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My car is broken... The door handle on the drivers side does not open the door from the outside. I have to go around the car, open the passenger side door, lean accross, open the driver side door from the inside, then close the passenger side door and run around the car to get in.

Needless to say, I went shopping for a new door handle. The sales pitch had me laughing pretty hard.

Buick Regal Door Handle - 88 89 2.8L 6 Cylinder Regal Coupe - Front Driver Side Door Handle, Outer, Black

Your Buick Regal door handles are surprisingly important to your vehicle. You may not notice them very often, but a broken door handle can become a serious inconvenience in just a short time. Since they are moving parts that see a lot of daily use, it stands to reason that eventually your door handles are going to become problematic. You may be all right for a short while with getting around doors that won’t open, but soon you are going to want a Regal replacement door handle to restore your vehicle to good working order. After all, it can get tedious to keep crawling over your seats because you can’t open the driver’s side door from the outside, or having to stand out in the rain while you take the extra time to jiggle that dangling door handle into the right position. It does not cost a lot to get a new Buick 1988 - 1989 door handle, so there is no reason to suffer the hassle or inconvenience of inoperable doors. You might also choose to replace your door handles with a brand new set to enhance your vehicle’s appearance, since over time your stock door handles will become scratched, scuffed, and faded with use.

Sold!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I find it pretty crazy that our government is offering massive subsidies for burning food.

A Culinary and Cultural Staple in Crisis - washingtonpost.com

Now not only do the poor have to pay higher prices at the pump because the rich choose to consume massive amounts of gas driving around in Hummers, but now they are going to have to pay higher prices at the supermarket as well.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

"I tell you what, better than taking the path of least resistance is waking up and seeing a redeemer in the mirror. that is what you men want to aspire to." Mark Driscoll, Redeeming Ruth, Part 3

Posted by Josh Reighley at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

We did a little remodeling job last weekend. We have a family room that has been used quite hard by our children. the carpet was stained with 3 or 4 years worth of apple juice and the like.

We recently refinanced our house, and for the first time in a long time we are not absolutely broke. We spend the majority of our time in the room, so I figured that would be the room we should improve.

We shopped around for quite a while, and finally settled on some laminate flooring at the Habitat for Humanity Surplus store. That store is quite neat, as it has a lot of new and used home improvement stuff at very reasonable prices. They happened to have 300 sq feet of flooring, and our room is 300 square feet minus a few here and there for a tile floor and stairs. The price was pretty low, but probably not unbeatable.

Friday, Andee and I moved the furniture out of that room. Saturday morning, we tore out the carpet and removed all of the moldings. Destruction always seems to be a quick job for one reason or another. Within an hour or two, we had a bare concrete floor and an empty room to work with.

My Dad and my friend Dean came over and worked all weekend to help me get the job done. For the most part, Dean and I did the repetitions and tedious parts and Dad did the math intensive cutting parts.

Our flooring was the tongue and groove glue together kind. Each piece would have it's tongue coated with a elmer's like glue, and they you would tap the tongue into the groove of the neighboring boards until the glue seeped out the seams.

It goes together pretty quickly once you get going. There where two agrevating things that we encountered during our project. The first was gaps between the planks. I think that most of these where caused by irregularies in the surface of our floor. Some may have also been caused by irregular boards, but I am not sure. For a long time we tried pounding these cracks out of the floor. This didn't work. Often our pounding would twist the boards that we where sliding our board into, and we would wind up chasing the cracks around. Other times we could get rid of most of the crack but the outside edges wouldn't be flush, so we would have the same problem when we installed the next row. Finally we figured out that it was best to let the cracks fall where they are, and to focus on keeping the outside edges flush with one another.

The second issue that was annoying was needing too short of a board at the very end. Usually yous stagger the seams a little bit, using a full length board in one row, a 1/3 length board in the next row, and a 2/3 length board in the next, then starting the pattern again. On one of our rows, we found that the 2/3 length board, plus 4 full length board left about 2 inches worth that needed to be filled at the end. We had to learn to pre-measure and make sure that that didn't happen again whenever the room changed shape.

After the floor was together we found that the crack filler stuff works quite well at hiding the imperfections.

We spent all day Saturday, and all of Sunday afternoon on the project, and it was pretty well complete by 6PM.

Another thing to keep in mind when shopping for laminate flooring, the moldings and trim are probably the most expensive part. Be sure to keep this in mind when you are estimating your costs.

The floor looks nice, and I believe it will be a lot more resistant to staining!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:18 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Welcome to goComics featuring -- Editorial Cartoons, Comics, Political Cartoons

Isn't Dennis Erickson the obvious nominee?

Posted by Josh Reighley at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

One of the local churches frequently puts up signs with little explanation. This week it says "Macho should be dead"

Anyone care to discuss?

Posted by Josh Reighley at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This summer Voddie Baucham preached a series of sermons about marriage at Northpoint church. He talked about the extra-biblical wisdom that parents and the rest of society pound into their children. "Haven't you read in second Hesitations where it says 'Thou shalt not marry until after college'?" His response is worth hearing:

"So, here is what you are asking him to do. You are asking him for the next year to two years to be stronger than Samson, more godly than David, and wiser than Solomon. 'cause all of them fell into sexual immorality. He wants this woman, God has designed a relationship where in he can have this woman in righteousness and holiness, but you would rather ask him to be stronger than the strongest man in the bible, wiser than the wisest man in the bible and more godly than the godliest man in the whole bible, so that he can finish school first. Help you."

When from the outset we subordinate marriage to second or third priority in our lives, is it no wonder that they fail?

Posted by Josh Reighley at 3:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had asked for a RFID development kit for Christmas, but nobody got me one. Imagine the fun you could have!

U.S. warns about Canadian spy coins

I am not sure what these spies are up to, but I have some ideas of what is possible.. For 100 bucks, I can get everything I need to start playing with RFID. I would bet it wouldn't take me more than an hour to get a working application where I can tell which RFID chip came near my sensor.

I wonder how many new technologies are going to come out of this war. It seems that with a few hours and cheap micro-controller, you could cause some pretty accurate destruction.

Doesn't it seem likely that this innovation is more likely to happen on the enemy's side where cheap duct tape solutions are made to accomplish a objective, than on our side, where we have a massive infrastructure making weapons for a profit?

I think that corporate America is stifled by commercialized innovation as well. A company is not going to release a product unless it is not only useful, but supportable, mass producible, and has potential to be profitable. Sometimes a market for a solution is so small that only one company would be interested in having it. As a result, the big trusted players are not interested in solving that problem without a massive up front fee.

Other times the solutions are rather duct-tape like, and a company doesn't feel comfortable supporting or putting their name on the technology. As a result they go with a more expensive trusted solution. Sometimes the expense of getting a job done neatly prices the problem out of being solved at all.

Seems like the enemy has some advantage here. They have a relatively specific target. They can do it using whatever inexpensive technology that they can string together to achieve their result, and failure is an option for them.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 4:03 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I have never been a big fan of IHOP. There food has never been bad, but it has never been outstanding either. My main gripe isn't with the restaurant though, it is with the clientel.

The other day, I took Nathan to "The Pancake Store" (IHOP) because his mom was home sick and his sister was spending the night with her grandparents. We sat down and he began the coloring ritual. We where sitting in a booth.

The booth behind me was occupied by some older folks. The lady was complaining about how some staff at a different restaurant that she shared too much personal information with their patrons. "If they would stop griping and get working, they wouldn't have so many problems" She said.

From the tone of her voice I could guess what was going to happen next. The waitress brought over their order, and once she left, I heard "What is this? The menu said I could pick two items for my omelet. I picked Mushrooms and Green Peppers, but there is cheese all over it!"

A few minutes later, her husband called the waitress over. "Ma'am, My wife didn't want cheese on her omelet, she ordered it with mushrooms and green peppers"

"I am sorry," the waitress kindly replied "All of our omelets come with cheese, but I can ask our cooks to make her one without"

"No, just take it away! I Don't want to discuss it any longer!" The grumpy old lady groused.

About five minutes passed. She scolded her husband. "Next time you are going to call over the staff because of something that is my business, will you at least warn me first?"

"Yes Honey, I am sorry" said the wise old man.

Anyway. IHOP would probably retain a younger clientel if they would set up a grumpy old geezer section. The music isn't loud enough to drown out grousing of the neighboring tables.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 5:25 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I bought a new toaster today, and it cooks eggs!

I have been coveting this contraption for several months now, and my wife has been laughing at me. It works exactly as advertised. You add water to the steamer tray using the measuring cup that they provide, then add the egg and meat in the steamer, put the English muffins in the toaster slots. Turn it on, and 4 minutes later, you have all the makings for an Egg McMuffin without the Mc.

It also has a tray for making hard boiled eggs. I tried that out and it also works perfectly. I mentioned my new toy to my friend Jess, and he tells me he has had one for a year, and still likes it.

Andee stopped laughing at me when she tried one of the sandwiches.. They are pretty darn good. Better than I expected honestly. Usually really cool ideas don't work out in the real world as well as they do on paper. This device seems quite well engineered though.

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I don't know if it is the 8th grade Orchestra kid in me... (Solidly at the bottom of the 2nd violin group if you care to ask) ... But this is funny:

HT: Matt&Nancy

Posted by Josh Reighley at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I really wish that Mark Driscoll's critics would listen to more of his sermons. Most of the bloggers who I hear criticizing cherry pick certain quotes taken out of context and paint him to be a raging chauvinist. Any typical point in a Driscoll sermon takes a couple of minutes. He is not the preacher of people with 10 second sound byte attention spans. Here is an example, from this week's audio.

You can get in a lot of danger if you only say one thing that the bible says on a subject and don't clarify that it has other things that it says on that subject as well.

I will give you one example that I deal with frequently. We believe in male headship in the home, we believe in gender roles, and a the submission of the wife to the husband if he is obeying Christ, and all of those things, But for example if the men who are going through Colossians and Ephesians and such only hammer you know, 'wives submit to your husbands' they could miss that very important verse in Genesis 2 which the purpose of the wife for the man is to be what? Helpful. Helpful. So we are not talking just about complete and utter obedience to the little god in the home named husband. We are talking about her respecting him in such a way that she is helpful. So many wives are submissive, but they are not helpful. There are certain women that never say anything, and their husbands are idiots. It would be helpful if they where not disrespectful, but helpful.

I have met with many wives, and they say my husband is doing this, and that, and the other thing, and everything is a mess, he's got this dumb business idea and our finances are sideways, but I am trying to be submissive. Well, also be helpful. Like if he is an idiot, and you are not, you should help him! And the bible says it is not good for him to be alone 'cause he is an idiot, he needs help, that is why you where made. Help him!

That is my simple illustration of if you just say what it says in one place, but if you don't import some other things that it says, you could end up having an extreme position that isn't mitigated by the rest of what scripture has to say.

My wife and I had this discussion some years ago. There where some things that she saw in my life that she thought I needed to work on and she never said anything. And I said "Why?" She said "I was trying to be submissive." But I said " Your also supposed to be helpful, Now I need you to be helpful, not just submissive. You need to be submissive, but in a helpful way. And if you are a respectful wife, then when you speak to me, I will actually listen, because I know that you are not that dripping faucet that proverbs speaks of, you are this crown on my head like proverbs speaks of."

Now the 10 second sound byte version that gets ratings would be "if he is an idiot, and you are not, you should help him! And the bible says it is not good for him to be alone 'cause he is an idiot, he needs help, that is why you where made. Help him!", The cliff notes really leave out a good portion of the lesson, don't they?

Posted by Josh Reighley at 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Ancestry.com gave me a 3 day free trial to their website, which I must say is quite cool. In 3 days, I was able to get a massive list of possible relatives to research. Here is my rough draft family tree. (Must set up account to view)

The research is pretty easy to do on the ancestry.com site. They have a lot of family trees that you can copy to guide you. These are assembled by other users, and are not trustworthy, but can get you started. With a paid subscription, you can click on a name in your family tree, and see census records, military records, immigration records and media records that are possible matches for that person. Most of these records have scanned documents, so with one click, you can view the actual hand written census sheet that your relative is listed on.

I have been able to track my Patriarchal name back to a man name Charles Reilly who was born in 1807 in Ireland. When he moved to the United States, he began spelling his name Reighley, just like I do. He got married in Fredrick Maryland to Caroline Cronise. One of the history books indicated that a Charles Reighley pastored a church there for a couple of "troubled years" in 1832, but I am not positive that this was the same guy, as I do see other Charles Reighley's that have lived in that area.

In the late 1830's he moved to Michigan, I believe he was an army chaplain, and definately pastored an Episcopal church there. He had 6 kids with his first wife, including my great-great grandfather, James Braiden Reighley.

It appears that he moved to the Mississippi in the late 1850's and his wife passed away there, and he remarried. His second wife was a school teacher, Heloise DeMailly, and they had a daughter. There appears to be quite a collection of information on Ms De Mailly's life in the Ker Family papers, Archived at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It looks like they have portraits of Heloise DeMailly Reighley, Marie Reighley Watkins, as well as a portrait of Mrs. Watkins with her infant son. They also have several letters written from Miss De Mailly to one of her pupils, Mary Ker. If I am ever in that neighborhood, I will have to check it out.

Rev Reighley passed away in 1862. The folks in the forums seem to think he died in DC, but I haven't seen any documentation.

Anyway, it must have been interesting being a Irish born Yankee living in Mississippi in 1858-1862. I am sure there is a story there, but it is fairly unlikely that we will hear it. At least two of his sons, Charles Jr. and James Braiden, where in the Union army. Charles Jr, died of his war wounds. I suspect that Charles Sr. may have been an Union army chaplain during the civil war. Don't know for sure though. I will keep digging.

It is amazing how many people's legacy boils down to born on , died on, son of, husband of, father of.... I am going to research several other relatives and see if I can gather much of their story.

If anyone finds this post via a search engine, and has more information on these folks, I would love to hear about them. Please leave a comment or drop me an email!

Posted by Josh Reighley at 1:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)