It is Monday....so, it must be time to update my blog.

Today, I awoke to Sunshine and a light dusting of frost on the grass and rooftops. It is always nice to see a bright blue sky and the frost burns off quickly. I especially enjoy watching the steam rise as the sun hits the frozen fence behind the koi pond. This is the closest that we'll get to a white Christmas in Northern California, so we enjoy it and hum a Bing Crosby tune as we head off to work on a Monday morning on the week of Christmas.

The phone rang this morning as I was about to climb into the shower. I'd bade my wife a good day as she headed off to work 15 minutes before and I almost let the answering machine deal with the interruption, but something caused me to answer. It was Darla. She'd run out of gas on her way to work. She likes to play life in a danger zone, flirting with the red line on her gas tank before finally giving in and refilling the tank. She had told me she was low on gas on Thursday night and still hadn't gassed up. She likes to give Kramer a run for his money on the "E" line (Seinfeld fans will get the reference). At any rate, I hauled out my gas can and went to rescue the fair damsel. She had dropped the car off near the city employees lot in Roseville and, as these scenarios play out, her car phone died when she tried to call me. She walked about a mile to the closest store and called me from the pay phone. I picked her up and drove to the car. We had a dickens of a time getting the car started after I put about a gallon and a half of gas in the tank. Darla tried to start it and I was afraid she'd flood it as she cranked away at the ignition. I got in and pumped the gas pedal and kept pumping it as I turned the ignition. It finally caught and purred to life. I followed her to the gas station and exchanged her dead cell phone for my active one and bid her a better day after refilling my gas can. Quite a start to a Monday morning. I returned home and jumped into a hot shower and washed away the effects of the icy morning from my body.

Our weekend was fast and furious as usual. David had another basketball tournament, although the winner of the last tournament was not in attendance so payback was not an option. Woodcreek, David's team, managed to win the tourney this time around in grand fashion, starting with a 62-32 drubbing of the tournament host and finishing with a 57-47 win over the runner-up. They won all three games that they played and are really coming together as a team. David played well throughout the tourney and has established himself as the starter at small forward. Perhaps, that's why we are winning, David is the starter at "small" Forward at 6'3". Our Center is 6'5" and our Power Forward is 6'4" and about 220 pounds. They play another tournament next weekend that is hosted by the team that beat them in the first tournament, so payback will be an option.

I saw the first two games, but had to miss the final. I've been fighting a cold all week and decided to stay home Saturday night and rest. I took Thursday morning off after being up a good part of Wednesday night hacking and coughing. We had a cold front roll in on Thursday and it rained off and on through Saturday night. I'm starting to feel better, but this is a slow process. I told Darla that I'd rest Saturday night so that I could go to her Mom and Dad's house for a Christmas dinner last night.

We did go to Linden last night. Darla's Mom and Dad live on ten acres in the walnut groves of Linden, east of Stockton, CA. They have a nice home surrounded by walnuts, almonds and cherries. Darla's dad, Earl, is retired from the construction trade and now farms for a living with both walnuts and almonds that are bought by the local packing sheds. It is a different world and my bright white sneakers don't have a place in that world. I still remember sitting in their living room visiting with them when Darla and I were courting and Earl jumping up, grabbing his rifle and shooting a squirrel off the enclosure around the propane tank on his side yard. That'll get the attention of a city boy in a fat hurry. We enjoyed a meal of ham and all of the fixin's and then played dominoes after dinner. Earl and Frances have had visitors, his sister from Idaho, and she taught him the "Mexican Train" game, which is an ethnically insensitive game whereby you attempt to unload your tiles before your competitors and supposedly you are to make a "woo-woo" sound when you win. It looked like a Chinese fire drill to me. Ooops, now I'm being ethnically insensitive.

I haven't had a chance to play any golf since last week, but have two games set up for Thursday and Friday this week and I hope the blasted rain stays away. I wish all of you a healthy and an enjoyable Christmas and I will add to this later. Ken