Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Commentary

F150 Paint Fix

Very early in the life of my F150, I noticed a pretty bad scratch on the hood. I don’t know if I put it there or if it came that way, but I just did my best to ignore it.

After 10,000 miles, I finally realized I should just ask the Internet so I posted this picture on Instagram and Facebook asking for help.

Sixteen minutes later, MattM replied and suggested that I use Meguiar’s M2 Mirror Glaze Fine-Cut Cleaner. I had a couple other things in my cart and got free same-day shipping.

I’ve never used anything like this, but I grabbed a clean towel and went for it. I started with a small drop at first, saw quick results and did a few more small applications. Voila! It was GONE! Not just gone like I couldn’t really notice anymore if I didn’t look closely, but totally gone. It worked so easily and so well that I tackled another scratch towards the back of the truck. Thanks for the tip Matt!

benmartens July 26, 2017 Commentary

Glamping

While we were camping a couple weekends ago, we came up with a business idea. I don’t know what it’s called yet, but it’s our take on the ultimate “glamping” campground. Here are some of the features that we’d offer (for a small fee of course.)

  • When you arrive at the campground, we’ll set up your tent or camper while you relax in the bar.
  • There are two sides to the camp ground: one for people who want to party around the camp fire until the wee hours of the morning and one for people who want to get up early. There are different quiet hours rules on each side.
  • Don’t wake up early on your vacation. We’ll drop off a dutch oven on hot coals with an egg/sausage/bacon/potato scramble in it. It will be hot and ready when you are.
  • Did you buy a big fancy truck but never learn how to back your boat down the ramp to the water? Skip the pressure of everyone watching you and toss us the keys. We’ll do it for you.
  • Swing by the on-site butcher and pick our some steaks for dinner. We’ll even cook them and deliver them if you want us to.
  • You’ve watched a lot of Bear Grylls and Survivorman in your life, but you still don’t know how to start a fire. No worries! We’ll swing by and get one going for you.
  • You’re probably tired from all this pampering so let us take down your camp for you.

This is so ridiculous, I feel like this probably exists already in some place like San Francisco or Portland.

benmartens July 10, 2017 Commentary

Heaven

Tyla’s mom, Nancy, has been battling cancer for three years and very early yesterday morning, we got the call that she had passed away. As adults, it’s a lot to deal with, but it has also been a big challenge to guide a four year old through it.

Who knows what really goes on in the mind of a four year old, but he seems to be taking this all in stride. For the past couple months, I’ve been preparing Elijah for the death of his grandma. He knew she was sick and we talked about how some day she wouldn’t be around anymore. That was hard for him to understand, but what he did understand that she was going to join Jesus in heaven. There have been a number of times when he has walked over to a crying family member, stood there quietly and said, “It’s ok. She’s with Jesus now.” Oh the faith of a child!

We are all comforted knowing that Nancy is in heaven right now. There are still a lot of tears as we come to grips with the fact that we’re not going to see her again here on earth, but the separation is temporary because we’ll be reunited in heaven. Nancy knew that she was a sinner and deserved only God’s wrath and punishment. But when Jesus died on that cross 2000 years ago, he paid for her sins and she believed that. The Bible says that anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. It really is just that simple. Heaven is our free gift and requires zero effort on our part (thank goodness because I know I’d screw it up if any of it depended on me!) Reject that message and the result is much different.

If you’re in the area, you’re welcome to attend the funeral on Friday at 3pm at Calvary. Don’t expect to hear how Nancy was “a great person” or other common funeral quotes. Instead, you’ll hear something like what I wrote above: Nancy was a sinner like all of us, but when she died and stood before the judgement seat, God declared her not guilty, not because of anything she had done, but because Jesus had already paid the debt for her sins and she believed that.

benmartens July 3, 2017 Commentary, Family

Marymoor Beer Festival

For the third year in a row, I headed over to the Marymoor beer festival. This year’s crew was the same as last year: Don, Logan, Tim, Luke and me. The big change this year was that Chelsea and Tyla were our designated drivers. THANK YOU to both of them for driving us and watching the kids while we sampled the delicious beverages.

We stepped up our game by making pretzel necklaces to help cleanse the palette a bit between beers. But otherwise we stuck with our standard plan: arrive around the time they open, sample some beers, eat some lunch and then finish up our sampling tokens.

There were 131 brewers at the event and they all had at least 2 (some had many more) types of beer to try. With only 8 drink tokens (and one set of organs to process it all), you can barely scratch the surface of the available options.

benmartens June 22, 2017 Commentary

Prepare For The Eclipse

In two months, much of the US will experience a total solar eclipse. Solar eclipses are rare enough, but one where the path of totality crosses so close to your home could easily be a once in a lifetime event.

Destin over at Smarter Every Day has a great video about the upcoming eclipse:

Are you going to make an effort to watch it?

P.S. I will never be able to hear the words “Total Eclipse” without thinking about this…

benmartens June 21, 2017 Commentary

F150 Tonneau Cover

Shortly after I bough the truck, we took it on a weekend getaway. It rained on the way back so I tarped up. As I was fighting the tarp and the wind, I thought about how many times I’d be doing that over the course owning the truck. It didn’t take much to convince me to look for a better solution.

I ended up buying a TruXedo cover. They have a variety of models but I think I got the fanciest one: the Lo Pro QT. I paid about to have it $450 shipped from Amazon. If you order one, make sure you get the right size for your truck. Thanks to Jay for originally recommending this to me. Installation was pretty easy for me, but I heard that Don and Logan struggled with the install on Don’s truck recently.

Over the last 10 months I’ve grown to really enjoy this. Sure, it’s not as fancy as other retractable ones that roll down into the bed, but this one also cost a small fraction of the cost of those nicer models. I’ve used it to cover camping gear, trash for the dump, groceries and even loads of mulch and dirt. I can unroll it or roll it up in less than a minute and there’s very little vibration or flapping as I drive down the road.

There are no signs of wear or fading on it yet, but even if I have to buy another one in 5 or 10 years, I’ll still say it’s a good investment.

benmartens June 20, 2017 Commentary

Dodged A Win

The other day on Facebook, Ken posted this: “You never regret being kind.” My snarky mind immediately tried to come up with a joking way to refute that. A story from college came to mind and I was surprised to see that I hadn’t blogged about it before…

After coming out of a class, I waited for the bus to get back to the dorm. (It was about a 10-15 minute walk from class to my dorm so sometimes I’d take a bus if the weather was bad.) I wasn’t paying much attention but as the bus rolled up and opened the door, another guy and I arrived at the same time to get on board. I stepped back and motioned him to go first. As soon as his foot touched the bus, a couple guys in suits appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him and asked “Are you getting on this bus?”

I thought, “HA! Sucker. I’m glad I let you go first!”

The bus started moving after we all got on and one of the guys in suits said, “I’m proud to announce that Joe is our one millionth CityBus rider!” He ended up winning a $500 gift card to the mall.

A friend of mine on the bus saw the whole thing and he got a good laugh at my expense.

benmartens June 16, 2017 Commentary

Chalk Roads

Elijah and the neighbor kids enjoy riding their bikes along chalk roads which basically just consist of two parallel lines (or something resembling parallel depending on who draws them). When you’re hunched over holding chalk on the ground and walking backwards, it doesn’t take long to start thinking about ways to make it easier.

On Sunday, Elijah and I headed into the shop and whipped out a little gizmo which worked amazingly well. It’s a broom handle with a 26″ long straight board across the bottom. A little over an inch in from each side, we drilled a hole to hold one of his big pieces of chalk. Then I cut a little slice through the end of the board and through the hole so that a bolt with a wing nut and clamp it shut and squeeze the chalk. The cross piece is a scrap of mahogany. That’s overkill and extra fancy, but it was a scrap that probably would have ended up in the trash and I wanted a hardwood for the clamping part.

It was a bit of a random attempt and I think the clamping part could be improved, but it worked awesome! Elijah could even do it by himself.

We’re going to need more chalk.

 

benmartens June 7, 2017 Commentary

Garden Update

Our garden is off to a shaky start. I started the plants indoors and I did it WAY too soon. The tomato plants took off but rapidly started crowding each other out. I moved some to solo cups and they are growing and some even have flowers on them. I’m trying to put them outside for a bit each day in hopes of a good transition.

The zucchini plants came up too and i had them in 5 gallon buckets. They grew in really weird shapes along the ground with very little elevation. After a few days moving in and out of the house, I put them in the garden. So far… ehh… I don’t have high hopes that they will succeed.

Lesson learned: forget starter plants. It’s impossible to predict the spring weather around here. I’m about ready to just throw the rest of this stuff outside, let it die, and then buy starter plants when the weather is warm enough. Next year I’m just going to copy our neighbor. She has a great garden!

benmartens May 10, 2017 Commentary