It is Monday night. The Giants game is on in the background..it is just beginning to get dark and Darla is off on a mission to repair the zipper on the tent and all is okay in my world.

We had a great weekend in Lake Almanor. The weather was ideal..in the eighties every day with no wind and a high blue sky. I was able to finish two books (my current author of choice is Stuart Woods) and I am well into a third that the resort owners lent me, A Steve Martini novel, The Jury, which so far seems about the defendant and lawyers and victim, but NOT about the jury. Darla, the boys, Alicia and Darla's Mom and Dad were all able to pile onto Earl's boat on Friday night and watch the fireworks over the lake. It was a unique venue, although we were about halfway across the lake and the fireworks were being done from the shore, so they weren't above us from any stretch of the imagination. The fireworks were to start about nine-thirty and we puttered across the lake and found a nice spot to sit and wait for the show by about nine-fifteen. Unfortunately, the show didn't start until just before ten, so we drifted for forty minutes waiting for the fun to begin. It was a novel spot to watch fireworks and I've seen many fireworks shows in my forty-six years and this was near the top of the list.

My back survived three nights of sleeping on an air mattress and I even handled the dirt and unkemptness of the whole camping experience. I completely credit Prozac for getting me through the experience. My favorite tent is a Sheraton. The boys and Darla had a ball and David and Daniel both excelled at wakeboarding. They used to ski, slalom ski, then knee board and now they are wakeboarders. David even has a $200 wake board that his Dad bought him.

I did finally get the date for my test. I take the test on Thursday at 1 pm. I know the material front and backwards, but I'm still going into the training center every day to prepare. One of my biggest sins is EGO and I WILL be prepared for this test. I'm taking each of the seven exams on the computer and making sure that I get a 100% on each of the tests and find the answers that I miss in the book and understand the correct answers. I'll be there each morning this week including Thursday in preparation for the exam. This is the start of my future and I'm not about to mess it up. I'll start my new job on Monday. Pray for me, people. I need it.

I mentioned that Darla was off to buy a zipper for our tent. We both forgot that we had broken the zipper on our last tent camping experience last year at the church camp-out in September. We had to spend the three days with beach towels and clothespins holding the tent closed. It was cold at night being a mountain lake in Plumas county and we slept in our sleeping bags covered with a quilt and a blanket and still felt the cold. Darla is off to buy a seven-foot zipper. I never did venture into the lake. The water is freezing and the only good thing about that water is that ice cubes using that water would freeze in half the time. Darla talked me into swimming and I got both legs on the ladder of the dock into the water and decided to back out when I lost feeling in my legs. Some things are better experienced from the comfort of a lounge chair with a cold drink and a good book close at hand.

Again, PRAY for me this week. Be kind to each other..until next week.