something in common... they belonged to the family of God, and you could tell. I didn't know a single person at my table at the rehearsal dinner, but by the end of the dinner, I did. Great fun. The highlight of the whole weekend was being invited to stay nextdoor to the church with an old GMS friend and his wife (Alasdair and Lauren) and hang out with their other guests. I only knew the hosts, and that only from our 9 week summer training program in 2003, but everyone took an interest in me and I felt totally included even though I was the stranger. And foosball! What a great 3 games of foosball! (Didn't hurt that Alasdair and I cleaned house). :-)

Coolest one-degree-of-separation story... one of the people I met at the rehearsal dinner table is a recent Dartmouth grad who will be starting a job as tutor for Bruce Springsteen's kids... how cool is that? A Christian teaching those kids? What if Bruce Springsteen becomes a believer?? Hey, dare to think and pray big!

So anyway, as is often the case I was a dunce and didn't use my camera at the wedding, but here's some cool stuff:

Pictures of Peter and Betsy in our GMS 2003 days: clickclickclickclick

And here's the cool ox cart I got to bring home: clickhereclickhere

My New Place!

At long last, the pics of my new place!


Decorated for Christmas (these pics are a month or two old now but never before published)

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A Mexican Luau, um, er, something like that last night (what the place looks like with people in it!)

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Our cool new olde clock

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2005 Christmas Party!

***Feb 21 update: More pictures! (Scroll down for the links to the old pictures)

During my two years as house manager of Lambda Iota Society, my favorite time of year was December and January, when the students were gone and I could do some partying of my own with the whole mansion to myself. When I moved out about two and a half months ago, I thought that era was over, but in the interim after I moved out but before they were able to find a new manager, I helped them out enough (especially with getting the ancient heating system ready for winter) that I decided I should feel free to ask if I could use the place for a church Christmas Party once again. The answer was a pretty emphatic "yes".

This year was especially fun because this was the first Christmas party since my church officially started up its singles ministry, which we call "college and career" group. Being on the leadership team of this has been a lot of fun, and it's stayed remarkably free of a "meat market" feel. So this was the official church singles ministry Christmas party... yep, a dance party in a frat house, gasp gasp! We weren't allowed to spike the eggnog this year though. In fact, we didn't even have eggnog. Oh well, can't have everything!

So here's what we did:

7PM to 7:45 arrival, hangout, etc.

7:45 to 8PM Christmas readings. Someone read a short advent reading about the history of Christmas and debate over the actual date of Christ's birth and possible reasons for choosing the month and date of the holiday and for choosing the year we chose for 1AD, which is most likely not the actual year Christ was born. Then someone else read Matthew's account of Christ's birth, and another read the story of Jesus and Nicodemus from John 3. Then I read another advent reading about the purpose of Jesus (a bit of the easter story) which was to save us from sin and make possible eternal life for all who believe in him.

8PM to 9PM swing dance lessons from a professional-type swing dance guy

9PM to 1AMish dancing, pool, hangout, whatever

Here's the pics I took. Unfortunately I forgot to take any until much of the action was over. Fortunately, lots of other people took digital photos so maybe I can post those soon if I can get them to email them to me:

Founders Room Pics

Foyer and Library Pics

An Apology

(From What's Happening: A New Era)
Today I have removed a provocative picture from my website. If you have seen it, you know the picture I'm talking about. If you haven't seen it, that's good, let's keep it that way. :)

The picture was drawn on my whiteboard on the outside of the door to my room at the Lambda Iota frat house where I had a live-in job. The artist's intent, presumably, was to make a mockery of my faith and perhaps to tempt me, both of which the Owls (which is what Lambda Iota brothers call themselves) often did attempt.

I had a number of reasons for posting this picture here. Some were good reasons, some were sinful ones, but if you saw the picture I want to ask your forgiveness for all of the reasons, because even the best ones do not outweigh the poor taste of posting the picture.

I wanted to portray how lost the frat guys are and what foolishness the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen seems to them. Some readers may think that since I'm a born-again Christian living in a frat house, surely this house must be tamer than the stereotypical frat house. I wanted my readers to understand that it is not.

I wanted to challenge the Pharisee in all of us. The one that would criticise Jesus for spending time with the lost. To show by example that living in a bubble is no way to reach the lost. This is where the picture failed most miserably. It managed to offend, but not just the pharisee in us, but everything good in us as well. It also could easily have caused someone to stumble. Perhaps it did. It was wrong for me to try to offend any part of us. In return for the bad, we got nothing good. There was nothing about the picture or accompanying words that showed any good example.

The reason I stayed in the frat house after the GMS 2003 was over, was that I hoped to facilitate further ministering of the gospel in this house. There were plans to have another GMS in 2004 (which we did) and the University of Vermont Navs group was going to have their weekly meetings in the Founder's Room after being invited to do so by the chairman of the Board of Governers. The thought of bringing the gospel into such a dark place was very exciting. These plans gradually fell through, and it was down to me versus the Owls. GMS 2004 did happen, but relations between The Navigators and the Owls were more tense than in 2003, and GMS 2005 stayed somewhere else for that reason. The idea of using the Founder's Room for weekly Navs nights ended after just 2 or 3 meetings for various reasons. By myself I failed miserably at ministering to these guys. I spent most of my time with them trying to patch up conflicts (especially after forgetting to buy toilet paper!). Feeling that I was doing more harm than good for the gospel was the primary reason that I moved out of the house, though it is also true that I'm now too busy with church ministries and with my job to fulfill my duties there. The hassles involved no longer outweighed the advantages of "free" rent and utilities.

My stay at Lambda Iota did end on a sweet note. As I was moving the last of my things out, it happened to be a "pledging night" for the new recruits. That I was "allowed" to be there at all is pretty remarkable actually. Part of the unwritten deal for me staying there was that I would make myself scarce during pledging because it could spoil the mood and I might get in on their secrets. After a while, they trusted me enough to stay out of the way that they no longer asked me to leave but just asked me to lay low. On this particular night, as I was leaving, they very seriously yet excitedly invited me to join the fraternity. It will be difficult for most readers to understand what a big thing this is, but it was quite amazing, and was initiated by one the guys that I thought would be most happy to be rid of me. Of course I politely declined, but was very touched.

I pray and plead with you and with God to forgive my poor taste in what I posted, and pray and plead with God that perhaps I and other Christians who have been through the house left more of a planted seed for the gospel of Jesus Christ in Lambda Iota than it feels like we did. Thank you.

The End of an Era

The Lambda Iota era is over for Andy! I'm both glad and sad about this, mostly glad, but I have become quite fond of the place. Moving out has been part of the great Andy's-life-simplification project as outlined in my previous "What's Happening".

It all began in the summer of 2003. Until that point, I had never set foot in a fraternity house. I was working as a woodworker for Russell & Co Organ Builders in southern Vermont, my childhood stomping ground, when I made the decision that being in Burlington as part of Christ Memorial Church was more important than following my dream of building pipe organs. (This dream isn't entirely dead yet, so watch out!). :-) I decided my excuse for coming back to Burlington would be to return to school to finish up my Bachelors in engineering (I had a two-year degree from '99).

Then I realized, if I came back 2 months early, I could be a team leader for the very first annual Green Mountain Summer, a Christian summer training program for college students and recent grads. So I did! Wow! What a summer! We rented two fraternity houses to house all the people, and one of them was Lambda Iota. Its a good thing I didn't know then what I know now! Near the end of the summer, the Board of Governors of the frat (made up of alumni that have stayed in the area) were looking for a year-round manager of the house and got wind that I was planning to stay in Burlington. They asked if I'd stay on as house facilities manager. In return for free room, satellite TV, DSL internet connection, and utilities, I would oversee the house, make sure the pipes didn't freeze, keep the board abreast of what the kids were doing, keep track of keys, etc. I did some house repairs for an hourly rate.

On the first day of October 2005, 2 years and 3 or 4 months from the day I moved in with all the Navigators students, I moved out into an apartment with a roommate from church, close to church and work. So it is time to reflect a bit on a very interesting couple of years! I went through cycles of popularity and unpopularity with the brothers, but as I packed the last of my things, they asked me if I wanted to join! I was honored and had to stop and think about that. In the end, I'm just too busy to be memorizing old Owl songs and histories, and I'm not totally sure how much alcohol one must consume during pledging (I kept my word and never set foot in the Chapter Room, nor observed any pledging ceremonies).

So, without further adeau, here's the tour! More is sure to come, but this should be enough to stop y'all from harrassing me for a while (kidding! kidding!):

GMS 2003 page 1
GMS 2003 page 2
GMS 2003 page 3 <--comment 12/5/05
My Nest: The Office
My Nest: The Bedroom <--comment 12/5/05
My Nest: The Living Room
Outside <--comment 12/19/05
An apology and a word about ministry <--comment 11/28/05

Filing for Financial Timeancial Bankruptcy

This has been a summer, a year really, of crisis for me. This is a good thing, it turns out, since as I've said before, finding truth usually begins with a crisis.

I've been carrying huge amounts of baggage without fully knowing it. Basically I've allowed all sorts of physical things ("stuff") and all sorts of goals and promises to pile up so high as to become completely unmanageable. I really knew something was wrong this summer when I was finding I didn't have time to go sailing... even the urge to go sailing wasn't there so much. This is a clear sign that something is wrong! The problem, I've realized, isn't that I've lost interest in sailing but that I've been stressed about a lot of things and taking time out to sail or do anything fun adds to that stress. Until the last month or two I thought my problem was just that I needed better time management. This was pretty depressing, frankly, because I wasn't sure I could do it. A month or two ago, I discovered what now seems obvious: just get rid of all the stuff! (duh). So I'm rolling up my sleeves for some serious spring cleaning.

I've realized that part of my problem is rooted in wanting to save up treasures on earth. In my case, the "treasures" seem to consist mostly of "things I want to do before I die". I've never been very interested in the accumulation of things that impress other people, and so I've assumed I am not materialistic. It turns out that materialism has many forms. So why am I so worried about getting stuff done before I die? I suppose it must be that I don't believe that being with God (in heaven) actually is better than being here. I'm not trusting God. Now that I've realized this, the thought of giving up a lot of earthly things for the sake of the kingdom, something that I would have been very reluctant to do a year ago, now seems not only necessary, but exciting.

I started by putting together a list of all the stuff that needs to, well, get off the list. Not all is stuff that I can just drop... it does need to be taken care of.

Wanna hear some of the things I've had on my plate?

Full time work

Part time school (trying to finish up a long-elusive bachelor's degree), with a 2-hour-round-trip drive several times per week

Playing organ in church, and maintaining the organ

Assistant home fellowship group leader in church

Facilities manager of a UVM fraternity house

Promised renovations to said fraternity house, before an inspection (only 3 days left, yikes!)

Part time "odd jobs" for side income

Part time pipe organ repair for side income

A pile of items to sell on ebay

A small rowboat I'm supposed to repair for someone

The "guts" of an upright piano action I promised to repair for someone

An antique practice organ at my parent's house, all taken apart to restore "someday"

Two old VW Vanagons at my parent's house, one to fix "someday" and one for parts

A promise to a friend to help fix his trailer, do some yard work, and some renovations to his house.


This is a very partial list, but you get the idea. No wonder I am failing at everything!

I'm happy to say that this list is already much shorter. A few things were just dropped completely, others just have to be finished, and I'm getting there. Unfortunately, this mistake I made has nearly cost me a summer, and in Vermont, summers are very precious. I've learned that in these parts, one's whole year must revolve around the summer. You've gotta have your ducks in a row before it comes, or you could miss it, as I am (partially) doing this year. But at least now I know my problem, have a plan to get out of it, and I'm excited about it.

So, once I get the above list whittled away, I have a one-year plan, woo-hoo! My one-year plan is as follows:

Excel at work (since I have a great job right now, school may be on hold for this year anyway)

Excel at being a home fellowship group assistant leader in church

Excel at playing the organ at church

Be in a position to buy a house after a year (I put this last because it is the most "negotiable" of the four).


Notice I'm not counting summer activities here, like sailing or camping. Summer is another story. It will be set aside to some degree, for summeresque activities.

My life plan? That's still in the works, but I think this year will help me figure that out.

Your prayers in this matter would be greatly appreciated. That I stay focused on the things that are eternal, not on things that pass away. I am not saying that excelling at work or playing the organ or buying a house have much to do with eternity (though anything can, indirectly), but that focusing on what is eternal allows me to let go of extra "things I want to accomplish before I die", that are holding me back from running the race set before me.

Another Wedding! Mystic, CT this time.

Yep, it was another wedding weekend. I was just a pew-sitter at this one, which was a nice break. The wedding was actually in Rhode Island, but what I failed to realize until we got there was that the reception would be in Mystic, Connecticut, right on the Mystic River. Cool! I have relatives in town, but didn't get a chance to visit, but got the bug to visit them soon. Although the Mystic area did not have the "I wish I could live here" feel that Philadelphia had last weekend, it did scream "COME VISIT... AND BRING YOUR SAILBOAT!!!"

Here's the pictures

Philadephia Wedding

This past weekend (6/4/05 and 6/5/05) I was in Philadelphia to play the organ for a friend's wedding (an old roommate). Very stressful, but went well so it was great fun! The organ was huge and loud (or quiet... if you want) and cool and full of buttons! Fun fun.

Here's my singing bowl.
This was my third trip ever to Philadelphia, and I'm even more convinced that its the best place ever! If you go to Philadelphia, here's two tips that can save you a bit of embarrassment:

1) The outside doors often open in (I actually knocked on my hotel lobby front door thinking it was locked, but just didn't try pushing. Yes, I'm aware of the Far Side cartoon... wise guy) ;)

2) The string hanging from the ceiling in public bathrooms is NOT the light switch. Its the "I've fallen, and I can't get up" panic signal.

Here's some photo sets from my trip:

Views from the Hotel Room

A Short Walk Down Spruce Street

The World's Largest Pipe Organ -- In Department Store

Me practicing at the Organ at 10th Pres for the Wedding <--Comment 10/14/05

My Hotel Room