Waterproofing | Wayfarer

I know I haven’t been posting much lately other than my chapter a day. I’ve kind of dropped off Facebook and Twitter as well. It’s not necessarily intentional.

It’s been a busy spring. Wendy and I were busy with USP’s spring production. I’m in a busy season of work, the busiest I’ve experienced in many years which has included a hectic business travel schedule. At the same time, we’ve been through a large home project in which the foundation of our house was shored up and the basement completely waterproofed. Now we have a basement piled with all our “stuff” covered in a thick layer of fine cement dust which has to be sorted, cleaned, organized and put away. It all feels pretty mundane and overwhelming at the same time.

In addition, my tinnitus has had periods of being markedly worse this spring. (Side note: There is one school of thought that Vincent Van Gogh went crazy, in part, because of tinnitus and he cut off his ear to rid himself of the incessant ringing. If so, I sympathize with him.) Because of the difficulty I have hearing in places with a lot of ambient noise, I’ve found myself struggling with large social situations and public places. I hate having to ask people to repeat themselves two or three times, or just sitting there hearing the din of conversation but not being able to make out what people are saying. I finally went to the ENT doc to get things checked out only to find that the hearing in my “good” ear has declined rapidly in the past year. The doc suggested I give up caffeine and get fitted for a hearing aid in that ear as well. [sigh] Going through caffeine withdrawal on top of everything else was a barrel of fun.

I’m whining. I know, and I beg your forgiveness. I’m blessed that technology and available resources mean I can get what I need to help me hear. Nevertheless, I admit that the reality of my auditory decline has left me feeling a little sad even as I prepare to celebrate my 46th birthday on Monday. Wendy and I will, however, be at the (blessedly quiet) lake with my folks, Taylor, and Clayton. I’m really looking forward to being there, even if it is only for a day or two.

2012 04 basement waterproofing panorama — Panorama of our basement walls covered in protective waterproof sheeting. Sump pump can be seen along with edge of a pile of our stuff on the left.

I feel like I haven’t posted much but my chapter-a-day for a while. To be honest, it’s been a little crazy around the Vander Well household. We’re experiencing the busiest season of work we’ve had in several years (that’s a good thing) and trying to keep up. We were crazy busy with the play. And then, a construction crew showed up to accomplish a long due project of waterproofing our basement which necessitated us moving everything in our basement into piles in the center of the room, taking anything off the exterior walls (like paneling, insulation, etc. Last week was phase one and it went really well, but now we have everything in piles that has to be put back, and our entire house is covered in a thin layer of concrete dust from the jack hammering and cement pouring, etc. More of that to come in two weeks when phase two shores up the foundation.

2012 04 08 TRC Easter Service — Easter Worship from my camera perch at the back of the sanctuary.

Easter services at our church were great. Wendy and I once again helped out on the tech crew. Easter worship at our church is actually a bit of a technological challenge. We have people in two different rooms. Half the worship band is on one stage in the sanctuary and the other half of the band is on the stage in the auditorium on the other side of the building. So, from my camera in the sanctuary I could hear the lead guitar and bass player, but they were actually playing from another room. The rhythm guitar and keyboard were on stage in front of me, but the folks in the auditorium couldn’t see them other than the video feeds going back and forth. Everything is simulcast between the two rooms. For anybody who’s an audio-video geek it’s a pretty cool thing to be part of and it makes for an interesting experience to pull it off.

2012 04 08 VW Easter Dinner — L-R: Clay, Tay, Emma, Wendy, Jody, Scott, Grandpa Dean, Grandma Jeanne

After worship Wendy and I headed to Des Moines for Easter dinner with my family. It was blissfully low key feast this year. Tay and Clay were there, though we missed Maddy Kate. We got to see her when I called her with FaceTime and she got to see everyone. She got a little taste of home by having Easter dinner with Brett and Micki Strait and the Diehls who just moved to Colorado Springs from Pella. It was nephew Sol’s birthday, so a little birthday cake and pie were in order after dinner.

In the evening we headed downtown to celebrate two more birthdays. Wendy’s friends Shay and Sarah are both celebrating birthdays so we gathered with friends at Django for a wonderful meal and conversation.

It was a wonderful Easter Sunday. The tulips here in Pella are in full bloom about a month earlier than normal. The cloudless, perfect sunny Easter Sunday could not have been more beautiful.