Why the world is not ready for vista...

I like computers...but I would not consider myself a computer geek. I know what your thinking..."Then what defines a computer geek?" A computer geek is somebody who thrives on the latest deals from Frys or tigerdirect. A computer geek is somebody who thinks the "Geek Squad" is a cult. A computer geek is somebody who knows more about your computer than you do. Personally I don't believe that I fall into any of these catagories. Now...to the point. I recently purchased a new laptop computer. I will admit that I was very excited but you would be to if you were in the same situation. The computer is great except for one thing...VISTA. Now over the last few months I have seen many mixed emotions on this new OS. I didn't know who to believe so I decided to wait to experience it for myself before I had my own opinion. But now I have experienced it and I do have my own opinion...YOU STINK VISTA. I was at a Jr. High camp this past week as a part of the tech team and there were two instances where an extra laptop would have been very useful. I thought to myself..."well i've got a new laptop we can use it." However when we tried to use it I got the message that no PC user ever wants to see..."Compatability Problem." My heart was broken...I thought my new HP and I had gotten off to a good start...I was wrong. XP was out for too long before Vista was born. Too many sweet programs were created for XP that cannot be used on Vista. I must stop here before my tears start to fall on the keyboard...

Until Nextime,
Spud

Day 2: The Banjo Plays On.....

Where do I start? The more I think about this story the more I don’t want to tell it again but I’ll fight through it. At the time, going for a little canoe trip down the Huron River seemed like a fantastic Idea. We tried to get some kayaks but the place we normally rent them from was out. Fortunately Anya’s mom had a canoe that she was more than happy to let us use. So Saturday morning Matt and I packed a cooler full of sandwiches, soda pop, and carrots. Once we were all packed up we headed for the Dexter Bakery to get some doughnuts for breakfast. Now we were ready and we headed off to Anya’s moms house to start our journey.
We were about to launch the canoe when my cousin Dave walked up. This was our first mistake…talking to Dave. Dave has been down the river many times and he told us, “When you get to that spot with the big danger signs that say “’Keep RIGHT”’ you can go left, it’s really not that bad.” Now being that Dave is older and wiser than I (or so I thought), I figured that It would be ok to go left. This was our second mistake….listening to Dave.

Finally we launched the canoe. Matt Haynes was in the front and I was in the back steering, or trying to steer. Our journey started with no problems, the weather was great and my sandwich was even better. About an hour goes by when we get to those big danger signs. My first thought was that we were going to left but in the back of my mind I thought that it was a bad idea. But with a little peer pressure from Matt we ended up going left into the rapids, completely ignoring the warning signs and all that stuff about drowning. As soon as we hit the rapids we got stuck on a rock. Next thing I knew were sideways against the current. As we sat there stuck not knowing what to do I hear Matt from the back of the canoe say, “Chip, I think were going over!” Yup, before I could process what he had said the boat was upside down and we were both in the water. In a moment of shock I looked down stream and saw my paddle floating away, and then I looked over and saw the cooler float past me. Of course I’m thinking to myself, “Forget the boat, grab the food!” So I jumped over the canoe and started swimming for the cooler, all the while Matt is standing helpless staring at me. Finally, Matt gets the canoe free from the rock it was stuck on and it floated down to me full of water. At this point I realized that the boat had completely fallen apart. Both of the seats were broken and the bars that held the boat together had broken off the sides. Oh, and there were two cracks on either side of the boat were slowly letting water in.
The worst part was, 1. It wasn’t our boat and 2. There was still another two hours left on the River. Matt’s phone was now broken and I had lost my sandwich. However, about 10 minutes after this small disaster I saw my sandwich in the plastic bag floating down stream ahead of us.
When we finally reached the end we had to get the canoe out of the river which turned out to be a daunting task. Though there just happened to be a homeless man sleeping behind the Dexter Mill where we had parked the car. The man kindly helped us get the canoe out of the water and then there was an awkward 20 minutes of waiting for Aunt Becky to come with rope. Fortunately the man didn’t do anything crazy.
The rest of the afternoon was spent repairing the broken canoe. Thank goodness for fiberglass repair kits and gorilla glue. We even bought paint to match the color of the canoe. I would even say that the canoe ended up in better shape than when we got it…but maybe not.
This ends the story of the canoe adventure. If I have learned anything from this trip I would say two things, 1. Always follow big orange signs that say “DANGER” and 2. Never EVER listen to anything that Dave Cobler ever tells you…you will probably end up wet or dead. Fortunely Matt and I only got the wet part….

Those stupid banjo players....

It all started about a week ago when Matt Haynes asked me, "Chip, when are we going to Michigan again?" I didn't think much of it until I realized that I didn't have to work Fri-Sun. I asked Aunt Becky if she wouldn't mind having some company for a couple of days and of course she said "Yeah Baby." Matt's parents were a little hesitant in letting me drive there son on a 200 mile road trip, but after a little convincing, no problem...I asked my dad if he would let me go so it was set, MY FIRST ROAD TRIP! Thursday I had to work till 4 o'clock but I got off 1/2 hour early. Earlier that day I had bought 2 quarts of oil and while putting it in I realized that I didn't really know how to read the dip stick (but nobody needs to know that). So after work I packed up and headed for Matt's. We headed over to thortons to gas up and pick up some snacks for the road. At about 4:30 our journey had begun. I now know the true meaning of the term "rush hour".....enough said. Once getting around the Chicago madness we had no problem. Matt played the combined role of DJ/Navigator...though he sucked at navigating (but I didn't say that). We arrived at my second home in lovely Dexter Michigan at about 10:45 eastern time. We were welcomed by Uncle Larry and my cousin Erin. It turns out that Aunt Becky had made up two beds in guest room downstairs but Matt and I preffered the couches. For those of you who don't know, Matt Haynes is nocturnal. We put in the movie "The Fugitive" and after about 20 min I fell asleep. At about 2am I wake up and Matt is watching another movie while playing with his laptop. At this point I was pissed off because the TV was still on so I went into the guest room
END OF DAY 1

DAY 2....coming soon

I never really was big into cars...

In the last few weeks I have discovered that if there is one man that I would seek good advice about life from, It would be my uncle Larry. It is because of him that I am writing this blog.(more on this later) Story: For those of you who don't know, I drive a 1993 Plymouth Voyager that has 177,000 miles, no A/C and a rebuilt trans. Now being a 16 year old driver that makes just enough to pay for gas, driving a "sweet" car just isn't high on my list of priorities so I have to make do with the mini-van. I made a trip out to the local Auto Zone to see what I could find to make the van as cool looking as a van can look. I purchased new plastic chrome hubcaps and to my surprise I have received a number of compliments (now whether people are just trying to make me feel good I'm not sure). Uncle Larry was in town at the time and so I was telling him my future plans for my car to which he responded, "Chip, every dollar that spend on that mini-van is a dollar that you can't spend on something else." I have really taken this statement to heart and have since not spent one dollar on that van.

I think that the van was a little upset by this and decided to leave its lights on in the parking lot while I was in church. Of course leaving the lights on makes the battery upset and when the battery is upset then the engine doesn't start and when the engine doesn't start then Chip is late for work and when Chip is late for work, who is there to make the world sandwhiches? The moral of this useless story of "car vs. man" is that we all need to take a break every once in a while, look at the sky, enjoy the flowers of summer, see all the happy or not so happy people strolling by, and make sure your stupid lights are turned off!

Much delayed ramblings....

First, I want to apologize to the 3 people that read my blog for not posting in over 2 weeks. It’s not that nothing has happened; it’s that everything has happened and so I haven’t had time to write it all down.

People might think that the last few weeks of school before summer are the best…but I must disagree. Teachers always end up cramming everything that they didn’t get done earlier in the semester into these last few weeks making school my least favorite place to be. Anyway, I’ll stop complaining…I just had to get it out there.

Life at Jimmy Johns is ok. I have realized how lucky I am that I don’t have to live off of minimum wage. I have also come to the point where I can confidently say that if I never saw or ate another Jimmy Johns sandwich again I wouldn’t shed a tear. Last Friday my bosses left for Vegas to go the annual Jimmy Convention, and of coarse as soon as they leave the store starts to fall apart. The drains under the sinks began to fail to do their job so consequently I have spent more time with a mop in my hands than actually making sandwiches. So last night I ventured to the freezer to grab some frozen bread only to discover that the freezer wasn't really “freezing” and also that it was making noise that a freezer should not make…you get the picture.

VCB is busy as always. The Good Friday service went very well. We just started our preparation for the Costa Rica/Nicaragua trips that club rock is doing this summer (more on this later).

Failure to blog

Well, It's been a couple days since my last post. I guess I realized how easy It was to have a busy schedule. A lot has happened since Saturday morning. I hung around the house most of Saturday afternoon, started a few projects like 1) cleaning my room and 2) painting a wall in the basement. Surprisingly my room did get clean but I only got to "prep" the wall before I could paint it. That night Ashley, Liz, and Lindsey all came over and we painted Easter eggs...WAHOO! It was actually a really good time. My dad taught me how to hard boil eggs, a skill apparently everybody should have. Ashley asked me if they could all borrow some of MY t-shirts so they could run out and play in the rain (don't ask me why). I had to reassure myself that these girls were in high school but I guess they like playing in the rain...or so they thought. They all came screaming in about 3 minutes after they went out. Apparently they weren't big fans of the the hundreds of worms that were crawling about my driveway. Ransom, Matt Haynes and Sarah Ray all arrived later that night and we all just hung around the house, played games, laughed...all that good stuff. Haynes decided to spend the night so he chilled in Ransoms room. I of course was still out in my tent, as content as can be. People think I'm weird because I sleep in a tent in my backyard, they're probably right but I do it anyways.

Sunday was a typical Sunday. We went to Sunday school and then I ran the cameras for second service. Every week after church we usually spend at least a half hour trying to figure out where we want to eat lunch but this Sunday I decided that I wasn't going to wait. I yelled, "I'm going to Chipotle!" And guess what? Everyone followed, It was amazing. So we spent a couple of hours at Deerpark "shopping." Ministry team started at 3pm so we were all back at church then. It was a good meeting... the "new band" (Myself, Matt Haynes, Matt Yager, Joel Smith) got to begin practicing with each other. Over the next few months were going to start playing a couple of songs every Wednesday night so we can get better.

After Volleyball, we all headed over to the shop for movie night. That was a lot of fun. We played pool, shuffle board, ate Jimmy Johns, look at cars...you know, the usual. I got home around 9:30 and slept outside in my tent again.

Monday was pretty uneventful at school. After school Danny helped me with a music video that I was making for my health class. It was really cheesy but for what It was I thought it turned out pretty good. I got to show it in front of the class today and they seemed to like it. Last night I was in the tent again and mother nature decided to that it would be funny to bring a huge thunderstorm my way. However, that didn't stop me from sleeping in the tent, in fact, I think it made it a much better experience.

Well here I am now, sitting in the Club Rock room. I didn't have much to do tonight and I love being here so I just came here to blog and drink my Starbucks. I talked to Matt Yager for a while and convinced him to help me with the Good Friday service coming up in a couple of days. That's it for now...enjoy the pictures.

Home sweet home...

FINALLY! This is the first time I have had the chance to stop and think since I got home yesterday from Phoenix. Soon after we had arrived home Ashley came over to show my dad and I pictures from her trip to Hawaii….yeah that’s right….Hawaii (I was a little jealous). Of coarse my stories didn’t compare to hers but none the less we talked for a good 2 hours about the past week and all of our adventures.

After Ashley had left, Matt Haynes decided that he was going to come over; so he did and we decided to get some food at Panera Bread. While eating dinner we made our plans for the rest of the evening’s activities which were...go to Matt’s house and play cards. I was motivated to play cards because I had just been with 6 other Coblers for a week and if you know the Coblers you know that we love cards. But to my luck Matt didn’t have any playing cards so I had to make a journey to the nearest Walgreen’s to find some. The funny part of this pointless story is that we didn’t actually end up playing cards.

Randomly at Matt’s I decided that I wanted to sleep in a tent last night and Matt agreed so we slept in a tent in his backyard. That brings me to where I am at now…the same tent but in my backyard. Don’t ask me why I am doing this; I guess its just being outside.

Well, it’s almost 1a.m. and I should probably get some sleep. Tomorrow is Saturday and there is no telling what the day might bring. Goodnight…

Phoenix Airport 5:15 a.m.

Well its over...but it was awesome. The whole family got up this morning at 3 o'clock (nothing unusual for the Cobler family) and headed for the airport. This trip really was an amazing time to be with my family, to get away from school..... and of coarse, away from Jimmy Johns. We had no agenda, no plans...just relaxed and went as we wished.