updates

my car has been fixed. thanks be to God.

that wasn't a fox pictured a few posts back. it was a coyote.

is that the sound of two of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse i hear?

broken down cars

so tonight on my break from work, jonathan informs me that he has an extra ticket to jose gonzalez in chicago. being excited to get out of wheaton, i hopped in my car immediately after work to head on over to belmont and broadway. i circled the area for about 10 minutes, only to find that the first available space was directly behind jonathan's car on a residential street. exciting. i headed on over to the venue for a sweet show. seriously, how many hispanic swedes do you know?

afterwards, i took a friend home, and made my way back to 290 towards wheaton. as soon as i was leaving the loop, my car died, i began coasting, and i quickly had to find find the shoulder on the interstate. jonathan came to my rescue soon thereafter, but we needed to figure out what to do with the car. with the help of the IL DOT and a private tower, we finally got the car towed back to wheaton an hour and a half later. who knows whats wrong with it and how much it will cost. lets hope it isn't serious. more to come.

jay

Mr. Greener Goes To Colorado

Last Thursday I boarded a plane for my beloved land of colorado. As many of you know I hate flying and it is rare that I don't pray for God to accept my soul into his kingdom when I'm in the air, but I made it alright in the end. There to greet me was my best friend of old, Mark.



Jonathan Power sat in the back. Pretty much every time we were in the truck. We drove to Boulder, home of frat boys, smelly hippies and a generous portion of mountains. I remember the first time I heard the word portion. We got on some bikes that Mark and Jon built and headed for Pearl St. and into the Catacombs which was the first hole in the wall we blessed with our patronage.



Mark in the Cat.



Me and Jon. We were laughing at some silly frat guys who thought the place smelled like farts. I don't know why. Later we met up with some of our other peeps and ended up in an Irish pub where there was an Irish/Electronic cover band. There were playing "take on me" when I took this picture.



When the night was finally over we hopped on...



our bikes and rode the few miles home to bed. We decided to head up into the mountains the next morning and took off not too much longer to a place near Brek. It was, to say the least, extremely beautiful.



We found this stream and it was good. (Psalm 23)

In the middle of the wilderness we found a coffee shop nestled in the foothills. We had just climbed two fourteeners so we were in need of energy. We all enter, get some caff. and exit...



Jonathan



James



And Mark. I was taking the pictures. But I found a device that made me feel like:



I fit in a little better. We spent two days and two nights up in the mountains and came back to Broomfield in time for Cindy (an old friend and a wonderful woman) to make us lunch and try to convince us all to move down to Mexico with us.



I was definately tempted to go down, especially at an offer of $500 a month to live on the beach. There is unfinished business for me in Illinois, though. We finally hooked up with Jeff, another old chum and we all giggled as he messed with the many dogs running around, all of which weighed less than four pounds and bore a striking resemblence to oversized rats.




Gina thought it was funny (they were her dogs).



We then headed over to Jon's house in the city for a BBQ in my honor. Only we had pizza instead. But I got to see other people I had been missing and wanting to see.



Brandon Proff and Jonathan Power sitting on the stupe.



Me and Susan.

Well, I had a great, albeit tiring time in Colorado. I miss everyone there desperately and look forward to the next time I get to go back. To my friends in the flatlands, I wish you could have been there with me, but at least you can share my experience to an extent on our box with a hat blog. Much love to all, and God's peace.



Jonathan Clark.

[post name redacted to protect the innocent]

Eric had already gone to bed. Jon and I just got home from work. Ryan told us that [redacted] was on his way back from LA. None of us had seen [redacted] since March since he's been on the West Coast on the yellowball Verb tour for 6 months. As we're trying to figure out how he'll actually get to our house, we hear an airhorn from outside. “There's no way he drove the Yellowball semi here.”

We hurry outside to see this:


And this:

[redacted] pulled up in the truck by himself. one of the best entrances i've seen in a long time.


truck from behind.

when you sit in this truck, you sit 8 feet off the ground, higher than most semi-trucks. there are only 50 of these on the road.


[redacted] quickly switches to story mode, his default. eric still waking up.


we eventually unloaded his stuff from the truck.


papa [redacted] passed around gifts for everyone.


catching up in the living room.


being hungry, we decided to take the ole truck out for a bite to eat. i wish i was really able to drive it.


the dashboard.


[redacted] really driving it. you should have seen that beast navigating residential wheaton roads.


ryan hanging out in the back with his sweet new verb headband.


the truck parked next to jon's mini van at Los Burritos. jon drove separately so we could drop the truck off at a hotel in naperville and still have a ride home.


they were about to close, so we got our orders to-go and ate in the parking lot outside. L to R: jon, jay, [redacted], ryan.


cruising in the truck, inciting truck-envy from all the state workers in smaller trucks cleaning up the flood mess.


i dont know if you can tell how high we are off the ground there.

after dropping off the truck in naperville, we headed back home. but on the way, we saw...


a fox.


sorry the quality is terrible. i had to adjust the settings to even make the fox visible.


after chasing it for awhile, we headed home.


[redacted], excited to be in a home, rather than a hotel room.

more wreckage from last night

water rising through the inside stairwell.


the end of love?


the outside stairwell.


so ryan and i went with ben over to his house to check the wreckage this morning. outside stairwell dry.


former colored by numbers practice space.


ben's bedroom.


pedal's still on... doubt it still works.


sorry travis, your bass rig didnt make it.


alex, i present to you the remains of your amp.


cables and cds coated in mud.


the official water height: about armpit level on ben.


nothing left from ben's bathroom. notice the coating of mud on the sink.


that's the washer that was floating the night before.


after checking out bens house, we went over to campus to see any damage there. armerding basement flooded. notice the water level up to the van's bumper and the huge branches in the foreground.


billy graham center parking lot still somewhat flooded. the majority of those cars are destroyed.


we took ben to target to get some necessities. main street blocked off.


at target, we picked up underwear, socks, toiletries, etc.


test driving some pillows. it was a toss-up between "firm" and "medium." "firm" won in the end when ryan reminded ben that it'll break in after some use.


there he is in the back of my car with the majority of his new and only possessions.


jay