This goes out to all my friends up north who are without power today.
Yes, we get snow here too. But not today. Today was sunny and 50. :)
Every now and then everybody needs something in life to remind them they're not perfect. As one of my professors says, "It's for your sanctification." Well for me, that was today....
When you're low on income you try to take every shortcut you can. So when the "Oil Change Required" warning came up on my car, rather than spend $25-30 at a Quick Lube place I swung over to Walmart to pick up a filter and enough oil to do the job myself. This warm sunny day I gathered my tools and equipment convinced I could score an easy victory and call it a successful afternoon. After all, I've changed my own oil before so I knew what I was doing, and plus I was being financially responsible. I emptied my oil pan without too much of a mess. The filter was off and the new one back on easy enough. I confidently refilled the tank with my new oil proudly considering the efficiency of my accomplishment. I started the engine and hit the system check button on my dash. That's when I heard the awful sound. It was just a computerized beep tone, but it was a beep that meant something was horribly wrong. The message read "Oil Pressure Low" and a glance to see the pressure gauge bottomed out confirmed it. That could only mean one thing. I quickly turned the car off and went around the passenger side to see, sure enough, 5-quarts of brand new oil streaming down the inclined parking lot. I quickly spent a whole roll of paper towels mopping up as much as I could hoping nobody would drive by.
A humbling hour and another 5-quarts later I finally got my car back in working order. It turned out I didn't notice the old gasket was still stuck on when I screwed the new filter on so it didn't make a solid seal. Fortunately, it was an easy fix. Unfortunately, I didn't end up saving any money after all. At least it's a mistake I won't make again, so maybe it will pay off in the long run.
When you're low on income you try to take every shortcut you can. So when the "Oil Change Required" warning came up on my car, rather than spend $25-30 at a Quick Lube place I swung over to Walmart to pick up a filter and enough oil to do the job myself. This warm sunny day I gathered my tools and equipment convinced I could score an easy victory and call it a successful afternoon. After all, I've changed my own oil before so I knew what I was doing, and plus I was being financially responsible. I emptied my oil pan without too much of a mess. The filter was off and the new one back on easy enough. I confidently refilled the tank with my new oil proudly considering the efficiency of my accomplishment. I started the engine and hit the system check button on my dash. That's when I heard the awful sound. It was just a computerized beep tone, but it was a beep that meant something was horribly wrong. The message read "Oil Pressure Low" and a glance to see the pressure gauge bottomed out confirmed it. That could only mean one thing. I quickly turned the car off and went around the passenger side to see, sure enough, 5-quarts of brand new oil streaming down the inclined parking lot. I quickly spent a whole roll of paper towels mopping up as much as I could hoping nobody would drive by.
A humbling hour and another 5-quarts later I finally got my car back in working order. It turned out I didn't notice the old gasket was still stuck on when I screwed the new filter on so it didn't make a solid seal. Fortunately, it was an easy fix. Unfortunately, I didn't end up saving any money after all. At least it's a mistake I won't make again, so maybe it will pay off in the long run.
The first week of my second semester ends with that overwhelming feeling you get when you receive all your syllabi at once and realize how much you actually have to do. I have four classes this semester which all seem pretty cool. I have Hebrews-Revelation with a professor who talks faster than John Moschitta. I have Genesis-Joshua with my professor from Archaeology last semester which I really enjoyed. Then I have an Applied Apologetics course which is somewhat of an extension of the Apologetics course I took over our winter term. And lastly I have a class called Advanced Biblical Exegesis which is basically a fancy way of saying how the Bible works together as a whole. Overall it should be good material and the papers I have to write seem interesting enough. In Gen-Josh I have to compare and contrast the blessings Jacob gave to his 12 sons with the blessings Moses gave to the 12 tribes of Israel before they entered the promised land. In Applied Apologetics I'll write a critical book review of a book written by someone with an anti-Christian worldview. And I haven't picked my Heb-Rev topic yet, but since I get to choose I'll make sure it's interesting. Then come May 18th and I'll be over a third of the way through my program!
