Hello again. Another glorious weekend (and aren't they all glorious?) has passed into memory and a new work week stretches out in front of us. Unless, of course, you are retired and reading this and then those of us working stiffs salute you (use your imagination on the manner of salute that we might give). The day shows promise here in Northern California as the sun does battle with a light cloud cover and gives every indication of breaking through and claiming victory.

It was a grand week just passed in that I had NO plumbing emergencies. The boys were with their Dad and therefore chose not to attempt to flush a torn sock or some other oddity known only to them. I did have some clogged downspouts that were overrun with leaves, sticks and other debris. It caught me a bit off guard in that I had placed gutter guards over the entire guttering system around the house last fall in anticipation of the downdraft of leaves from the 21 trees on our property, not to mention the grove of trees at the park across the street. Apparently, some of the smaller buds, needles and sticks had lodged in several of the downspouts and caused the gutters to overflow during the last heavy rainstorm that pelted us. I took down three of the downspouts and hosed them out and reinstalled them. The grates worked well in keeping the larger leaves out of the drains and the gutters and I think I sprayed some debris that was in there from before I moved into the house, so we should be good to go for awhile.

I got the Explorer back on Thursday and it is whole again. My wallet has a little dent in it now and it will be interesting to see if my auto insurance premium is affected. Whatever, we'll take a BIG hit when David gets his license in May. Teenagers. Ouch.

Darla and I have made reservations for Hawaii in November. We are joining Dave Armijo (my golf playing partner at the club) and his wife, Marilyn, at their condo at the Princeville resort on the island of Kawaii. We will fly over on November 2nd and stay until the 9th. I'll play golf twice and promised Darla that she won't be a golf widow in Paradise...although if you have to be a golf widow, what better place to be one? Those of you who know me, know that I'm...well, let's call it frugal, although some of you might use other words to describe it. We are staying at our friend's condo, flying over on air miles that I've collected and the golf is a bit pricey on the islands, so twice will likely be it for golf. We will spend time with Dave and Marilyn, but will also find time for just the two of us as well. We have both been to Hawaii, but we were both 17 and not together at the time. We look forward to the chance to make some memories in Hawaii together. It is a long way off, but I have the tickets sitting in my desk as a marker for November.

David's basketball team continues to excel. They are now 12-3 on the season and have been dominant in most of the games. David has struggled with his shot, but plays ferocious defense and handles the ball as well as a guard. He finally found his touch on Thursday last week and scored 11 points on 5-of- 6 shooting and 1-of-2 free throws. We were concerned that he might lose his starting small forward position as his backup is averaging about 9 points a game, but the coach told David to keep shooting and he is the starter because of his court presence and defense and that is still without peer on the team. Darla and I have really enjoyed the season so far and look forward to the games each week.

I did NOT make it to Phoenix last week, because I made the mistake of going through channels in Home Office. They wanted to get me a corporate rental where UHaul would waive the charges. They were supposed to get back to me on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and I never heard from anyone. Finally, when I was out on Thursday doing inspections, I checked the messages on my cell phone and had a call from Tuesday night from a Uhaul operations manager who was trying to reach me. I use my cell phone as a car phone and hadn't had it on that week as I was in the office all week. How he got my cell number is a mystery. I still have to get to Monterey and clear out that storage unit in the next couple of weeks.

My POKER group starts up for the new year on Friday night. I haven't seen the guys in about five months as we didn't play during David's football season, so it will be good to renew acquaintances. We have been playing a regular poker game since about 1988 and there are five regulars and two semi-regulars.

Hope all is well with all of you. Stay firm in the Lord and HE will direct your path.