I am now in my 6th month of traveling to Greensboro NC weekly for work.  It’s my hope and solemn prayer that our house sells soon which will enable the family to move to Carolina.  Tonight is laundry night.  Everyone has laundry night, or laundry day, or laundry weekend (as is the case in our house).  I have one load of laundry with me here in Carolina.  And for all the laundry purists out there, I apologize I wash them all at once.

Necessity aside, laundry night always makes me more aware that being away from home is not natural.  I am a man who likes to be home, I like to be with Lynn and the kids.  I like taking kids to dance and soccer, and lacrosse, and what ever else we are involved in.  But each time I change my one load of laundry from the washer to the dryer, I am reminded of the 329 miles between me and my family.

Perhaps, when I load the dryer, I am reminded that my closet is at home, but my work is not. Well I am off to switch that load of laundry now.

It’s been a year since posting to the blog, oh my.  There are a few reasons for this, the largest has been a rather unhealthy obsession with Facebook.

I am going to give this blog another whirl, who knows perhaps I’ll actually blog the spritiual regeneration I am starting to undergo.

In February I accepted a promotion that included a relocation to the Greensboro/High Point/Winston Salem area of North Carolina.  Since February I have traveled weekly to/from North Carolina, living out of an Extended Stay in Greensboro NC.  This has been tough on the family and tough on me, but the opportunity is worth the short term distance.  Most weeks I miss my family greatly, most weeks are a countdown until the flight home Thursday nights.

In April, bored out of my gourd, and looking for something meaningful to spend an eveining doing, I happened into Christian City Church Greensboro for a Wednesday evening service.   I was transported back 11 years in my spritual journry to our first service at New Hope Community Church in 1998.  C3 Greensboro is completely different in style and size than NH.  However, there is one gigantic similarity, the people.

Since our departure from New Hope in 2004 (aside from a short return in 2007) we have drifted a bit between a few really cool churches.  First was Cornerstone in Columbia, were our former pastor was serving.  I actually fit in really well at Cornerstone, connecting with a few friends, and playing drums on the worship team.  Lynn never fit in, and in time we drifted back New Hope until the same things that drove us away from there drove us away again.  We then connected with a church plant very close to our house called Severn River Church, which is our current church home.  We feel very grounded at SRC, and fit in pretty well there.  However the rigors of only being home 72 hours per week have taken their toll on our attendance there.  At first we were busy getting our house ready to sell, now we are enjoying our family, and spending every hour we can together.

Stay tumed, I am investing some of my time in NC at C3G.  Too early to tell if the spiritual regeneration I am starting to feel will stick, and actually I am a bit gun shy after 5 years of drifting.  Actually, I am amazed that my heart has kept it’s grip on God through this time.

Cigar Friday was reborn last evening, with Ed coming down to the house for an evening of fine cigars and a few very cold beers.  I smoked a Perdomo Cabinet reserve “E” Maduro, which was probably the best cigar I have smoked this summer.  The cabinet series is quickly becoming my favorite.  Ed and I enjoyed a few Sierra Navada Pale Ale’s left over from the 4th of July.

Conversation centered around music mostly. In particuliar how difficult it is to reproduce Mercy Me’s intensity in a worship setting.  We also talked about Ed’s new acustic guitar.

I was quoted by Eric Hartley in his column over the weekend.  The article was about increased ridership on Commuter Bus Services from Annapolis to Washington DC as a result of gasoline hitting the $4.00 threshold.  Click Here to read the article.

I had lunch with my brother Matt this afternoon.  He has Thursdays off from work and we needed to discuss Mother’s day plans for Mum.  We ate at Cantina Mamma Lucia in Hanover.  Good lunch and good conversation.  My brother and I don’t get much time to chat and hang out like we used to.  It was nice to catch up. 

The prius is averaging 50 MPG. 

Our old average fuel economy (Jetta/Xterra) was 24MPG

New average fuel economy (Jetta/Prius) is 41MPG. 

Thats working out to about $14 per day saved on fuel. 

 

I drove our new Toyota Prius Hybrid last night for the first time. It’s not going to win over the hearts of those bent on high performance motoring any time soon. However, the Prius is a really nice car. I managed to average 50 MPG during my trip around town.

Some things I didn’t like so much was the acceleration and passing power is a bit sluggish, but adequate. Also, as a tall guy, I need to adjust the seat back as far as it can go on most cars, and I also need to pull the steering wheel out a little closer to me so my legs can stretch a little. The seat doesn’t adjust back as far as some other vehicles I have driven and the steering wheel only has an up and down adjustment, not in and out. I did manage to adjust the seat and wheel so I was comfortable, at least on a short jaunt around town.

Some things I really liked was computer display, and the back up camera. I am a tech junkie, graphs and technical data intrigues me. I must confess though that you can get a bit tied up in the tech and lose track of the road.

At any rate, I drove the first few of what I’m sure will be thousands of miles in the Prius. I’d give it a 4 out of 6 starrs.

From my former Pastor, Bruce’s blog:

HERE

 

Another quick week at work has passed and we are now starting another weekend.  I am actually working for a while tomorrow (very busy day at the bus yard) and the fam is headed out to a park with friends.  I may sneak down to Cambridge MD Saturday night and hang with the mens group from New Hope, who are having their annual men’s retreat. 

Sunday means church at SRC and Soccer.  With any luck we’ll be able to get out in the yard a bit this weekend.  I also would like to head to the Farmer’s co-op to find some veggies to plant. 

Should be a fun one, albeit a little quick, but fun nonetheless. 

 

So, along with many many others in the DC area we purchased a Hybrid over the weekend. We traded in the gas guzzling Nissan Xterra (15-17MPG) for a Toyota Prius (45-50MPG) and kept our VW Jetta (30-32 MPG). I get the Jetta, sweet…..

More to come on the trials and tribulations of the Prius…..