Hemingway's latest resting place We continue in much the same routine here in Jacksonville, honing our locksmithing skills and staying on top of the changes in Faith’s Sunday worship livestream, and tending to other minor repairs around the church. And we participated in our first Zoom meetings. It is a brave new world.
Going Live
While we were getting used to broadcasting the Sunday services to Faith’s Youtube channel, the desire was to have a similar livestream on Facebook. The attempts to use a separate cellphone to do this were not working well, so we came up with a plan to broadcast the service to Facebook as well. Using a separate computer, we displayed the Youtube service and used this as input to upload to Facebook. That preserved the slides showing the words to the scriptures and songs, as well as the sound quality of the Youtube stream.
It seemed to work well, and it caught the attention of Jahaziel, who was streaming his dad’s service at his church in West Palm Beach. We gave him some ideas for using the cell phone cameras for his service, which he used the next Sunday. We are all in this together.
The popularity of the livestream is increasing, and the congregation wants it to continue once they can gather again. Since our current set-up takes up half of a pew and has loose wires all over the church, we have some work to do to make this happen routinely with a lot less clutter and time investment. We’ll see what develops.
While we were getting used to broadcasting the Sunday services to Faith’s Youtube channel, the desire was to have a similar livestream on Facebook. The attempts to use a separate cellphone to do this were not working well, so we came up with a plan to broadcast the service to Facebook as well. Using a separate computer, we displayed the Youtube service and used this as input to upload to Facebook. That preserved the slides showing the words to the scriptures and songs, as well as the sound quality of the Youtube stream.
It seemed to work well, and it caught the attention of Jahaziel, who was streaming his dad’s service at his church in West Palm Beach. We gave him some ideas for using the cell phone cameras for his service, which he used the next Sunday. We are all in this together.
The popularity of the livestream is increasing, and the congregation wants it to continue once they can gather again. Since our current set-up takes up half of a pew and has loose wires all over the church, we have some work to do to make this happen routinely with a lot less clutter and time investment. We’ll see what develops.
Locking Up
Most of our locksmithing efforts were devoted to making it possible to have a key that would work for mission teams and individuals that come to stay at the church. By creating an operating key that would open the rooms that were common to these guests, there would be less unnecessary access for these individuals.
Also, in the absence of a locksmith over the past few years, some tenants had put their own locks into doors that the church had to have special keys for. We re-keyed these to allow the staff to use a master key, while still giving the tenant their own unique keyed access.
There is still work to do in the gym, but, hard to believe, we are starting to run out of locks to work on.
Most of our locksmithing efforts were devoted to making it possible to have a key that would work for mission teams and individuals that come to stay at the church. By creating an operating key that would open the rooms that were common to these guests, there would be less unnecessary access for these individuals.
Also, in the absence of a locksmith over the past few years, some tenants had put their own locks into doors that the church had to have special keys for. We re-keyed these to allow the staff to use a master key, while still giving the tenant their own unique keyed access.
There is still work to do in the gym, but, hard to believe, we are starting to run out of locks to work on.
Waxing the RV RV Stuff
We are starting to run out of cool days, so we decided to take advantage of the few remaining ones by washing and waxing the truck and the RV. While the truck had been waxed not too long ago, we think it has been 2 years since we have done the RV and it showed. Of course, once we were into it, we were reminded why we had waited 2 years to do it. Also, while up on the ladder, we finally put a ball under the slide topper to raise up a low spot that had been routinely collecting water. We had purchased the ball about this time last year. Not that we’re procrastinating or anything.
We are starting to run out of cool days, so we decided to take advantage of the few remaining ones by washing and waxing the truck and the RV. While the truck had been waxed not too long ago, we think it has been 2 years since we have done the RV and it showed. Of course, once we were into it, we were reminded why we had waited 2 years to do it. Also, while up on the ladder, we finally put a ball under the slide topper to raise up a low spot that had been routinely collecting water. We had purchased the ball about this time last year. Not that we’re procrastinating or anything.
Dave installing new brake cable We also had some minor damage to our quick-release brake cable that engages the brakes on the trailer in an emergency if it breaks away from the truck. We replaced the whole mechanism to ensure it was sure to work if ever needed.
Making the Most of Staying Safe
We’ve had some new experiences inspired by the pandemic’s restrictions. We had to order a custom paint color at Lowe’s and managed, with several phone calls, to get it ordered, paid for, tax exempt status recorded, and delivered to the bed of the truck. It would have been completely contact free, except we had to sign the tax exempt form. Whoops.
Another challenge came when Cathy’s sneaks started to give out. (All those nightly walks.) We managed to order some replacements at Kohl’s for curbside pick-up. It worked pretty smoothly, though it’s not clear how many people were taking advantage of this service.
We’ve had some new experiences inspired by the pandemic’s restrictions. We had to order a custom paint color at Lowe’s and managed, with several phone calls, to get it ordered, paid for, tax exempt status recorded, and delivered to the bed of the truck. It would have been completely contact free, except we had to sign the tax exempt form. Whoops.
Another challenge came when Cathy’s sneaks started to give out. (All those nightly walks.) We managed to order some replacements at Kohl’s for curbside pick-up. It worked pretty smoothly, though it’s not clear how many people were taking advantage of this service.
Virtual Math Fair on Zoom And then, we got initiated into Zoom meetings. Cathy started with a Circle meeting on her phone. That was followed by a church council meeting on the computer. Not a surprise that us techies had problems with the mike (turned off for the livestream) and the internet. By the following Friday, we had worked out most of the kinks, which was good, since we got to participate in Bonnie’s Virtual Math Fair. One of the presenters was Troy, who tied for first place. It was fun to see the kids’ hard work. There was a lot of talent on display and a lot of organization that made it successful.
Barry's birthday celebration We had a birthday celebration for Barry, complete with cake and ice cream, that we enjoyed with social distancing. And our resident population increased by one with Don’s release from rehab. He was greeted by a parking lot full of cars honking after almost 2 months of hospital and rehab. Now we see him walking the campus as he regains his strength. Glad to see him out and about.
