Mike King

"No Touch" Bathroom Fiasco

Because of my healthy phobia of germs (I think it is healthy), I applaud public restroom designers who are creating no-germ contact zones.  This is a quantum leap forward in human progress.  Features like automatic flushing toilets, soap dispensers and faucets, along with interior doors that open outwardly with the nudge of a foot make using a public restroom without any part of my flesh coming into actual contact with anything physical a much easier scenario.  When my friend Jason blogged of his frustration with this amazing technology(how it never works and he hates it), I had a difficult time empathizing with his feelings.  However, today on a break between Emergent seminars here in Nashville; I ducked into the bathroom for a quick pit stop.  The toilet in this automated restroom flushed on cue, the soap dispenser spit out an appropriate amount of soap as I placed my hands underneath it, however the faucet did not respond to the strategic placement of my hands in the appropriate spot.  I moved to the next faucet, it too ignored the wave of my soap filled hands.  Tim’s frustration story with automatic faucets popped into my mind, maybe he was right, and this technology is ridiculous.  Just as I was about to walk out the door with soap still on my hands another person walked up and began washing his hands.  It was at that moment that I realized that the faucets were not automatic, but manual, oh gosh, what a moron I am…

Change

I traveled to Boise, Idaho to speak at a youth ministry conference at the Double Tree.  I guess, being the Double Tree, they thought it would be impressive to feature a new fangled double shower head in their rooms.  The handles were very sensitive.  During my first encounter in the shower it took me, seriously, more than four minutes of miserable adjustment time to get the water to a comfortable temperature.  Back and forth I went from hot… adjust… cold… adjust… really cold… adjust… scalding… I even try talking to the shower… adjust… cold… adjust… warm… adjust… too hot… adjust… cool… adjust… hot… adjust… warm… ok, I live with warm.  One of the things that made the adjustments so tricky was the fact that the water temperature coming out the two shower heads was not the same.  The next day I was determined to figure this technology out.  I learned that the hot and cold handles move in opposite directions.  I’m still not sure if that was intended or if they were installed improperly.  This time I adjusted the water before I got in and made only minor adjustments after I got in.  Perfection.  As I enjoyed my shower I thought about how change causes discomfort.  Change messes up our equilibrium.  We react to change, many times by overreacting in an attempt to reach equilibrium and comfort again.  Change is essential for life.  It is important to take a deep breath, process, observe, figure out how things are now working and take time to make appropriate adjustments.  Keep breathing, life goes on.

Sewer Snake to the Rescue

I was so looking forward to this fine day of Shabbat.  Start the day with coffee; contemplative music; solitude; check a few blogs; write a spiritual, theological oriented post; work on some journal reviews; write an article for YouthFront News; maybe watch a movie; then head to Jacob's Well for church.  It had all the makings of a perfect Sunday.  The first indication that something was going wrong was the smell of sewer gas, that seemed quite odd, then an occasional very bizarre glub, glub sound, kind of like the sound coming from the Griswold's storm sewer (Christmas Vacation) after cousin Eddy cleans out his s****r.  Soon we are in a full blown emergency with the main sewer line blocked and a whole lot of unpleasant objects going the wrong way - into the toilets, the showers, the bathtubs.  I felt like kissing the plumber when he arrived on the scene (and yes he looked like the stereotype plumber except there was no sign of exposed crack).  This emergency was nothing that a 100 foot sewer snake couldn't solve.  Believe me the picture on the right in no way, shape or form represents the mess we encountered.  The cleanup was such a delight.  Let's just say I humored Vicki all day with my dry heaving.  When it was all said and done the bill was a measly $89.  I would have been happy to pay three times that amount for the miracle work accomplished by the Snake and the Plumber.  All that and we still made it to Jacob's Well.  Happy Flushing!

Budgets, numbers, decisions...

This day has been given to one of the things I have to do in my role of leading Youthfront as President/CEO.  Budgets, numbers, spreadsheets, making decisions, ugggghhhhhhhh.  For the joy set before me I endure the pain....  Fortunately, there are a group of people around me that dig this stuff - Topher, Brian and Linda.  They can make numbers make sense.  I even think that numbers are as beautiful to them as musical notes are to me.  So, here I sit in the Whistlestop Coffee Shop in Lee's Summit.  Topher is deep in numbers, spreadsheets, and financial reports... I, on the other hand, am taking a short break, thankful for wireless Internet...