Jennifer has returned back to her base in Georgia. She left last Thursday after a whirlwind two weeks that saw her really enjoy herself with her Mom, her brothers, Darla and I and especially her friends. It was sad to see her leave, but she is that much closer to her final days in the Army and a return to civilian life. As I've said before, Jennifer will not be tempted by any monetary inducements to stay in the Army. She has enjoyed her stay, her training and the people that she has met along the way, but she is ready to put the military behind her when the time comes to make that decision. Jennifer had been leaning toward going to work for one of the civilian contractors or in the fibre optics field, but she is now indicating an interest in going into teaching. The nice thing for her is that she is young and has those options. If she does choose to go into teaching, she will have to finish her schooling first and the California GI bill and the GI Bill will provide her $50,000 to finish college. It will be interesting to see which path she chooses when she gets out.
 
She spent a week working with grade school kids in the Augusta school system. The base at Fort Gordon has a program whereby they provide several of the Army Specialists and Sargeants and they meet with the kids and discuss their jobs in the Army and tell the kids about their experiences. Jennifer thoroughly enjoyed her interaction with the students and got her thinking about teaching as a profession. I told her that learning how to starve as a soldier would provide good training toward starving as a grade school teacher.
 
Darla and the boys are up in Almanor this week in a two-bedroom cabin. I drove up Saturday morning and spent two days at the lake. The boys are wakeboarding and knee boarding and Earl (Darla's Dad) has decided that David needs to learn how to drive the boat and he is learning how to pull his brother, how to circle around and pick him up after he falls and all of the other ins and outs of piloting a boat. I watched him pull the boat in yesterday afternoon and park it between two other boats at the dock and he did great. David is a responsible kid, but more than that, he wants to excel at whatever he does. He knows enough to ask questions and really learn whatever he is trying to master. He's quite a kid. They will be up there all this week and return home on Saturday night.
 
The house was mercifully quiet when I returned home last night and I have plans to get quite a bit accomplished this week that it is hard to do when the family is there. I will wax my car, do yardwork trimming and perhaps even some new plantings. I have some sprinkler heads that need to be replaced and I want to work on a couple of spots on the carpet that need cleaning. I talked to Dad last night and he said that I'd be a little lonely by the end of the week. I'm sure I will, but I do have a loner mentality and I enjoy being alone. It will be a nice change and allow me the time and the ability to get some things done.
 
I copied a number of Jennifer's CDs while she was here. The interesting thing is that she would not have had a CD three years ago that I would have been remotely interested in. She had some of the more current music from some of my favorite artists including John Mayer, Melissa Ethridge, Norah Jones and Annie Lennox. Jennifer said that her interest in music is more mainstream Rock and Roll, but these artists are almost Easy Listening. I don't know who this bothers more, me or her, but I saved about $50 in music purchases and really enjoyed the three hour drive up and back to Almanor because of the music. She even introduced me to a new artist, Dido, who has nice mellow music. Three years ago, her music was all Rap and every CD had a Parent's warning on it for vulgar language. Nice to see your children grow up. Now we need to work on David, who has the rap music in his car. What is it with this genre? I'd think the angry young rapper music would have faded into banality by now.
 
I've had some reflection recently on my commitment to the golf club. The board has some concerns that my job is interfering with my responsibilities as the Vice President of the club. (Does that sound kind of goofy to anyone else?) I've missed three board meetings so far this year and the last one I missed was set for July 5th. I was with Jennifer and wasn't about to cut my day short to sit through a board meeting of the golf club. The guys are concerned and I talked to the President about it....or perhaps more to the point, he talked to me. When he asked me to be VP, I worked for Republic Western, I worked out of the house and my time was mine. Now, I'm working fifty-hour weeks and I don't have a lot of extra time to donate to the club. I was very frank with him and told him that as far as I was concerned, the golf club is leisure time and Family comes first, Work second and everything else brings up the rear. He asked if as President, I could make ALL of the meetings next year and I told him that I wasn't sure. If work demanded that I be in Phoenix or Michigan, I'd be gone. I don't think he liked my answer and it could be that I won't take over as President next year. Either way, I'm okay with it. I'm involved in the golf club because I want to give something back to a group that has given me a lot of joy, but I'm not married to it. Not even close.
 
I talked to Dad last night and invited he and Shirley with us to Hawaii next year. We will take the boys to Kauai in early June for about 12 days as a Graduation present to David. We will upgrade our condo to a two-bedroom and hopefully Dad and Shirley will be able to trade into the same complex in Princeville. Many people enjoy Honolulu or Maui more, but I prefer the solitude and beauty of Kauai. We will spend a lot of time in Poipu at the beach, but will spend our down time at the Makai Village in Princeville and dinners in Hanalei. I look forward to it already. We are also inviting Darla's parents to join us. I hadn't planned on bringing my golf clubs, but if Dad and Shirley are there, I'd have to accompany them on the course. It'd only be right.
 
I have an insurance golf tournament on Thursday at the Woodcreek golf course in Roseville. We will have a barbecue dinner afterward. The tournament is for the Insurance Professionals Association, formerly Insurance Womens. It's a fun tournament with a female in every foursome. Gail, one of the other underwriters in my office will be in our foursome and she is quite a golfer. I think we will give them a run for their money this year. Saturday, I play in the Roseville Golf Club annual three-club tournament. We have to choose three clubs and play the whole round with those three. I will use a driver, six iron and putter this year. Last year I used driver, six iron and sand wedge and putted with the sand wedge. I had way too many putts and will remedy that this year. It is a fun tournament and I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Well think of me this week, getting caught up on my chores, unashamedly watching Sportscenter and baseball games and fixing my own dinners and lunches. I will survive. Ciao.