- The Village Chronicles -

In August of 2006, Benjamin Dean Box made the trek up I35 and moved into an unsuspecting Village apartment with Kendal Scott Haug...the city of Dallas will never be the same. All stories recounted here are intended for the purpose of documenting history, are written with journalistic integrity (they are accurate), and may be retold and/or embellished at the reader's wishes.

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The Good Days
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Now that I have freedom to travel beyond the train tracks again, I want to loosely summarize my public transportation experience. I know you are probably tired of hearing about this, but hey, I've got a blog to write. After this hopefully I can think of other things to write about on here (like how awesome my jeep is, or how much the ladies love the jeep). I will sum up this fine time of my life by sharing some things that stood out to me.

(I have been asked several times about owning a jeep, with no doors or top, and a motorcycle. They usually begin the questions with a reminder that both vehicles are broken, “impractical”, and rather old, and the questions are usually based around whether I actually have a job or why I don’t just sell the toys and buy something that is practical/reliable/boring. I don’t have great answers for these questions but I am planning on selling the motorcycle if anyone is interested, and my next post may be focused on my job for those conspiracy theorists out there. It is worth mentioning that I have enjoyed a good bit of this process as well.)

So here are some highlights as I remember them:

1. The already well documented meeting with Kevin has to come in first. I have to admit that my emotions are split between grateful and disappointed in not ever seeing Kevin again after hiding from him.

2. Ticket Evasion -$75, also mentioned earlier. This was a bother, but good that it only happened once.

3. I will sum this one up as the various times that I missed the bus/dart rail/train, or after making it on, eventually missing my stop.

• This category is highlighted by the time I thought I missed my stop on the dart rail and jumped off at the stop before my destination. This lead to me taking the next dart in the opposite direction only to realize I had not actually passed it yet, resulting in me having to wait another 20 minutes to catch the next dart back to my original destination.
  
• Another time I missed the bus to the train station after work and decided to just walk to it thinking that would be faster than waiting for the next bus. An hour and a half later and still not in view of the station I decided it was a bad idea, mainly because I didn’t actually know how to get there, but also because it was several miles further than expected.
  
• Also it is worth mentioning the times that I missed the train because those only come hourly.
  
• The times when I had to get off at the wrong stop to use the nearest restroom also caused confusion occasionally.
  
• I did, in fact, eventually become very crafty with the public transportation, but even on the second to last day I had trouble. It began in the morning when I didn’t have any cash on me (no stores along the walk are open in the morning to use an ATM), so I gathered up all the change from around the apartment thinking it was easily over $5. This made me late to the dart stop and I literally had to run to catch it. Since I didn’t have time to buy a ticket I was just planning on buying the all encompassing day pass when I reached the train station. Ever since I had to pay the fine I have been extra careful to not let that happen again, so I was always buying the tickets and on the lookout for ticket officers when I couldn’t. Naturally, on this morning they were in full effect. When we reached the stop right before the train station I spotted them and jumped off before they got on. Now I had to either wait for the next dart, which would cause me to miss the train, or I could try and walk there. I began to walk along the track thinking I could just follow it to the station, but I didn’t account for the tunnel. Since the tunnel was only large enough for the dart rail itself, I would be risking my life if one came in the other direction, plus it was real dark in there. So now I have to walk a couple blocks around and try to find where it comes out the other side, and by this time I am jogging and losing change through the hole in my pocket (while jogging and hopping the occasional fence a cop pulled over and questioned me, like I was running from the law or something). I did eventually catch the train before takeoff and traded all my change for a $5 bill with the conductor to buy a ticket from the machine. That evening on the way home I was desperate for some cash to buy my next morning ticket when I got off at my stop and walked to the nearest ATM machine. This for some reason got me completely off track and I ended up walking around the village looking for The Meadows for over two hours. I even talked with an old Dallas native during my walk, but sorry Drew, you were not very helpful.
  

4. The time there was a WWE wrestling event at the American Airlines Center and the train was standing room only with nothing but Hispanics and white trash hooligans. I probably can’t communicate why this was so entertaining. I don’t think any of us regulars knew what was happening but we were all taken back by the amount of energy on the train. I was listening to these people interact and was getting completely pumped about wrestling. (This brings to mind an important note: Most of what made the public transportation so entertaining was the people-watching and eavesdropping that was taking place. I have been trained well in these arts by my Mom. On countless occasions throughout my youth our family would be out to dinner or something and my Mom would start laughing, or get a concerned look on her face for no apparent reason. She would then take it upon herself to explain to us what was going on at another table nearby. At the beginning, I will admit I was a little embarrassed by this, but overtime I have learned how amusing it can be. I have also recently learned that eavesdropping is not all that rare and that my Mom is not the only one that does this regularly. Kendal and I were out with Meg, Jax, and Arlene the other day and believe it or not they were pulling the same stunt. Apparently I was a little hard on my Mom back then because these girls acted like it was some sort of obligation to know what was going on at all the tables around them. They would be in deep conversation one second and then practically on the floor laughing the next, with what seemed to be no good reason. Finally, they bashfully explained that the ladies behind us were telling some awesome stories. I guess what they were really saying is that they were not very intrigued by our stories. The way this relates though, is that as I have learned to spy on the people around me when I am not distracted but I still lack the skill of an average woman to be able to carry on a conversation while spying on everyone else in the near vicinity.)

• The most exasperating passenger experiences were either with the crying babies or the time that I got stuck sitting next to a middle-aged woman who was looking at pictures of birds and listening to them on her walkman the entire hour and fifteen minute train ride. It was as if I was sharing the headphones with her, it was so ridiculously loud and annoying. I read the same paragraph of my book over and over again without ever actually comprehending it, but I did pick up on a color-to-singing correlation between bird species.

During all this time it really bonded our group working out here. It was a daily theme to ask me what happened on the ride and for a jeep update. They would gather around and tell jokes at my expense, which was enjoyable of course. Turns out that when I actually got the jeep back, half of them didn’t know the jeep actually existed and thought I was making the whole thing up.

Labels: ben

posted by benbox @ 9:32 AM, ,

Lesson Learned, Part 2
Thursday, February 22, 2007

This list is a continuation of random lessons I learned throughout my time on the hallowed grounds of Dallas Theological Seminary:

• Being on campus, you are bombarded by Christian subculture, which is seen most vividly when you visit the campus coffee shop – appropriately named Koine Café (other options included: Higher Grounds, Righteous Blend, and Java 4 Jesus…ok, I made that last one up).
• While in theory Basketball with a bunch of seminary guys sounds less competitive and an overall good time, in reality it often is not.
• Half of my tuition went to the maintenance and upkeep of the seminary grounds -- It did look nice I guess.
• None of my tuition went to paying for some decent toilet paper, man that stuff was harsh!
• Seminary is in many ways a return to Junior High: guys sit on one side / girls on the other, and dating isn't really a relevant topic on campus. Don’t argue.
• Be careful which girl you walk and talk with on your way to chapel, chances are she's married with 2 kids.
• No matter how bursting with red and close to a heart-attack Chaplain Bill appears to be after playing a trumpet solo in chapel, this is completely normal.
• It is possible to take notes in your sleep.
• It is possible to take notes in your sleep on subjects that the prof is not speaking about.
• Group projects are no different in seminary. You still have that guy who gets away with doing absolutely nothing.
• Campus Police, while they claim to have absolute jurisdiction, really only care about preying on innocent cars that are parked in a "no parking" zone, in front of a fire hydrant, or in the president's designated space. What happened to equality in the kingdom of God?
• As it turns out, taking a test is not a good excuse for parking in the president's spot. Go figure.
• Do not listen to their scare tactics when they tell you that you will not get your diploma if you do not pay your 3 parking tickets, they are lying. What's up diploma!
• The #1 thing I learned: There are a lot of people on campus who love Jesus to depths that are inspiring. I am humbled to have been able to learn along side and under them for 2 years.

Labels: kendal

posted by Kendal @ 10:15 AM, ,

Jeep News
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

First off, I need to apologize to our oh-so dedicated readers (that would be our Moms) for slacking on the blog posting. Kendal and I had a discussion today on whether the blog had run its course already and if we should let it go, but lucky for you guys we are sticking with it. Not only that, but we are coming back with a new found dedication to write more often.

I will begin the comeback with some great news on the Jeep front. I now have the jeep in my possession and am loving it more than you would know. It is just about perfect in every sense of the word.

As luck would have it, the weekend my jeep was finally supposed to be ready for pick-up I didn't have a ride into Austin. So I took a half-day on Friday and rode the train to DFW Airport and took a bus to the terminal. It all worked out rather nicely and was a decent little flight. When I arrived in Austin, Andrew came and picked me up and we headed out to Bastrop State Park for the first day of Zack's bachelor party. We were under the impression that this camping trip had already been planned and that we were just coming to participate, but that wasn't the case. We all had a good time though, and that is all I am going to say about that.

The next day I rode back with Big B and Josh and went to go pick up my Jeep as planned. When I show up at the shop, my first impressions were not real good. My Jeep was still inside with the hood up and there were three shady looking characters with puzzling looks on their faces still “working” on it. Not only this, but there is an impressive amount of empty beer cans and bottles all over the shop and a few that had made it into my jeep. Josh was not real impressed with the scene either, and tells me that he will wait to make sure the jeep is actually ready before he leaves. I was glad that he offered because I also lacked faith in them, but didn’t want to be too demanding of Josh who naturally had a good little Saturday planned with the Ros. So, I sheepishly work my way in to the shop and get little more than a grunt from one of the guys that sees me. I wait for a minute or two while they try hard to pretend that I’m not there, you could even say they were a bit embarrassed that the jeep is not done. After a few long minutes I finally speak up and ask them if I should come back later, and one quickly confirms. It was no big surprise that it wasn’t ready seeing as how they had been telling me it would be ready to pick up every weekend for the past couple months, only to take it back later in the week.

Josh and I go over to Ros’ place and watch her and her sister pretend to pack up her apartment. We then go to lunch and about 3 hours later we head back to the jeep shop. This time everything is looking good, the hood is down on the jeep and the guys are no where to be seen. I walk through the shop and into a side room where the guys are all smiles as they tell me “she’s good to go”. These are the words that I have wanted to hear for some time, but I was still pretty skeptical. Rob, the main guy, introduces himself to me and begins explaining why it has taken so long to finish the job. I am hardly paying attention to what he is saying and am instead focused on whether he is drunk, or high. We start the engine up and I give Josh the thumbs up telling him that he can take off. I continue talking with the guy for a while pretending that I have a clue what he is saying, and asking an occasional question when it sounds important. He then tells me to take it for a spin, so I slowly back out, and completely embarrass myself trying to remember how to drive a stick shift. I eventually make it out of the garage and peel out of the parking lot completely ecstatic that it is actually running. The first thing I notice when I am driving down Parmer is that the RPM gauge isn’t working, then I notice that there is this obnoxious hissing sound coming from somewhere under the hood. I head back and point these things out to Rob, and he quickly dismisses the RPM gauge by saying “oh yeah, I couldn’t get that working”. For some reason I accepted this as a decent response (thinking back on it now I probably should have dug deeper). When I point out the loud hissing noise, he actually seems concerned and rolls it back into the shop. After an hour or so he fixed the hissing noise and explained that it was some sort of vacuum hose that slipped off, and that he replaced it so it should be good now.

We then begin to talk money by him saying “Alright, now to the hard part”. We walk back in to the “office” area and he starts listing all the parts that he had to replace in order to make my jeep work with the new engine, transmission, and transfer case that he had put in it. This list was not short and I was getting bit worried. Eventually, he presented me with a price of almost $2,000. I had gotten a labor quote from him for $1,200 about 6 months earlier when I towed it down there, and since it took so ridiculously long I was planning on paying less. So, we were at a crossroads and had some things to work out. I reminded him of the quote, which he had forgotten about of course, and told him that I was looking for a discount due to the time factor. After a good half hour of using my negotiating skills that I had honed on many mission trips to Mexico I worked him down to about $1,400. I was decently happy with this price because I managed to squeeze a 6 month warranty out of him, and he did buy a lot of parts. I checked for proof of these purchases, but there necessity was another question that I wasn’t qualified to verify.

Finally I was ready to drive off into the sunset in my jeep. I get out onto Parmer and make it a couple of blocks before she dies on me. I pull off to the shoulder and try to get her started again but I get nothing. I call Rob and he drives out there in his unbelievable, fully loaded, show room quality jeep. He takes a quick look under the hood before loosely tying a tow rope on to my hitch and begins towing me back to the shop. Since we couldn’t just turn around there we had to do a huge circle down Mopac and back around to the shop. The whole time I am hoping that something goes terribly wrong and my jeep gets completely totaled leaving him no other option than to give me his. We manage to make it back though, and a couple hours later he explains it was the same problem they were having earlier in the day with the computer getting some sort of overload. I obviously didn’t know what he was talking about, but knew just enough to tell that he didn’t really know what he was talking about either.

I finally leave again and am only a little less happy as I drive away. The next day I leave at about 9:00 after the super bowl to head back for Dallas. It was a little chilly, but overall a great ride and I can definitely feel the power of my new straight six engine. In the old days I was lucky to make it over 55 but now I am cruising at the speed limit, no big deal. I make it all the way back into Dallas city limits before getting pulled over. This was not a good thing, since I wasn’t exactly up to date on my inspection or registration, not to mention that I didn’t have any proof of insurance on me. Actually the jeep doesn’t even have an inspection sticker, and I believe the registration was last renewed in ’95. Anyways, the cop was real nice and listened to my whole story about how I just bought the jeep and that it has been in the shop in Austin ever since, and that I was driving it back to Dallas where I live. He listened to it all, even looked at my receipt proving I had just picked it up Saturday, and then he wrote me a ticket for almost $600. That was nice of him.

Labels: ben

posted by benbox @ 9:46 AM, ,

A Review of Sorts
Thursday, February 8, 2007

Labels: kendal

posted by Kendal @ 11:21 AM, ,

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