Chan's Personal Blog

Just a heads up, North Douglas Church is throwing a block party on Sunday, September 24 from 3:30pm - 6:30pm. They're technically calling it a "Fall Fair" but block party sounds way cooler. Anyway, I saw the order go in for hundreds of hamburgers and hotdogs, so it's going to be good times. There's going to be free food, inflatable games, live music, and organized games for the kids.

In addition, there will be booths promoting the various things that go on in our church. They'll be promoting the community drop-in center that they'll be having on Tuesday, the children's activities on Saturdays, and other services throughout the week.

Anyway, you'll probably see me close to the sound booth as I'll be running the show for the live bands that are playing. Come out for a tasty burger. The forecast says it's going to be sunny, so it'll be great for the block party. Everyone's welcome.

Here's a Google Map link if you need directions.

Tonight's youth group event was an Amazing Race car rally. The turnout to the event was quite exceptional. We had 25 people there total. In either case, we had three teams that traversed the city, finding clues and doing various challenges.

The first clue involved going downtown and finding a certain person, so we left the church and headed for the highway. It was a back and forth race between my car and Bethany's. When we got to the lights, we started revving our engines, and when it hit green, we were off. Most importantly, I beat her off the mark and took the lead.

When we got to the parliament buildings, that's when we had a problem. My car engine was venting steam and coolant. Crap, the engine overheated. So, I pull into the restricted parking behind the parliament building and try to figure out what was going on. It looked like my car was low on coolant so the engine overheated. My parents had been using my car the entire week, so I guess they weren't checking any of the fluid levels or anything. On top of that, when I gave them my car, I had a full tank of gas, when I got it back, it was empty. What the heck!

In either case, we grabbed the next clue, and the next pitstop was at Beacon Hill Park. My car couldn't go any further, so I told the team to proceed on foot to Beacon Hill Park. Meanwhile, I waited in the parking lot for 45 minutes, as I was waiting for my dad to drop off some coolant and water.

Once we got the car all sorted out, I started driving back to the church. Halfway there, my engine temperature light started flashing again, and I could feel the engine getting really hot again, so I headed back home and got a ride back to the church.

My team obviously came in last place, but it was wierd. They apparently stopped for ice-cream at some point. This is a race people! You can have ice-cream at any other point. If this was the real Amazing Race, it could have cost us the $1,000,000 prize! My brother's team came in second, but they apparently didn't finish the race because they misread one of the clues and missed one of the pit stops. Bethany's team won the race.

Funny thing is, my brother's car also ran into problems while on the race. His car's exhaust pipe which goes from the engine block to the catalytic converter fell off, so his car was really noisy.

So, this has been a great start to a weekend. Nothing like car troubles. I demand a rematch!

Anyway, I've been looking at the car, and I'm trying to troubleshoot why the engine fan isn't running. It's either a bad electrical connection, or its heat sensor is busted.