Yesterday I had another ethical dilemma. It wasn’t as clear cut as the Target trip.

In Hawaii in order to renew your car registration you have to get a safety inspection. So I went to do just that. When I gave the guy at the garage my registration and proof of insurance he turned me away. My insurance card was the pre-insurance card that we get before we’ve made our first payment on the new policy. It even said, “This is not a valid proof of insurance” on it. We either never got the official card or missed them when we did.

So I went home and printed out an official copy. He turned me away again. He needed the one the insurance company sent in the mail, the one with security features, ie. a watermark. I didn’t have it and couldn’t get it before the end of the month at which point we’ll have to pay a penalty for renewing late.

So I got online to find another place to take the car. What I found is that most places cost less than my mechanic. They cost less because they inspect less. I saw a review on Yelp of one mechanic who charges $15 and he’ll be especially happy if you “tip” him a 6-pack of beer. The beer guarantees you’ll pass.

I found a place on the way to pick up Teresa. When I stopped by they didn’t mention my insurance card. The inspection involved making sure the blinkers and headlights worked. But they passed me on about 30 other things that they never even pretended to check. It cost $15, but no beer. Apparently this is the norm. My normal mechanic checks more than this, but even he doesn’t check the whole list.

Here are some questions my experience brought up. What do you do when you can’t do the right thing or when doing it is nearly impossible? Is it ethical to go somewhere to get around the red tape? Is it ethical to go somewhere knowing they are just going to stamp the paper, but not do what the law says? Is it ethical to not do everything I can to make sure my car gets the full inspection? Should I have requested the full inspection and said I knew it took more time and money, but that is what I want? Is it unethical to do when the entire state does even though it doesn’t really fulfill the law? AND is it ethical for the state to require this inspection when it is well known that the norm is to just pass people without checking their cars? Should the laws be different?

One of my tendencies is to save money at whatever cost. So paying half for the inspection, even though they didn’t do anything, made me happy. But maybe it is better for my soul to do everything in my power to get the full inspection whatever the financial cost. Or maybe this doesn’t matter at all. It is just a stupid inspection.

What do you think? Did I do the right thing?

And an added bonus is that our site seems to be loading much quicker.

One of the problems is probably that they are so vague. What is more? What is enough? Most of the time I make these kinds of commitments and after a few days I’ve forgotten that I made it. I want to do better, but I just need to trust God to transform me into the person that He wants me to be.

All that to say I’ve decided to make a resolution this year. Will I fail at keeping it? Probably. Will I feel guilty about it? I hope not.

So what is it?

I resolve to post every week on claytonandteresa.com.

Yes, Teresa kind of gets sucked into this resolution and I will count it when she posts as fulfilling my resolution. Yes, it is January 8 and I’ve already failed my resolution. But I will go on.
What does this mean for claytonandteresa.com. Hopefully it means that both you and I will be more satisfied with it. It should also mean that there will be more variety of content. We have tended in the past to mostly post big, fun things that we have been doing. We will continue to do that, but we will also talk about smaller things that happen, maybe write some fictional accounts of our lives, and then we will throw some of our opinions out there for you to enjoy. Maybe we will even make a few lists (Top 6 Blah Blah Blah).
Is this a good idea? I have no idea. Does it get me as excited as a goat in a trash pit? You bet.

I’ll see you next week.

We arrived on a Saturday evening and went to bed as fast as we could. The next morning we went to church. Upon arriving we were told not to sit in the first six rows because the grandmothers had them all staked out. There were only six rows. I was also invited to help in the celebration of communion. I couldn’t understand anything that was being said, but a communion service is about the same no matter where you are. I made it through all right.

After church we ate lunch and had some orientation to Ecuador and to short term missions. Then we headed to the Equator on our way to Ibarra. We took pictures, but the Equator pretty much looked like everything else. I was hoping for glowing or levitation or something, but alas, no.

While in Ibarra we basically did 3 things: paint, teach, and eat. The church we were with needed some painting done. So we worked with members of the church to do it. The best part about the painting was that it gave us time to just be with the members of the church and to try to get to know them. They were incredibly welcoming and gracious. It was sad when we had to leave.

One of our team members is a pediatrician. So on several occasions she did teaching on nutrition and helping kids grow up healthy. We went to a school in the mountains and to a bilingual school in the city for her to do this. She was really the star of the show.

Then we ate…a lot. Every meal we had too much food and I was ready for some veggies by the time we got back because we ate so much meat. We even ate guinea pig! That was exciting. Guess what? It tasted like chicken. Big surprise!

On our final day we headed back to the capital to be tourists. We went to the national cathedral of Ecuador where you could climb onto the roof if you wanted to. That was a major highlight for me. Teresa couldn’t come on this trip, but she would have loved to have climbed all over this building. It was crazy.

She came in the house and said, “It’s a femur.  It’s too big to be a deer.  So it is either a big mammal or a human.”

“Really?” I replied.  “You should go get it and find out for sure.”

She hesitated.

“I’ll go get it!”  I said.  I went to get a plastic grocery bag, but Teresa redirected me.

“Get a gallon zip-lock, so we don’t have to take it out when I get to the lab.

I did as she said and ran out to our neighbor’s driveway.

But
the
bone
was
gone.

We are pretty sure our neighbor saw Teresa inspecting the bone of her boyfriend, whom she recently killed.  When Teresa came back inside our neighbor ran out to hide the evidence.

We always get sketchy neighbors.