My grandfather on my father’s side has passed away. He was certainly older, at 84, but his passing was a surprise to everyone, including my grandma, Alice.

He had been in the hospital for not feeling well, and was seen and then released. He died in his house, that night. He had fallen over on the way to the bathroom and ended up in heaven. We are certainly sorry to see him go, but we are also glad that he is no longer suffering. He was losing his memory and mind and wasn’t able to enjoy life like he should. When my dad had visited him that day in the hospital, my grandpa didn’t recognize him, which is sad.

My dad has taken it hard, but is so happy that he knows for sure he will see him again in heaven. My dad wrote a great blog entry about my grandpa here.

I was able to have a few days off in my schedule, so it worked out well that I could be down in Texas with my family for the funeral. It was the next day, after the funeral, that I left for Atlanta to meet Laura there for our continued trip to Savannah for vacation. I’ve been behind keeping up this blog, through funerals, vacations, back to Texas for birthday celebrations, and working. So it has been fairly crazy, to say the least.

Funerals are never fun, but when someone knows who God is, and where He fits into our lives, funerals can be as much of a celebration as they are sad. For Christians, they are always bittersweet times. I look forward to seeing my grandpa again someday.

For photos of the funeral, click here, or click grandpa’s picture at the top of the page.

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I will start training in Hong Kong for Cathay Pacific on July 7th, 2008. I am very excited, but a little nervous, too. It is going to be stressful, taxing, involve lots of studying, and I’ll be under the microscope. The whole training adventure will last between four and five months!

That’s a long time to be gone, however, Laura was able to get two months of time off from work (unpaid, unfortunately!) so she will be able to go with me for the first couple months. We are headed out the week prior, leaving from New York on June 29th. I wanted to get there a little early, to help with the 12 hour time difference from the East Coast of the U.S. I don’t want to start training groggy and exhausted.

Let me digress here, for one moment. I have had at least four or five different friends tell me that 12 hours of time difference is nothing: they’ve been to Australia, parts of Asia, and elsewhere, where the difference in time zone was 17 hours, or 14 hours, or 19 hours, or some other craziness. Nonsense.

How many time zones are there in the world? Asked another way, how many hours in a day? 24. There are 24 time zones on our wonderful planet. So, the worst time zone change can be 12 hours of difference, like traveling to Hong Kong from New York, because that is half of 24. If someone tells you that they experienced 16 hours of time zone change, they might still be suffering from jet-lag! Think of it this way: When someone travels from New York to Chicago, do they suffer from that huge and amazing 23 hour difference in time? No! It’s a one hour change. How about NYC-LA? Is that a 21 hour change or a three hour change? It’s three! Because the world has 24 time zones, then the worst shift can only be up to 12 hours, before it starts getting better again. Crossing the International dateline, out in the Pacific, means the date changes, but our bodies don’t care about what day it is, they care about what time it is. So, 12 hours stinks, but beyond that, it only gets easier . . .

Anyway, during that week of acclimation, we hope to go see some of the sights of Hong Kong, including Victoria Harbor and ride on a ferry across the water. I will be sure to update this site with pictures and tales of our adventures.

Also, our home number will stay the same, and you can call us at our regular number. That magic is brought to you in part by Vonage. Read about their benefits here. We will bring our Vonage router with us, so you can call us locally, we get free incoming calls, and we can call out for free. Good stuff.

More good stuff? God is good. Did you know that? Trust me, He is simply amazing and I’m glad He’s on my side. Really, He’s on all our sides, if we let Him.

Cathay Pacific is flying me over for free, but they won’t pay for Laura yet, because officially, when I go over there, I won’t be employed yet. Her ticket is going to put us back quite a bit. Just the round trip from Columbus to NYC, where we’ll depart for Hong Kong, will be around $900 dollars. Now, I’m a pilot, but $900 bucks is outrageous! We found a much cheaper deal on the internet, but it would mean that she wouldn’t be able to travel with me; she’d be on another airline. Laura is brave, adventurous, and willing to do a lot of things on her own, at least more than anyone else in her family (many of which are too scared to even get on a plane), but that was probably asking too much of her at this juncture. She would do it to save money but she wouldn’t want to.

We were discussing it over a video iChat while I was in Toronto on an overnight trip for work. We knew what we needed to do to be prudent with our money, but our hearts wanted to go together. We ended our conversation with me saying, “I won’t buy the tickets tonight, I’ll wait until the morning.”

The next morning, the conversation came up between me and my flight attendant that we were going to have to buy tickets for Laura to get to NYC. She immediately offered to give us two of her buddy passes so that Laura could go, and go for FREE. That way, we’d only have to buy the ticket from NYC to Hong Kong! Isn’t God good? We could have bought those tickets the night before and been out over $900 bucks, but He knew our plight, situation, and financial situation.

It’s almost like God toys with us a little bit to see what we’re going to do. Are we going to trust Him? Are we going to go our own way? Are we going to give Him a chance to act in our lives? Are we going to march on in our own plans or are we going to allow Him space to maneuver us? He wants to help us, but we have to let Him.

Thank you God for getting us through this one, yet again!

To post comments and more, visit TobyLaura.com

I know a lot of people enjoy Spring time. The weather is warm, the sky is clear, and the thought of being outside after a long winter is very inviting.

I, myself, don’t mind spring, but my favorite times of the year are Autumn and Winter. I enjoy the cool air, the color, sweaters and pumpkin patches, hayrides and the thought of the holidays just around the corner. Being from Texas, I also love the snow. But my pessimistic side rears its ugly head in the spring.

With the snow and rain gone, the sun illuminates all the things that are wrong with my house an yard, and beckons me to finish the projects that have been started long ago. It’s my nature to take on more than I am willing to finish (except food — I have no problem finishing there!). So today, as the sun came up, I took a gander at the back yard and saw nothing but troubles and projects.

Sections of leaves haven’t been moved from the fall,
No grass is growing in large section of lawn,
Landscape stones need to be placed around the trees,
Weed, fertilize, and mulch everything.

And then I see the projects that I have to do to be able to do other projects:

Fill in two basement windows with cement block so I can:
Backfill dirt around our foundation,
Gravel the muddy driveway with more gravel,
Plant bushes around the house.

Finally, there are the projects that need to be finished inside the house!

Finish the half bath,
Expose the brick behind the plaster on one wall,
Rerun some water pipe with larger diameter pipe,
Rerun some electrical wiring,
Add a light and fan to our “Blue room”
Finish the master bath,
Somehow get water out of the corners of our basement,
Finish the basement,
Tear this house down and start over?

I look around this old house and all I see are projects, as far as my eye can see. What is my response? Get started and get moving? No, sit down and blog!

I want them done before I go overseas, but I know (especially about the plumbing I have to do) that that is simply a pipe dream.

I think my life is tends to be very similar to my house. My spirit and soul are a work in progress. But I am not perfect, and never will be. My sin and my troubles will always be there. Winter is nice because all my faults and sins and mess-ups, and work that still needs to be done on me, can be hidden by the beauty of the snow, or forgotten about during the good times of the holidays.

But isn’t it always like God, to come in during spring, and once again illuminate the sin in my life? Those few extra pounds I need to lose, pure thoughts, humble attitude, a proper witness to others, truly loving my wife, living in this world but for a heavenly one. He is always there, ever the potter. Trouble is, I’m not always the clay. I get so stagnant in my Walk with Him, that I harden — my heart and then my life. Hardened clay cannot be formed. Said another way, a prideful heart scoffs at change from the maker.

As I work on one thing in my house, something else goes wrong or breaks. Constantly. This is a perfect example of God’s grace on me. He puts one fire out in my life and I go and jump into another fire! Oh, what a patient God is He!

As I work on my house projects this Spring, I’ll remember that someone is also working on me.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

It’s been over a year now, and I finally got around to fixing the headlights on my ’99 Volkswagen Passat. Several years ago, someone smashed into me and their insurance fixed my car. Unbeknownst to me and the adjuster, was that the alignment screws that kept the headlights pointing out onto the roadway were damaged. Several years later, they both finally gave way and my headlights pointed at the ground, just in front of the bumper. This caused the headlights to vibrate and new ones would burn out in about a week.

Replacement screws could not be ordered and I would have to pay $300 dollars a piece for a new right and left headlight assembly. Bummer. I didn’t want to spend the money, and frankly, I didn’t have that kind of money for lights in the night. For longer than I care to think about, I’ve gotten by with using just the fog light option, that uses the highbeams in a dimmed mode. Honestly, the light of the moon was almost as bright as what I could see at night. I had to stick to highways and roads with lighting, while country roads were almost un-drivable. I finally broke down and ordered replacement headlights from an online dealer, and good news: they were hundreds cheaper than buying the parts from a dealer or body shop!

I highly recommend Auto Parts Warehouse. Free UPS shipping on orders over $50 dollars, and great prices. As an example, the Passat’s radio antenna had broken off years ago, too. I had been without a radio for long enough, and so I also ordered a new antenna. I decided I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night had I just stolen one from another VW! Auto Parts Warehouse wanted $43. The local VW dealer wanted $165 bucks for the same dinky antenna! If you need auto parts, check them out.

Anyway, I was very impressed with the German engineering of my car’s headlights. It’s just the small things, but when you work on a car, the small things make a big difference. The Passat has lots of nice “small things” that only the Germans would think of. It’s an old, paid off car, but I do love the small touches that make it German.

I went out today to check out what would need to be done to take out the old headlight assemblies, and put the new ones in. The first thing I noticed was how dingy and yellow my old headlights were, compared to the clear, bright new ones. Here, the old one is on the left and the new one is on the right. These new ones were going to be brighter, if for any reason, just because the plastic was clear! I popped the hood and found two mounting screws, hidden under protective caps. I removed them, and unplugged the single clip of wires that connected to the back of the assembly. I jiggled and nothing gave way. I then looked at the new unit and saw that there was one more mounting screw in the bottom corner: no way would I be able to get to that on the old unit. Then, (thank you Germany and Jesus) I just happened to jiggle the turn signal light, mounted next to the headlight. It popped out and revealed the last mounting screw to remove. No obstacles and no headache of reaching around in cramped quarters to remove some obscure screw. I replaced both headlight units in less than twenty minutes.

That is a testament to how the car was built and designed. I must say, I’m a little proud of that car. I heard today that my brother in law’s Honda Civic caused him major headaches, just to change the headlight bulb — not even the assembly. He couldn’t get to the back of the unit to take the bulb out. He finally took it to the dealer, and they had to remove the wheel well, just to take the back panel off to change the stinking light bulb! Unbelievable, and honestly, unacceptable. That made my twenty minute job feel pretty good.

We love our new Hyundai Sonata, but I love the Passat too.

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!

Right now, Laura and I are waiting as patiently as possible in the painfully slow lines of the Ohio BMV. Fortunately, I found a free WiFi network to get online while we wait!

As infuriating as it is, waiting in the lines at the BMV is a good reminder of how slow, and sometimes, inept, our government is. As we wait in line, we get to hear all the questions the BMV staff have to ask the people getting a new license or renewing something: “Are you permanent resident? Is your license under suspension or revocation? How long have you lived at your address?” And on and on and on. There is so much paperwork, so much red tape, so much bureaucracy, it is amazing that anything gets done in that place. I honestly don’t know how people can work there, in such tedious monotony.

In this BMV, there is sign, after posted sign, about how we, the paying customers, must do this and mustn’t do that. “No cell phones!” “Take a number.” “Sign in Here.” “Sit over there.” Strangely absent from all the signs is the one that should read: “We only accept cash or check.” From reading other blog posts, you’ll know that I’m a credit card guy. I find it typical that there is a sign for everything unimportant, but for something that actually matters, like the fact that cash is all they take, that isn’t up anywhere. I’d love to go in and have a bunch of services done and then want to pay with a credit card. When they say we don’t accept it, I’d politely say that they need to undo everything they just did. I know I’m evil . . .

The conclusion I came to after yet another BMV experience, and I’ve had many, as I’m sure you have too, is that I don’t trust the government to run things. In a red tape loving, bureaucracy creating, provider of the slowest service in the world, how can anyone want the federal government running our national healthcare? Just look at the lines in the BMV to understand what the government could do to the paperwork and lines in the hospital and doctor’s offices. Or just look at how long the Canadians wait to see a specialist. Competition breeds quality service and because the government’s BMV competes with no one, they couldn’t care less how fast they work. Another example is the TSA running security at the airports. They don’t compete and are slower than molasses. They are rude, slow, and incompetent.

I’ll pay someone to stand in line for me the next time I need something done at the BMV. Any takers?

For more, visit TobyLaura.com!