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October, 2008

Well, they've been keeping me busy. I should write up stuff more often, but there are so many things to do.

Back in July and on into August, we mostly worked on stuff like getting new electric mains to the house and finishing up my electronics shop a.k.a. man-cave. It's not really a man-cave, since it has no fridge for beer and no HDTV for sports. I think I mentioned that we hired the heavy electrical work to be done.

School started the day after Labor Day, with workshops and such beforehand. All in all, Indiana Wesleyan University looks like it will be a fine place to work. I'm teaching 3 classes and taking a new-faculty seminar which is like a class about the history of Wesleyans (starting with John Wesley, of course), the joys of teaching and all that. We have a couple of books to read and a paper to write. If we flunk I suppose they fire us? There are about 17 of us including the new assistant dean (my "boss") and at least one who has never taught before, then there are a couple of us pushing 60 (from the top side), who have been in this business since before the new ones were born. Interesting group, but the reading is boring. If you're interested, the university is on the Web at http://www.indwes.edu.

So we're settled in Marion, Indiana, about an hour's drive north and a bit west of Indianapolis. Kathy hitched a ride on a combine and then I came out and we both got a ride around the soybean field. Quite an operation. Start the combine down a row, turn the navigation over to the GPS computer and the screen shows exactly where you've been and where you're going, and what has yet to be harvested. Also tracks how many bushels per minute are going into the bin and hence where the yield is best and worst in the field so it can be fertilized most efficiently next year. Nice seats, FM radio and CB to talk to the truck and home base, air conditioning, etc. Our friends will be sitting in those seats until the middle of November, 12 or more hours a day, and I'll bet it gets mighty tiresome. Soybeans, then wheat and corn.

We hear they're putting a new ethanol plant into production just up the road, which is good for the farmers but I'm not sure I like putting another 20 million bushels of food into people's gas tanks. There's another plant under construction that will take garbage and turns it into biofuels. Now I can get enthusiastic about that!

Finances have been interesting. Winona Lake house finally sold. I shall refrain from spouting off about Freddie May or whatever it is, but anyhow the young man who bought it can probably make the payments and not aggravate the national situation. We now live in a paid-for house, but we're putting a few thousand into windows where the house has settled, wood has rotted, etc. as well as storm windows all around, especially upstairs.

Speaking of which, we can sleep as many as seven people extra, so keep us in mind if you're coming through this way. As soon as finances permit, we're going to build a guest bathroom upstairs. All we need now is a front desk and an 800 number for reservations....

I told about the new refrigerator before. Well, Kathy bought a new kitchen range to match. It has room for 3 pizzas at a time and we're planning to have students over soon. Every time we turn around it seems we're going to a church dinner or having people over for dinner. Kathy likes to cook, so it's nice to have people to eat it.