Dune, Escape Room, and the Dancing Guy

Saturday Beth and I had a date night and we did something we haven’t done in a long time…go to a movie! We went out for sushi and then to the theater to see “Dune.” Good movie, and it’s been so long since I read the book that I don’t remember anything that was left out. Missy went trick-or-treating with a friend of hers while Beth and I were on the date night Saturday. They went out and around the village in Winona Lake for a while. Missy was a random fantasy character: she had on elf ears, a flowing skirt, a corset, and carried a sword. Her friend was the Great Pumpkin, or at least had a big pumpkin head.

My group from work did a team-building exercise on Friday, sort of. One of the guys is leaving the company, and his last day was Friday, so we all went out to send him off and have some fun. We went to Fort Wayne to do have lunch (Thai), and then do an escape room! First time I’ve ever done one. The theme was kinda like the Saw movies, I think, wherein we wake up chained to a bench in a dark room with a bunch of pipes and conduits and such, and have to find clues to solve puzzles and unlock the door. We made it out with about 5 seconds to spare before the timer expired, although honestly the employees were being a little generous with our time. We were very close, regardless. There were 6 of us which was probably 2 too many for the room, if you were going to optimize the number in there. It got crowded, and noisy, with everyone talking at once. I had not idea what a couple of the puzzles were about because I was working on something else when someone found them or the clues to them. But anyway it was a good time.

Last Wednesday I had an annual health screening, which now that I am old includes a prostate exam. That is awful, but not as bad as I've had done before. And it turns out I have some high cholesterol, again, so I'm going to start taking fish oil and see if that has helped any in 6 months.

The church’s annual trunk or treat was Monday. Unfortunately since it has been so rainy lately we were forced indoors, but oh well. We had had the idea to make the trunk of the van into a used car lot, with a painted piece of OSB as the parking lot and a bunch of cars made out of painted 2x4s and PVC piping, and I was dressed all in big red sweats as the wacky inflatable dancing guy. It would have been better outside, but it worked well enough inside. Although our setup was smaller than most others, and I was surprised by how many people didn’t know what I was supposed to be. One kid looked at the sleeve extensions I made to cover my hands and asked if it was supposed to be blood. Turnout was good but not like last year, probably because of the weather. Good times!

The camper went in to Discount Tire today to get some new shoes. I noticed shortly after coming back from the trip to Terre Haute for homecoming that one of the tires on the camper was almost shredded. The tread on both outside edges was literally gone. I’m very sure that it wasn’t like that when I left, or even when I departed Terre Haute. If I’d seen the tires looking like they did I would never have taken the camper on a highway. So I’m glad the tire didn’t completely fail on the way home, because the spare is probably even less viable as a tire since it is so old. I told the guy at the tire place I didn’t know how old they were, and he checked and told me they were from 2010. So yeah, they needed to be replaced. 

Missy made her first college visit this past week. She had fall break this week so on her days off, Beth took her up to Grand Rapids to visit Julia and see GVSU. She got a tour of the college and a bunch of literature, and Julia showed her around too. Beth came back home and Missy stayed a couple nights, then Beth went up to get her again. Missy liked the campus (unfortunately she didn’t get to meet any faculty or audit a class or anything) but I’m not sure there’s really anything for her there. It doesn’t look like there’s much in the way of art or biology there.

My fight club chapter completed a group activity on Monday. Over the weekend (while I was away at homecoming) the guys all met to build a cardboard and duct tape boat. Everyone scrounged up as much cardboard as they could and wrapped it all in duct tape, and taped everything together into a boat. It was mostly done over the weekend, but we met again on Monday to finish it up (I helped build and add some outriggers to it to help with stability) and do the water test. One of the guys lives on Winona Lake so we launched the boat from his dock with Duke paddling. The challenge was for one of the guys to paddle it something like 100 feet and back, in the least amount of time, and preferably without tipping over. The boat turned out to be very waterproof and pretty stable. Duke’s time wasn’t great because he was fighting the wind a bit, and the paddles were not as waterproof as the rest of the boat, it seemed. But he did get there and back without any problems. The boat was bequeathed to another one of the guys, who let his daughters take it out on his lake. It still held up really well, he reported. 

Softball is over for the year. I never thought I’d say this but softball is over...finally. I was ready for it to be over a couple weeks ago, but I have had a lot of fun playing nevertheless. We played one game Tuesday, against FUM who had beaten us soundly a number of times during the season. This time we went the distance with them, and played well, but were never really in danger of winning. I myself had two all-star highlight reel plays at first base, one on a hot grounder coming right up the line and one on a sharp liner also coming right up the line. I had to run several steps to my left and reach as far as I could with my glove, but fielded them cleanly both times. The guy who hit the liner was flabbergasted that I robbed him of probably a triple. The girl who hit the grounder probably had a double if it got past me. My best plays of the season, saved for the last game. We were eliminated anyway, so just wait ‘til next year…

Beth went in to see Dr. Dick on Friday because of the month-long migraine and ear pains she’s had for a while now. Both of her ears are infected, which may help explain the migraines as well. The migraine pain was so bad that finally I took her in to the ER on Friday evening to get her some relief. We were there for a few hours at least, and she got a number of drugs. They don’t really know what will work for an individual so they have a cocktail they give progressively. By the time we went home, which was late, she didn’t have a headache any more but was feeling pretty doped. They had given her pretty much everything they had. Which was nice but the headache was back in the morning.

Both of the girls had their senior portraits taken on Saturday. We did the pictures over by Miller Field at Grace College, where they got some really good fall-type, foresty shots. They were both beautiful, of course, so I’m sure the pictures will be amazing. We will go see them in a couple weeks and pick out the ones we like.

Speaking of Fight Club, we also had a bonfire today at the church. Of sorts. It was one of the assignments for the week and I thought it would be fun to get together at FCC and use the fire pit that was built a few years back but seldom used. It was a kid’s Eagle Scout project, but it’s kind of out of sight from the building so it gets forgotten about. But Matthew and I put out the word and went over there Sunday evening, and found that for the past several years any time any branches or limbs have fallen off any of the trees nearby, they got thrown into the fire pit. So, there was plenty of wood there already. We just had to light it and it made a really nice big bonfire. Nobody had texted that they were coming, so we weren’t sure it wouldn’t just be him and me, but 3 other guys did come out for it. 

Homecoming weekend at Rose-Hulman! I haven’t been in years, but since this year is my 30-year reunion I thought I would. I’ve also wanted to get down to campus for a while to donate the framed cross-stitching of the RHIT seal that mom made for me years ago. Beth and the girls went up north because this weekend was also the annual chili cook-off that Ric and Nickie have for Ric’s birthday, so it was just me going to Rose. I left work around lunch time, pulling the camper so I could save a little money on hotels and food (and the truck rolled through 200,000 miles while on the way!). Anyway, I rolled into TH at around 4:30, really hoofing it to make it to campus before everything was over for the day. It is not easy to find a place to park with a camper on campus on homecoming Friday! But I made a parking place up, and was able to make it to the office and deliver the cross-stitching before they closed. I did a brief walk-around to the new alumni center, at which I had missed pretty much everything, then headed to the campground to set up. I had an RV spot reserved at what used to be the Terre Haute KOA, but is now an independent campground. I know Beth and I camped overnight at the KOA once before, I think in October 1991, but I did not remember anything about it. It was obvious though from the setup and playgrounds and game room and store and such that it used to be a KOA. I got the camper set up, then started on dinner. I wanted to try out some Dutch oven cooking when it was just me waiting for it. I made a version of mom’s hamburg stew, which came out pretty good but needed some more seasoning. Easy, too. So I made camp food for dinner and headed back to campus for the pep rally at 8. Uncharacteristically for me, I saw an older man sitting by himself at the stadium and asked if he was there alone and if he minded if I sat with him. So I had someone to talk to for the rally. It lasted around an hour, followed by a fireworks show (an impressive one, actually) and finally lighting the bonfire by drone at around 9:45. Just like it used to be, it’s a stack of railroad ties around 30 feet high with an outhouse on top. I brought my old calculus book from 1987-88, because I have wanted for years to throw it into a homecoming bonfire. This was the year. I was afraid I wouldn’t get a chance because security was keeping the crowd back from the bonfire pretty well (not that you can even get near it for quite some time) but after around an hour or so people started running up to it to touch one of the ties and run back. When the crowd started getting close, I took the opportunity and had a random person video me running up to the bonfire, throwing in the book, and running back. Unfortunately I threw it too far and it went over the burning pile and onto the grass on the other side. So waiting for a chance to get it and try again, around a half hour later maybe, I saw someone retrieve it and run back with it. So I went over there (a group of students) and wound up talking with them for a good half hour about my Rose experience and what’s happened since. At maybe 11:00 I finally left, retrieved the two other old textbooks from the truck, went back to throw them in the burning pile that was left, and then went back to the camper. In the morning I went back to campus to run in the 5k, then back to the campsite to clean up and get breakfast ready. I fried bacon in a cast iron skillet on charcoal and them scrambled eggs, but for some reason the skillet never seemed to get hot enough. It took forever and wasn’t as done as I like. After that I packed up the camper, left it in their storage lot, and went back and did a massive walkabout on campus, visiting the open house on the lawn where scum pond used to be, getting some nice RHIT swag at the bookstore, getting lunch at the alumni tent, and walking all through the academic halls where I used to go to classes. The Sprite can is gone, but the same old combination still opens box #388. I went to the football game vs. Hanover College, which we won with a late comeback and defensive stand, 31-21. Closer than the score would indicate. There was just enough time to go back to the campground, shower quickly, hitch up, and go back to campus for the reunion dinner. My old buddy Doug Tougaw was there, and I had a great time catching up with him. Also I talked for quite a while with a couple of guys I knew back then, but not that well. A really good time, and I’m glad I went. One thing though, I wanted to save money and do some practice camp cooking, but meal prep took so long I never had a chance to go wander around Terre Haute. I should have just ate out and saved the time. Well, anyway. I got on the road for home by around 9, and was home after midnight.

When I got back from homecoming I was home alone, since nobody else was home from the chili cook-off yet. So Sunday morning I went to church by myself, mostly because I was driving the van that morning, and was asked if I would be able to help some people move. They had their rented house sold out from under them and had to be out by the end of the day Sunday. I didn’t know who else had been asked about that, but it turned out just me, it seems. I showed up at a house with 7 kids’ worth of stuff in it, and one guy working on loading things into a van. A few more friends and family did come over a bit later. But I’m glad I could help. The family is pretty new at church. Anyway we loaded up and unloaded the van a few times, hauling everything they own to a storage unit. The last one I was pretty sure was not going to fit, but we got creative and it did. They also got dinner since I helped all afternoon. I helped from around 2 until around 8. The last couple things were a firepit and some patio chairs, which wouldn’t fit anywhere, so I took them and put them in my garage for them.

Softball continues. They did set up a tournament for the coed league, 4 teams, double elimination. We were the 4 seed. Last Tuesday we played the top team and got mercied pretty quickly, then in the second game played Harrison Center, who have been up and down all season. It was close for a while but they have a tendency to go to pieces when things go wrong, so we pulled away and mercied them. Next week we will play until we lose, and that will be the end. Actually, I’ve been feeling ready for the season to be over for a couple weeks, to the point that I was thinking ‘if we lose, the season’s over…aw man, we actually are going to win now?’

The yellowjackets are out again. It’s the time of year for them. So Monday I was mowing the grass in the front yard when one of them got me on the ankle. Through my sock, which maybe helped me out a bit in the end, because it wasn’t nearly as bad as I remember it being last time I was stung. It hurt a lot for a while, but then it calmed down and didn’t swell up that much. Missy also happened to have gotten stung at school too, one got up her pantleg a bit and stung her when she swatted at it before she knew what it was. Anyway, that stuff don’t fly with me so as soon as I spotted where the nest was I got out the lethal chemicals. The can was nearly empty so I had to go searching around town for more wasp killer, it’s as hard to come by as anything else apparently. I found some that had fallen behind a rack at Walmart. By Thursday it seemed more or less abandoned (lots of dead ones in and around the entrance) so I dug up the nest. And had to spray all over again because there were many that had not come out yet. The nest was pretty big. Lots of eggs. I have wondered how they find empty caverns in the ground?

The softball regular season wrapped up Tuesday, although they have decided to do a short tourney. So we finished the regular season on a losing streak, getting smoked 13-1 by the top team and then fighting but losing 17-12 to a team that we can beat. We ended the season 3-9 and in next to last place, but the tournament is our regular season.

Saturday we all drove up to Nappanee to go to an apple picking. Unfortunately it turned out that it was just a farm market, with no trees. So not sure where the apples came from, but obviously elsewhere. They apparently tore down all the trees last year and planted new when they bought the place, so the trees are a couple years away from producing. Anyway, we got some produce including a bunch of apples. Afterwards there’s an antiques place in town nearby so we stopped there. There were some cool things that the girls all found: Nat got a little jewelry box, Missy found a Muppets glass, Beth found some cordial glasses. Nothing more than a few bucks each.