We have a new car. I decided that the 2020 Santa Fe that Beth preferred was just too expensive and she even thought the monthly payment we would have was too much. There was also another Santa Fe, a smaller model but a year older, at the Best Deal in Angola, so we asked them to move that one to Warsaw so we could test drive it before settling on the '17. It was going to take them a few days, so we just ran up to Angola after work on Monday, test drove the '16 SF, decided that we didn't like it (it didn't seem as well taken care of, or quite as sound), told them it was a no-go for us, and went home. On Tuesday I took the '17 SF to Ab & Tom's to check it out, and they reported only that the lower oil pan was seeping a little: as they put it, "it's not the best but it's not bad." So Beth decided that the color was not a deal breaker and she drove it again, deciding that maybe she did really like it after all. We told them at Best Deal that we would take it and get all the paperwork done on Wednesday. We came back and did the deal Wednesday afternoon and we now own a 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe. And Beth is quite excited by and happy with it. 

Saturday was the annual un-garage sale for Beth's work. Again this year, we were working the child care area. We checked in and watched kids while the parents shopped. Mostly the kids were good, but I did have one kid, must have been around 8, who decided he wasn't staying any more. I blocked his exit and told him he had to stay until someone came to pick him up, so he pushed past me and ran. Then he ran down the aisles back and forth to get away from me. I went after him but he just looked back and bolted if he saw me. So, we found a parent and kicked him out. He was the only one I wanted to spank, though. Mostly the kids were littler (but only 3+) and only wanted to stay in the play area longer when the parents came back. Anyway, not as much traffic as last year. Still gave away a lot of stuff, but not sure why so fewer people. 

Next week, we are on vacation! Camping at Clifty Falls Sate Park. The weather forecast for the next week is horrible. Very hot and rainy all week. Alex and Nat have both decided not to go because of the weather.

This week was dominated by the outages. There was a big storm Monday night, and about 12:30 am the power went off. I was already asleep, but everyone else was still awake. When I got up for work Tuesday morning the power was still off. And still off at lunchtime, and when I was out of work. The power company was saying by then that their crews were all working on the hardest hit areas (not us), that they couldn't provide a timeline for when power might be back, and that some customers might have a multi-day outage. Well, it was awfully hot in the house with no A/C, and I was starting to get worried about the meat in the freezer outside. Fortunately, Trey at work has a generator, and he never lost power in this storm, so he let me use it until the power came back. Just after work Tuesday we ran up to his house and loaded it into my truck, then I ran it back to my house and got it fired up. We just ran extension cords to the fridge, freezer, some fans, and the pool (was afraid it would get icky with no filter) and got them running. I'm not sure how we would have powered the A/C, but it was a whole-house generator and had the power for it. Also not sure how much gas it goes through. Anyway, we had the essentials covered, so the meat was saved. It was about 5 hours later that the power finally came back on. 

The second outage was in IT. On Friday morning, I tried to log on to my computer at work and just had the blue screen of death. Rebooting did nothing helpful, nor rebooting again. Then I started hearing that everybody's computer had the blue screen because of the Crowdstrike update that was rolled out overnight. Well, we didn't know what it was at first. Neither did anyone. All anyone knew was our computers weren't working. So basically nothing could be done. Across the board. Almost everyone on the shop floor was sent home because nobody could do anything. Well, since it was my birthday I decided to take the rest of the day off myself. It was later in the day that IT seemed to have a handle on what happened, and Saturday morning they sent out instruction for everyone to run through to fix it. Undoing the update, or something like that. Running through the instructions seemed to fix the problem on the first try, so I should be good to go Monday.

Speaking of my birthday, It was Friday. 55. We didn't do anything special but the kids and Beth ordered me some presents online (couple games, a Hannibal Lecter action figure, and some cycling gloves) and they got me a carrot cake. We did presents and went out to dinner at Oak & Alley.

On the new car front, Beth and I drove a nice 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe (like the one we rented last summer!) this week; Best Deal had one and moved it down from another store so we could drive it. I asked them to hold it for a few days so I could get it checked out and get all the financing taken care of. However Beth doesn't like the color, and it's bigger than she wanted. So on Saturday we went to Goshen to look at the smaller Hyundai Tucson at the dealer there, but Beth looked at and drove a 2020 Santa Fe that she liked better and was in a better color. However it was a lot more expensive. She's trying to figure out if the color on the '17 is a deal breaker. 

After looking at the Hyundai dealer in Goshen, we went over to Shipshewana to meet Marve and Beth for dinner at the Blue Gate. They had just asked if we could meet for dinner and drove down her just to see us. So we did the shops and got dinner and had a nice time together before heading back home. 

Beth and I are starting to make it a priority to find a new vehicle. We've decided to give the Minivan to Missy to take to school (I think we can feel like she's safe in it) and find something newer for ourselves to replace it. We went out to Best Deal to take a look around, and found a few cars that might be of interest. Basically we're looking for a crossover or SUV, something like a Honda CRV or a Subaru Outback or something. Well, at least the used car prices aren't so outrageous as they were a year or two ago. 

Beth's boss at LT had an annual summer party at their house Saturday. 

It was an odd week at work. Maintenance thought this would be a convenient time to do a whole lot of maintenance, so effectively the whole plant was shut down for the week. On Monday, there was a total power outage in building 5 for electrical work; I did go in to check on some stuff and found the lights off and nobody home. I mean, I saw nobody in the building. So I worked from home pretty much all week, but it was also a short week. 

Tuesday, the softball team got hammered. A few players were out including our regular pitcher, and a guy who had never pitched before asked if he could. So, he did. He made it through the game but we got mercied 19-4, although he wasn't really the reason we didn't do very well. 

Wednesday was the last work day before the long weekend. Since the 4th was on a Thursday this year, it seemed logical for me to take Friday off as well. Not that there were big plans, but I did get some local geocache maintenance done on Thursday. Around dinnertime we went to the Zastrow's house for a cookout/games/watch fireworks. Todd grilled burgers and hot dogs, we all played "Poetry for Neanderthals" and "Telestrations," and hung out watching their neighbors set off fireworks until after midnight. The Joneses came home while we were in the backyard and could see us there so they dropped in too to hang out. 

I also had some emergency pool maintenance to do, basically the first thing to do in the long weekend. The pump for the filter has been down to a trickle lately, and it seemed hardly any water was making its way through. Backflushing wasn't helping, so I took it offline and opened it up, and found that the filter sand had hardened into a big lump of concrete. Maybe not as hard as that, but still hardened enough that I had to beat it out with a hammer and a length of aluminum conduit used like a chisel. I don't know what happened there, it's never happened before. Eventually I was able to break the lump apart and get the sand out of the filter, replace the sand and get it all put back together. The flow through the filter seems to be restored to normal now. Maybe I need to keep the pH maintained better, or something....

I had a kind of unusual ride on Saturday. Bronwyn H joined the group for the first time; she has a cruiser bike and was never going to be able to keep up with even the regular B group, but no-drop is no-drop so I and 2 others hung back with her. We did the whole planned route which was out to Summit Chapel and back...I wasn't sure she would make it that far but we got about 36 miles altogether, at around 10 mph. She was so excited to do the whole ride. I didn't mind the slower ride, it allows riders to talk more.

Finally, I was practicing flying the drone this weekend and one crash...the first crash...wrecked it. It's hard to keep track of which way the drone is facing, so which way the joystick makes it go. I was flying it in the backyard and it hit the patio umbrella, turned over and fell about 6 feet onto the patio landing on it's top. One crash, and one propellor no longer spins correctly. It makes a whining noise and spins much slower. But, the vendor seems to have a 100% guarantee and will replace for free, provided you give them a 5-star review. So yeah, they got 5 stars for another free drone. Hopefully it's not sent by slow boat from China...