Me, Her, the Boy and a Dog

This past weekend I had the unique opportunity to meet a lot of great people associated with Blacksburg United Methodist Church through its affiliation with the Wesley Foundation. My friend Ginger earned her master’s degree at Virginia Tech in 2007 and during her year at Tech she sang for the Wesley Foundation’s “Wesley Singers.”

The Wesley Foundation - and the Singers - have been led by Glenn and LaVina Tyndall for the last 35 years. Earlier this year, they announced that they would retire at the end of June, so the 35th Anniversary celebration scheduled this past weekend took on added significance… It would also serve as a farewell party of sorts.

Before this weekend, I had never met anyone from Wesley, other than Ginger. After the weekend, I wish I had been a part of such a close-knit family! Nearly 400 alumni, family and friends came from all over the country and even one very prominent alum flew in from Germany. Robert Chafin (‘83) is a professional opera singer in Germany and sang for two years with the Wesley Singers while at Virginia Tech before he was encouraged to transfer in order to achieve his dream of becoming a professional singer.

Ginger was a member of the planning committee that organized the entire event. One of her main responsibilities for the weekend was to arrange for the table decorations - no small task for 44 tables. Half of the tables were decorated with fresh flowers and the other half with heart-shaped dishes with decorative rocks surrounding a vanilla-scented candle. Every table came with three helium-filled balloons of alternating maroon and white.

Ginger and her sister, Sarah, went to the location of the event - the Christian Life Center (CLC) - on Friday evening to begin setting things up. Later that evening, Sarah, her boyfriend Josh, Ginger and I went to the War Memorial Gym on campus to watch some water polo between the “old people” and the “young people.” We were amazed by the turnout in the stands - it was packed! Naturally, I cheered for the “old people,” except for when Sarah played in the women’s game. As expected, the younger team won both games, but while the men’s game was a blowout, the women’s game was much more competitive. Regardless, everyone had a good time!

Early Saturday morning, we all went back to the CLC to continue setting up all the tables, chairs and decorations. I helped with the balloons by inflating them and attaching ribbons. Two other volunteers tied three balloons together, attached them to rocks with the words “Love Grows Here” (the theme of the event) painted on them, and set them on every table.

Ginger and Sarah arranged 22 vases of fresh flowers to put on half of the tables. Then, we put programs on every table - one for each seat. After about three hours, we were done for the most part. We packed up and headed home to shower and change clothes. Ginger and Sarah had choir rehearsal at 1:30 while I was off to the 2009 Virginia Tech Spring Game.

We met up around 3:30 to head home and get ready for the big evening. We arrived at the CLC (again) around 4:50 to make sure everything was ready. A few more balloons had deflated, but Ginger took care of them while I ran home to pick up a few things and make sure my place was ready for company - my friend Niemo and his girlfriend were crashing at my place since they were in town for the spring game.

I got back to the CLC right before it officially began. The caterers had arrived and I could smell the food. A ton of people were gathering - some of whom I had met the night before at the water polo games. I finally found Ginger, got my name tag and was ready to enjoy the evening with my lovely date.

All things considered the evening went off without a hitch! Everyone raved about the table decorations and rightly so - Ginger and Sarah did a great job! The food was average, but we weren’t there for fine cuisine, we were there to socialize and have a good time.

Glenn got up to speak toward the end of the meal and it was clear that he was overwhelmed by how many of his former students had returned to Blacksburg for the reunion. More importantly, I think they were there to honor Glenn and thank him for all that he and LaVina have done for so many people. I was amazed to learn that Glenn, an ordained minister, had officiated the weddings of more than 80 Wesley couples! And by couples I mean people who met while in Wesley. That’s more than 2 couples a year. To me, it illustrated what a close-knit group Wesley is.

After dinner, everyone pitched in to clear the tables, stow them away and set up the chairs for the night’s entertainment called “Coffee House.” It was a mixture of skits, music and comedy (or at least attempts at comedy). But one thing was evident throughout the entire evening … Glenn and LaVina made quite an impact on the lives of so many. Grown men were reduced to tears as memories were shared.

In the end, the emcee of the evening, an alum in his 40s, was wrapping up the event and was trying to convey to the Tyndalls just how much they have meant to so many. He said that “Thank You” just didn’t cut it. As he fought back the tears, he said that best way any of the alums could thank Glenn and LaVina, was to go out and give back the way that they did. Go out and make a difference, he said. I looked around the room and saw plenty of tears and even more smiles. When he finished, the crowd of 400+ stood in unison and applauded their minister and friend. It was a powerful scene - of which I was very honored to be a part.

Sunday at church, the Alumni Wesley Singers performed and Ginger was up there with them. They sounded great! My favorite song off their CD is Amazing Grace (<— click to listen). The entire service was mostly music and while it lasted nearly 90 minutes, you completely lost track of time. Rober Chafin, the tenor who sings professionally in Germany, sang “The Lord’s Prayer” in operatic fashion and it sent chills down my spine when he got to the end. I had never neard such a powerful voice in person and it was incredible.

Though it was an exhausting weekend, we had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories!

Ginger and I outside the CLC before the dinner.

For the last several months, my car has been making a pretty loud sound. Naturally I was concerned, but considering I was out of work at the time, what could I do about it? I didn’t have the money to get it fixed. Finally, in March, though I was still without a full time job, I had done enough free lance work to take the car in to the shop.

I normally go to South Main Auto in Blacksburg. They are generally considered to be over-priced, but they usually do good work and all my previous maintenance records were already in their system. So, off I went. I explained the loud noise and that the “check engine” light was on. They didn’t even test drive it to hear the sound. They hooked up their computer to my car and said it was the catalytic converter and that would be $320 for a complete fuel injection cleaning.

What a load of crap. Biggest waste of $320. It didn’t do a darn thing - the car was just as noisy as ever AND the check engine light didn’t go off. That was all the money I had for car repairs (they wanted to charge me $200 to change spark plugs, but I did it myself for about $30), so I couldn’t take it back to get the real problem fixed.

Then in late March I was offered that job at Virginia Tech and started in mid-April. After building up a couple of paychecks and doing some more free lance work, I was able to take the car back in on Friday. I took it to a different shop - Auto Repair Specialist. Pretty original name, don’t you think?

Before taking the car in, I did extensive research on the Web looking for others whose cars had the same symtoms as mine; loud noise and vibrations that worsened the faster you went, but got quieter during right turns. The verdict … wheel bearings. Apparently, these are pretty important - something about holding the wheel onto the axel?

So, I took it to the new shop and explained with the confidence of an amateur grease monkey that I was 99 percent sure it was the wheel bearing. I ruled out tire balance because the steering wheel was not vibrating (been there, done that), and I ruled out an alignment because the car wasn’t pulling to either side and the tread wear was even on all four tires (been there, done that).

The guys nodded at me and said they’d check it out, but it sounded to them like it was indeed the wheel bearing - probably on the right side. I nodded somberly as well, basically conveying that I, myself, would fix the problem, but I am far too busy with my office job and besides, I’d much rather support local businesses in these tough economic times. They humored me, fixed my car and then took my $421.

But, I’m not complaining because my car is fixed and it is whisper quiet again! Well, that might be a stretch, but relatively speaking, anything would be quieter than it was before. You think I’m kidding, but even Nic would point out that, “Daddy, your car is loud. You need to take it to the ‘chanic!”

Thankfully, I got the car fixed in time for our day trip to Winchester to see my uncle, aunt and cousins, especially Megan, who graduated from high school on Friday. I will write a separate blog post about our awesome day in Winchester. We packed a TON of fun into the day.

So, wrapping up … South Main Auto, bad; Auto Repair Specialist, good; Bank account, empty; Car, fixed; Nic and Daddy, very tired.

(PS - It’s late and I didn’t feel like spell-checking so sue me.)

Life is busy and too often we worry too much about the little things. I ask each of you to take a few minutes of your time today and read this story about Chase Ringler, the son of some high school classmates of mine who has cancer.

I’m not asking you to donate money to cancer research (though that would be wonderful) - all I am asking is that you take a few moment to read this short blog post and leave a comment of support. It would mean a lot to so many.

Thanks and have a good day!

First, Ginger and I are doing OK for the most part. We have bruises on our chest and hip from the seat belts and bruises on our legs from the impact with the console of the car. It goes without saying that our necks are really stiff and according to the emergency room doctor at UVA Medical Center, tomorrow will probably be even worse.

Second, thank you for your thoughts, prayers and outpouring of support - we really appreciate everyone’s concern during the last 24 hours. Right now we are dealing with insurance, scheduling follow up doctor’s appointments and debriefing family.

Here’s what happened…

Ginger and I were traveling south on Rt. 29 just north of Charlottesville in the left lane. Ginger was driving and I was in the front passenger seat when a Chevy Silverado pickup truck traveling north on Rt. 29 attempted a U-turn, but did not stop to see if any cars were coming south bound and he pulled right in our path. There was no time to react and we slammed into the right side of his truck doing 60 miles per hour.

The collision was violent, loud and frightening. After the initial impact, the car deflected to the right and ended up in front of a sign for a driving range and golf shop. We were both dazed and disoriented - both airbags deployed on impact and there was a lot of smoke in the cabin. The seat belt impact knocked the wind out of me and we both had trouble getting a deep breath for a few minutes after the accident.

We checked each other to see if we were alright and then managed to get out of the car. We looked for the truck but it was no where to be found. Another car following the truck had the truck driver’s wife and a real estate agent inside. The real estate agent dropped the wife off and went to get the driver of the truck and get him to come back.

He eventually came back, but he did not drive his truck, he rode with the agent. When he got back I overheard him telling the sheriff’s deputy that he didn’t see anyone coming and that he did not know he’d been hit. How do you get hit by a car going 60 mph and NOT know you got hit? A Silverado is a sturdy truck but it’s not a tank.

Ginger had some chest and neck pain so they took her to UVA Medical Center for precautionary measures. They checked me out on the spot and I felt okay other than the usual pain you’d expect from a collision of that intensity, so I signed a waiver so I could ride in the ambulance with Ginger. Make no mistake, though, I am going to see a doctor tomorrow morning.

We got the hospital and the ER was pretty packed so it took some time for a doctor to see Ginger, but he checked her out and she was doing fine - just neck pain, shoulder pain and all the other pains you’d expect from that kind of accident. The doc advised us to see our family doctors in the next couple of days and warned us that we would probably start feeling the real effects on Tuesday. Fun. Not.

A Virginia State Trooper came by to take our statements and after he was done, he told us that the driver of the Silverado had been charged and was “clearly at fault.” He told us the court date for the case if we wanted to appear and to testify.

Ginger’s parents drove down from Jeffersonton (it’s near Culpeper) with an extra car for us to drive home. While Ginger was waiting to get looked at, her dad and I drove back up to where her car was towed and got all of our stuff out of it. Then we drove back to the hospital, by which time Ginger had been discharged.

We said goodbye to her parents and got in the minivan (yes, I finally had to drive a minivan despite years of denials) and drove the remaining 2-1/2 hours home. It was a tense drive home because suddenly, you are on the look out for all the crazies (and there are a TON of them) on the road that are not paying attention.

We’re very grateful that it wasn’t much worse. The car, which is totaled, can be replaced. Clearly, Ginger and I, cannot - and let’s face it, we’re two WONDERFUL people, right? RIGHT!!?? :-) See, we’re still smiling and laughing - but it kinda hurts a little when we laugh - sore necks, chest, hips, legs … well, you get the point.

Thanks again for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers - it means a lot to us and it is good to know that we have such a loving bunch of people in our lives!

The car formerly known as a 2006 Honda Civic… :(