Monday night and I thought I'd get to this at home. After vacation last week and being in San Francisco today, I'll need ALL of my work time just to dig out of the pile of work waiting for me. On top of that, I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow with Kaiser. This back thing is getting worse, not better and I think I need some medical attention. The chiropractor has been great, but I'm trying to treat a broken arm with a bandaid and an aspirin. Time to call in the professionals.

As mentioned, I spent today in San Francisco meeting with an agent, my main Navigators (Contractor market) underwriter (for lunch) and then in the San Francisco office to meet with and get some marketing and underwriting tips from their underwriters. I spent the majority of the drive in pain, alternately cramping up or waiting for another spasm to hit as I sat scrunched into the Mustang. I stopped for gas on the way home and had a particularly strong spasm that knocked my legs out from under me, I fell back into the car and landed on the horn, startling not only myself, but the other poor souls who were stopped for gas. They all kept their eyes on me as I dispensed gas into my car. This is really getting old and I'm ready to get the problem fixed. I also spasmed during lunch with the underwriter and fell onto my chair when I went to get up. We'd talked about my medical problems, but she got to see it firsthand. The waiter rushed over to see if he could help. I was straightened up in pain as my back just gives out and I had to hold up my hand until the pain passed and I could again communicate like the other humans.

Our trip to Tahoe was fantastic. We did NOT do the trip down to the castle as my back was giving me fits. The weather was incredible and Darla and I enjoyed our time together. It is, by the way, our eighth wedding anniversary today and our relationship just gets stronger and better every year. We went out to dinner and lunch several days and spent a little bit of time at the casino. Our luck was not as good as the first morning when I hit the $100 jackpot and we lost probably $50 over the course of the week. We had dinner again at the Lakeside Casino on Friday night, our last night in Tahoe. We both enjoyed another slab of the "Best Prime Rib at the lake". After dinner we decided to try our luck at the nickle slots. I lost twenty bucks in about half an hour and was ready to pack it in. I decided to play for a half hour more and if my luck didn't turn, I'd call it a night. Darla was treading water during my losing streak and was game for whatever I wanted to do. I moved to a new machine and decided to play "Triple Bonus" poker. The machine got hot and I hit four-aces four times over the course of the next three hours and we walked out of the casino at after midnight with over $300 in our pockets. The jackpots were all hand pay as they were 1200 nickles, so I got to know the casino employees. Darla and I were laughing at my luck, not because I was hitting four-of-a-kinds, but because they were all aces, which paid the most. My last set of aces came right near midnight and it was dealt to me. Unbelievable luck. We also left the casino with a new personal grooming set on our points. David has been walking in and taking my groomer and doing God knows what with it. I think he missed the point on what a personal grooming kit is. I gave him my old one and took the new one.

I read over my blog and see that I didn't share my stepson story with you. I've had this bad back for the better part of a month. A week ago last Sunday I decided to wash my car. My car is hard enough to get in and out of and our garage is small and made even smaller by a buildout of garage cabinets on the South wall. I asked David to pull my car out of the garage so I could wash it. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am extremely particular about my car. It always has a fresh coat of wax on it and the tires are dressed and the wheels are polished. For those of you in Canada, think Art Lyon. Enough said? David took my keys and I went to put on my shoes, which is an event worth watching with my back. I grunt and sigh and reach and moan, finally reaching my shoe laces. I see why old men always wear slip-ons. Anyhow I walked out and saw David leaning over the rear driver's side quarter panel of my car. He looked at me and said something like, "I think I screwed up." He had hit the fender while backing out and had a huge scrape on the fender. It was about six inches long and four inches wide and looked like it had scraped to the bare metal. I told him it was no big deal and to be careful and meanwhile I was screaming inside. I took the rubbing compound and was able to clean off the area, which was mostly white house paint from the trim piece on the garage door. There was no paint from the car that was scraped, but there is about a tablespoon sized ding in the fender, David was absolutely beside himself knowing what a nut I am about my car. Darla came outside and said Dave was beating himself up pretty good. I told her to have him come out and showed him the almost invisible ding in the car. He was mighty relieved as was I. In the midst of the panic, Darla came out and I was muttering about kids and incompetence and she said, "Honey, it's just a car." My response was, "Honey, he's just our son."

Darla and I are getting a new digital camera with our winnings from Tahoe. I haven't had a digital since I left Republic Western. (Oh, yeah, they fired my a#@!!) I like the digital imaging and like to see the picture right away. Darla much prefers the SLR camera, so I'll be the digital photographer and she'll get the photos.

Well, my daughter is taking a chip off the old block and has created her own blog. You can access her blog at JennDayz.blogspot.com. Hopefully she will keep up with it after she gets to Kuwait. The girl will be home in time for Labor Day. She is driving her Explorer home and will leave for Kuwait on September 20th or 18th or something like that. Check her blog for exact details. She will be bringing her soldier boyfriend home with her. This is the young man that she introduced to me by describing him as Young....21 years old, but he looks even younger. I guess I'll find out what that means. The only picture I've seen of him was from Baghdad and he was giving the finger to the camera. I take it he's a classy young man. Just kidding, Jenn.

Our vacation to Kawaii is growing as Darla's folks have signed on and now Darla's sister is coming as well. I still haven't talked to Dad to see if they were able to get accomodations. Hey, Lyon family, come on down, the more the merrier.

I did cause extra strain on my back on Sunday as I mowed, edged, trimmed and laid sod in the back yard. I decided to trim the large hedge that fronts the fence beside the shed on the side yard. I trim the top of the hedge from the roof of the shed as the hedge has grown to shed height. I climbed up onto the shed and when I pulled the cord on the hedge trimmer it caught the ladder and knocked it over. Darla was inside doing house work and I was stranded on the roof with a bad back and no ladder. Luckily when I was done trimming, she was done vacuuming and came running at my beck and call. She looked at the ladder laying on it's side and me perched on the roof of the shed and laughed. I didn't see the humor in the situation.

Well, that's it for this week. Say a prayer over my back problem as I turn myself over to the medical professionals. Ciao.