It is a wet, cold, blustery Monday and the cars outside my office window swish through the water as they sail by. Most of the drivers by this time are in search of a hot lunch. I'm just happy to be safely hidden in my office away from the tangle of metal and mayhem on the streets. We hear about two or three accidents a week outside our window and watch as the participants trade information and most of them stand by their cars and wait for the CHP, only to be told by the uniformed patrolman to get their cars out of the street. Friday saw a pretty good fender-bender outside my window as a Home Depot truck collided with a Ford Escort and pushed her into the two cars in front of her. The Escort driver was about nineteen and reduced to tears by the trauma and sight of her little car banjoed in the rear. Her trunk popped open and the compartment was pushed into her back seat. I don't know what the Home Depot driver was doing to miss the red light, but he smacked her pretty good. I wanted to go out and tell the girl to relax. Thank God she got hit by a Home Depot truck. You know he has good insurance and her car will be put back in one piece.

I missed a call from our soldier on Saturday when I was out playing golf. She sounds a little homesick, but the bombings have slowed and the weather is mid-eighties, sunny and nice. She has volunteered to work with a civilian contingent from General Dynamics on the palace and she is really enjoying it. She reports to a civilian contractor rather than to a military person, so her day is more relaxed and the GD people really appreciate her help. She wouldn't be so happy if she knew what the General Dynamic people are being paid to work on the palace versus what she's making. It is great experience for her and will look good on her resume when she gets out of the Army. They are putting in long hours. In fact she was still at the palace when she called me this morning at seven-fifteen. She talked to Darla as I had already left for work. It was six-fifteen pm her time. She has not received any of our packages yet, but we were told that they take ten days to three weeks, depending on the frequency of supply drops to Iraq.

Darla had her jewelry show this weekend at Cal Expo. It went much better than the Christmas show that she attended in December. The difference was great weather and less jewelry vendors. They had poor weather and about 12 jewelry vendors at the last show. This show had four jewelry vendors and it was on a weekend that saw plenty of tank tops and shorts. The temperatures were only in the high sixties, but it was a bright blue sky without a breath of wind in the air.

I enjoyed the weekend with golf on Saturday morning (85 at Woodcreek and I won all bets) and plenty of yard care and car washing the rest of the weekend. All of that to see the rain come back in and a hint of Vancouver weather splatting about out there. My nice clean car is getting soaked. I did go over to several tire and wheel shops and picked out some new wheels for my Mustang. I have the stock Mustang wheels on the car and I'm having a set of American Racing Clear coat aluminum alloy wheels installed next weekend. This is what I wanted for my birthday. The wheels are a five spoke with a diamond design and are called the Casino. The website for american racing let me pull up my Mustang in green and see what the wheels looked like installed on the car. The internet is an amazing resource in this day and age.

David's basketball team made the playoffs and played a valiant game against one of the top schools in the area. His team played stellar defense and took a 7-0 lead after one quarter, frustrating their opponents at every turn. Unfortunately they outscored us in each successive quarter and beat us on a last second shot 38-36. It was a fun season, but a frustrating one for David. He went from starting and playing a majority of the game to not starting about midway through the year, but being the top bench player. He finished the year deep on the bench and not seeing any action the last three games. He will apply himself this Summer and be ready to start as a Senior.

Daniel has been a little bored lately. He missed the cut on his basketball team and was on the bubble for his freshman baseball team. He made the cut and will play third base. Darla was thrilled as Daniel needs the structure of team sports in his life. He's a bit of a couch potato and has put on some weight. The baseball training has sharpened his skills and begun to work on the extra pudge that he's developed since football. David, of course, will transition right into track. He is a total athlete and would either take Athletic PE after school or be involved in a sport. He chose track.

Darla and I did not get out to see the Passion of the Christ this weekend. I wanted to go this week, but she promised to take the boys. Church was a bit extra crowded on Sunday, so the film is having an effect on our society. I'm happy for Mel Gibson. I'm sad that his father is such an anti-semite. Unfortunately Mel is being painted with that same brush...the old, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" argument. Mel is his own man and his film is having critical and box office success. I knew it would, as their are far more Christians in the world than critics.

Our pastor did, as usual, have a good joke on Sunday. A minister in the midwest was eating dinner with his wife. Times were tough and their budget was stretched to the limit. He noticed his wife in a brand new dress and asked her where she got it. She was embarrassed and said she knew money was tight, but the devil made her buy it. She was in the store and found herself trying on the dress. The devil told her it looked great on her. The pastor said, "Well, dear, you know what the good book says about temptation from Satan. You need to point at him and command him to get behind you." "Well, dear, I did that and then the devil told me the dress looked even better from the back!"

I hope you are all well. I look forward to the Lyon family reunion in Vegas in two weeks.