To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable." - Ludwig van Beethoven

Clarification: each one of those bays in the woodshed (last night's post) holds 1.7 cords of wood. So between the two we have almost 3.5 cord ready for this winter. I'm hoping we'll only use half of that.
Global warming??? There has to be some upside.

It dawned on me the other day that I live here on Baker Rd. with seven women. OK, six of them have four legs each, but I'm still dangerously outnumbered.

I've read stories today on several disparate sites about Bill Hybels who used to be pastor at Willow Creek Church (24,000 attenders) located in the Chicago area. I somehow missed that he'd resigned earlier this year after allegations of sexual misconduct stretching back years, allegations which he denies. The married woman who accused him of carrying on an affair with her retracted those accusations but a second investigation by the elders led to Hybels stepping down from his position as pastor, as head of the Willow Creek Association, the Global Leadership Summit, and Greatest Church Leadership Guru of this Millenia. (OK, I made that last one up, but he was a pretty big deal in the arena of evangelical churches.) Bill Hybels was the epitome of the "celebrity pastor" and authored about three dozen books that got sucked up by his admiring disciples.
The reason I just stumbled across this is that the new lead pastor of Willow Creek Church just resigned along with all the elders, a story that made the front page of USAToday.com. Sr. Pastor Heather Larson (!) said they all felt they'd mishandled the investigation and wanted the church to have a fresh start.
Celebrity pastors is an apt term. We can't paint all of them with the Hybels, Warren, Savage, Baker, Swaggart........brush, but we've got enough of these stories that we should be able to agree the category of super leader of a mega church is a model that is at least dangerous if not unbiblical.
Bigger is not better. Sometimes it's very dangerous and harmful to the kingdom of God.

The weather guys got it wrong again today. Alas, this time they underestimated the high temp.
I'm sure hoping they're right about tomorrow when they say the high will only be 80.
This morning WeatherUnderground.com said the high today would be 90. When we sailed right past that they just changed the page to show that the high would be whatever the current temp was, and kept bumping that number up as it got hotter. As in 94.

If your seat bottom is soft and sagging ("sounds like a personal problem to me") and you don't have money for a butt lift (a new seat frame and springs) here's a solution. It took me about two hours this morning including removing the driver's bucket seat, doing the fix, and reinstalling the seat.

Start by taking a pic of the underside!! Those springs and connecting wires will fall off and you will not remember where they connect. DAMHIK*.
I've done almost all my work on working class 50s and 60s cars and trucks. I like the simplicity of the era and the availability of parts. Removing the seats doesn't require disconnecting any wires, worrying about any switches or connections.... Just undo the bolts and take it out. So far every vehicle I've worked on - Ford, Chevy, VW - has the same seat design. Small variations, but they all have the wavy spring steel support holding up padding and then the upholstery vinyl. You'll see in the next pic that I took the seat rails off to give me better access.

You have to use a rope that doesn't stretch. Polyester is the best but our local ACE didn't have any so I got polypropylene. Tie it at one side of the seat frame and then go over/under the waves on one row of the spring. Pull it as tight as you can and tie it off to the seat frame on the other side.
When I did the Falcon with its bench seat it was easier than the short distance and tight confines of Sally's bucket but this wasn't too tricky.

No matter how hard you pull you can't get the rope tight enough so you have to take the next step. I used a three and a half inch nail but anything similar will work. Lay it across the rope at a right angle and then, probably with the help of pliers, twist it with one end of the nail going over the rope and the other end going under. Turn it as many times as you can. This has the effect of tightening that rope much more than you ever could otherwise. Then fasten the nail to keep it from untwisting. I had some hog ring clips left over from doing the upholstery but you could use a twist tie, zip tie, or whatever.

A separate fun of rope w/a nail for all the rows of spring and it's done. The no-stretch rope keeps the springs from sagging like they did. Easy peasy. I put the seat rails back on, attached the springs (using that first pic!) put the seat back in the car (Ford had a crazy system compared to VW's) and sat my seat in the seat. MUCH better. Nice and firm, no longer squishy. I had to adjust the rear view mirror 'cause I now sit higher.
Total cost: about $5 for the rope.
Boom!!

There. All that for free. When I write my book about car restoration on the cheap you'll have to pay money to get this kind of stuff.


*Don't Ask Me How I Know