The remnants of the weekend just past are embedded in my memory and partially in the left side of my esophagus as the reality of the life of a working stiff awaits me here at my desk. I sweep that reality to the side of my desk as I take to a new entry in the blog.

First off, I heard from my soldier and she is off on a mission to Fort Bragg in North Carolina where she, another Specialist and three sergeants will work on a new antenna on a tower on the base. She is excited to be away from Fort Gordon and the humdrum of Army life. She really enjoys her MOS and looks forward to putting all of her training to actual use. I suppose working on a 100 foot tower beats mowing the lawn on base, eh? She still expects to get her orders early next year and ship out to Korea for a year. She had hoped for Germany, but that is a two-year commitment and she will finish two years next month and be half-way through her stint.

Darla and I went to the San Francisco 49ers game yesterday in San Francisco. One of my agents had tickets that he couldn't use and offered them to me. The weather was unbelievable and we both got a little sunburnt as we sat in the blazing sun and watched the Niners stumble their way through a victory against a vastly inferior Lion's team. It was the homecoming for Steve Marriucchi, who was unceremoniously fired by the penny-pinching owner of the 49ers, John York. York jettisoned Mooch and then hired perennial NFL loser, Dennis Erickson, a good college coach who has not figured out the NFL. He was one of only a handful of coaches willing to work for the tightwad York, who is unwilling to cede control of player personnel decisions to the GM and coaches. This team will never approach what they once were until the owner either sells or realizes that the NFL is not about dollars and cents, but wins and losses. The game was mildly interesting, only in that the Niner fans are restless and viciously booed Erickson, Garcia, Owens and anyone in gold and maroon all day long. Terrell Owens has been the cover boy for idiot ballplayers all year and lived up to expectations by once, during a timeout, taking his helmet off and laying down on the field as if he was taking a nap. The guy is an even more obnoxious version of Michael Irvin. We had preferred parking right next to the stadium at a school and enjoyed our tailgate picnic before entering the stadium. We left about midway through the fourth quarter in order to beat the traffic. Neither of the combatants were my team so it was not worth the hassle to wait for the game to end. We did see ALL of the scoring in the 24-17 Niner victory.

The boy's games were played at Natomas in Sacramento this week and Daniel's team won 29-12. David's team mounted a furious 4th quarter comeback to tie their game 30-30 after trailing 30-19 entering the fourth quarter. We actually had a chance to win the game, but our kicker missed a 31-yard field goal with four seconds left in the game. Both David and Daniel played solid games and David made it into the paper as his picture was included in a tackle of the opposing team's runner. Next week, we will be home against Roseville High, the local team and the team of our next door neighbor, who is one of David's friends. He plays offensive line and David said that he'll meet him at the ball carrier this week. David had a fumble recovery and six tackles in the game and was named Defensive Player of the Week for his team.

This is the week of the recall election in California. My vote is going to Arnold, although I believe Tom McClintock is the best choice for California. I just don't think he can win the election and I refuse to waste my vote. I learned that lesson with Ross Perot, when that moron Bill Clinton was re-elected. I had lunch on Friday with one of my inspection contacts and he brought along a died-in-the-wool liberal Democrat, who spent the lunch spouting his ideology. At one point he declared that Arnold was through due to the allegations of groping women. I looked him in the eye and said, "You're dead wrong. Those allegations just won him the election." He looked at me incredulously and said how could that be. I said, " He just secured the vote of the Clinton Democrats." He wasn't amused, but I was.

I interviewed with both Keenan and Associates and Burns and Wilcox last week. BW has offfered me the job and I'd start in mid-November. Keenan is impressed and I'll meet with the Vice President next week. This will be my third interview and I feel confident that I've passed the test so far. I'm anxious to get something concrete settled and need Keenan to make a decision, so that I can make one.

The Rose Cup golf tournament will be played on Friday and Saturday this week. We have a practice session at Sun City tomorrow and then play two-man best ball on Friday and the individual matches on Saturday to determine which club will hold the Rose Cup for 2003-2004. This is the fifth year of the tournament and my fourth time on the team. We won the cup two out of the three years that I've been on the team and we hope to bring it home again this year.

That's it for this week. Continue to walk in the ways of the Lord and he will clear all obstacles from your path.