Back to the grindstone after another glorious Northern California weekend. We had bright blue skies and temps in the upper eighties and low nineties all weekend. I even ventured out to the golf course for a round of golf for the first time since Independence Day. Two months without golf and without boring readers of my blog about golf. I'll fill in the blanks on my Saturday round later in this epistle.

More importantly, high school football was in full swing on Friday and we had mixed results this week. Woodcreek hosted Division 1 powerhouse Folsom, Jennifer's alma mater, on Friday night. Folsom is in a brand new school with a state of the art synthetic turfed stadium. Intel Corporation is a neighbor of the school and contributed the $1,000,000 to build the stadium and we played there last year. This year, Folsom had to come to Roseville and slum with the locals on our grass field and metal bleachers. Daniel's team took one on the chin 17-7 as our quarterback threw three interceptions. Daniel again had a solid game, even sacking the Folsom quaterback for a ten yard loss. Daniel caught him as he tried to scramble and wrapped both arms around his back and drove him into the turf. Daniel then rolled him over on top of him like a rag doll. I asked Daniel what he was doing and he said as he was piling him into the ground, he thought he might get a personal foul so he rolled him over on top of him so it looked like he was trying to hold up. The quarterback got up shaking his head and wobbled to the sidelines. Daniel played on both sides of the ball and made some nice plays. He was up against an offensive lineman who was actually bigger than Dan and had some trouble. He wasn't staying low enough and the lineman kept getting lower than Daniel and flipping him onto the ground. I could see Daniel getting frustrated and on one play where the lineman tried the submarine, Daniel jumped up and pile drove him into the ground. The OL stayed pretty well upright after that move.

David's game was pretty tight early on and David again struggled with throwing the ball too high early on. He missed his tight end who was wide open in the end zone on their first drive. The ball floated over his head. We ended up scoring with our tailback running it in, but a trend is setting in. After starting 0-5 in the last game, he was 0-4 in this game before finishing 6 of 13 for 77 yards. We won the game 23-0 and the guys were sky high after the game. David's best passes came when he was forced out of the pocket and he had to throw on the run. Adam cannot throw when he's moving and this is one of David's strengths. David can't wait for this Friday when we play the number five ranked team in the area, Del Oro. He is convinced they can win that game, which is nuts, but if you don't believe in yourself, you've already lost the game. It should be interesting. We capped the scoring in Friday's game with 4 minutes left in the 4th period with a fake punt that went for a touchdown. This is the first time in four years that Woodcreek has won back-to-back games, so it is a big deal at school.

One of the television stations in Sacramento has a Friday night High School football show and our cheerleaders will be featured this week. The station will also be at our game filming, so it should be a big night.

Darla and I will leave next Saturday morning for Monterey. Our golf club is having a two-day event where we will play Laguna Seca Golf Course in Monterey on Saturday and Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach on Sunday. I signed up only for the Sunday tournament because of football. The games don't end until ten and it's a three hour drive to Monterey. We'll take a leisurely drive on Saturday, have dinner with the gang Saturday night and then I'll play golf on Sunday. We'll stay over Sunday night and then drive back on Monday. I'll see agents Monday morning while Darla sleeps in. We are staying at the Hyatt located on the Del Monte Golf Course in Monterey this year.

Golf. It is a four letter word, but it was so nice to be back out in the fresh air playing golf on Saturday morning. I shot 42-46=88, which is not great, but given the fact that I've been incapacitated for two months, I was happy with the effort and the result. I tweaked my back on the fifth hole during my drive and actually birdied the hole with an approach shot that landed a foot from the cup. I was very sore from then on and really felt some stabs of pain during the back side. Afterward, I had lunch with our President, Harry. He is a Bowen Therapy practitioner and he urged me to come in and see him on Tuesday. Bowen Therapy involves a muscle relaxation technique. The theory is that the muscles on either side of the spine cause the spine to pop out of joint and by relaxing the muscles and causing blood to flow to those muscles, the muscles will relax and the spine will naturally realign itself. It sounds plausible and I'm willing to try anything at this point. He assures me that I'll feel better than I have in months after the treatment. He is giving me the first session for free, but wants me to see him at least twice and his fee is $50 per hour. A session takes one hour to loosen and relax the muscles. I'll reserve judgement on this and let you know next week how it goes.

I was sore as can be yesterday afer using muscles that I hadn't used in months. I was hobbling around and spent most of the day on the couch with NFL football to keep me occupied. I have the NFL package, which is great as I was able to watch the end of the Saints-Rams overtime thriller rather than the start of a 34-0 Niner loss to the Seahawks.

We made it to church yesterday and the pastor gave us a state of the church message. Our church has been highly successful with the nicest new building in the area and weekly attendance near 2000. This has been a tough year for our pastor, Rick, in that he has lost several staff members to other churches. He takes the defections very personally and even considered resigning when one of the staff members left because of conflict with him. He said that God is 'pruning" the church and helping to plant new churches in the area. The toughest loss was our worship leaders, a husband and wife team that decided to plant a new church. Rick told us the story of a man marooned on a deserted island. He started a fire and fanned signals to a ship about a year after being marooned. The ship saw the smoke and sent a rescue boat to the island. While the stranded man was boarding the ship, the captain asked him where the others were. The man said that he was the only one on the island. The captain said that when he had checked his telescope, he saw three huts on the island. The man said that was easily explained. The first hut was his house and the second was his church. The captain asked what the third hut was for. The man replied, "That was the church that I used to attend." His point was that churches often have turnover and the conflict is good for the church as it helps to keep their focus on the real church, who are the members.

Jennifer has not only made it to Kuwait, but she has updated her blog a couple of times and I urge you to check it out. A link to her blog is at the bottom of this page. Her address is:

Spec. Jennifer Lyon
385th SC CO
Kuwait City , Kuwait
APO - AE 09889

Jennifer would like any kind of bath and beauty products, including good shampoos and conditioners, books, cds, DVDs and magazines. And I know that she'd like any kind of homemade cookies, etc. She said the shampoos and body lotions available at the PX are terrible and the desert sand and sun is hard on a woman's body. So if you can find it in your heart to help out a soldier, she and I would appreciate it. There is nothing quite as nice as a package from home.

I hope all is well with each of you. Be careful out there. Ciao.

It is a sunny, clear, absolutely crisp and wonderful Monday morning. The weather in Sacramento is so predictable during the Summer, but we had a storm blow through here yesterday that seemed better fit for Washington State and British Columbia than central California. We received 1.48 inches of rain and most of that fell in a concentrated one-hour period yesterday afternoon. The rain was hitting so hard and so fiercefully that the gutters in both the street and on my house had trouble keeping up with the torrent. The gutters were spilling over from the house and we had a wall of water cascading down in front of the slider in the family room. We looked out front and there was a three-foot wide wall of water rushing down the gutter in front of our home. The aftermath today is leaves and downed branches all over the front of the house and across the street in the park. Sacramento, which is known as the city of trees, took the worst of the storm with over 2 inches of rain and local flooding on the freeways and in the downtown area. One underground parking garage is flooded with spots that are eight-feet deep and abandoned cars are under water in the garage. One poor guy decided to fjord the water on P street and ended up on top of his car with his wife curled up on the back seat with water on the floorboards and rising. We had warning of rain in the form of scattered showers, but not a storm of this intensity. Indeed the rain was scattered as Woodland received no rain and it is only 13 miles northwest of Sacramento.

Jennifer did indeed board her plane on Saturday morning for Dallas, where she sat for three hours waiting for a connection to Baltimore. I told her to call Randy, but she didn't want to bother him. They could have had lunch together as she was there from 11:30 local time until her flight at 2:45. She flew on to Baltimore where she caught up with two other soldiers from her unit and they flew on together to Ramstein AFB in Germany. From there they caught a plane to Kuwait after another three hour wait. They arrived in Kuwait City at 12:30 a.m. local time and it took until 4:30 a.m. to get their room assignments and then had to process into the base and get work assignments and be issued gear and pay vouchers, etc. They warned the soldiers not to sleep all day Monday, but to nap a bit during the day and get up for dinner and then go to bed at regular time on Monday night so as to acclimate themselves to local time.

Jennifer took their advice and was unpacking at 11:00 a.m. Kuwaiti time and decided to call her Dad to chat. 11:00 a.m. in Kuwait works out to 1:00 a.m. our time Monday morning. Darla and I were awakened from a dead sleep to the ringing of the phone. I knocked over some pictures and the television remote and Darla upended a picture and the remains of the ice water that I'd brought her when we went to bed. We finally found the phone and I had a foggy conversation with Jennifer. She has a phone right in her room and can call us at any time by calling the Army switchboard and being patched through to the Sacramento Army National Guard and getting an outside line. As Darla said, it was a novelty talking to her at one in the morning and we were glad to hear that she made it to Kuwait without too much hardship, but from now on let's talk during daylight hours.

Jennifer is almost certain that she will go to Germany almost immediately as the unit needs a new Armorer, as her group is replacing seven soldiers, one of which was the unit's Armorer. An Armorer is responsible for checking the weapons in and out of the munitions room for the unit and they require the Armorer to go through a two-week training class that is held in Germany. Jennifer, as usual, volunteered for the assignment. She will receive her shipped goods in about forty-five days when she is expected to move into a new trailer. She sounded in very good spirits and awake when I talked to her.

The saga of David and his high school football team has a great story this week. David was confirmed last Monday as the starting quarterback of the Woodcreek Timberwolves. Adam seemed to accept his fate with an air of inevitability. David practiced all week with the first unit and Adam ran the opposition's plays with the first team defense. The other side of the coin with David winning the starting q.b. nod is that he lost his starting position on defense. They moved a sophomore into his position and told David that he would no longer play defense.

We played against Bear River on Friday night, a team that we have played every year and failed to ever win a game against. And the series seemed to be destined to continue in the same vein as Bear River took the opening kickoff and moved down the field, scoring on a 41-yard run by their tailback. David came into the game after the kickoff and drove the team down to the four-yard line. He had missed on his first three passes, throwing high and looking a little over-amped. Finally on third and goal he rolled out and found his fullback wide open in the corner of the end zone. He lofted a perfect pass to the back (one of his good friend's Matt Meacham) and Matt ham-handed the ball where it fell to the ground after he juggled it like you would a hot baked potatoe. The team turned the ball over on downs after going for it on fourth and goal. Why we didn't kick a field goal is beyond me. Bear River took over and lo and behold, David was inserted in at free safety. He ended up playing both ways most of the game and lead the team to a 34-14 win against a team that had never tasted defeat at our hands. The coach left David in to work through his difficulties passing and David went 4-0f-5 with a touchdown from then on. David said that he wanted to look over his shoulder when he was missing his passes early on, but he pulled the team together in the huddle and said, "Let's pull together and get a win!" and they did.

The coach was very enthusiastic about the calm that David showed during the game and the way that he very efficiently lead the team to five touchdowns, four of them on the ground from our tailback, Blaine Brown, who was forced into starting when our tailback, Patrick Deloach checked out of the school on Wednesday and moved to Foothills High School. Blaine played great and David ran the offense well, even setting up a touchdown with a long run and optioning to his fullback on one run and then throwing the block that broke the play open.

Daniel played flawlessly again in his game and they won 14-7. Dan was named the player of the game in last week's game and was taken out to dinner by the coaching staff last Tuesday. It's hard to imagine that this is the same player who sleep walked through the season in prior years. He has grown into his body and the maturity that has developed is allowing him to be a dominant force on the field. He is so big, that he is almost unblockable (if that is even a word). He continues to plug holes on defense and open them on offense. So far, this is nothing but fun this year watching the two boys play. Daniel is definitely emerging from David's shadow and is becoming more than just David Lierly's brother.

Well, that's about it this week. We did have a bit of a laugh on Friday night as Tara, one of the Captain's of the Varsity cheerleading squad, came up to Darla and I and told us that she and David were going to the Senior Ball together. She said that she told David that he is going with her and even told him how he is to ask her. They have been great friends all through high school, but Tara has decided that she wants more than a friendship. David is intensely shy and he deflects talk of Tara with a "We're just friends" response, but they are quite an item. I kidded her that she waited until David was named quarterback to put in her claim, that she'd be talking to Adam's parents if it had gone the other way. She laughed. Tara is blowing Darla's preconceived notion of cheerleaders as ditzes into oblivion. She has a 4.75 grade point average and is a gymnast and pole vaulter. Frankly, Jenny Lyon, Randy's daughter, already proved that you can have brains and be a cheerleader.

Say a prayer for Jennifer and all of the troops out in harms way and take care of each other. Ciao.

It is Monday, which in my world relates to Blog Day. I guess I add to the blog on Monday because I can relate the events that transpired during the weekend with my family. If I blogged on Friday, I'd relate work events and suffer from IBS. This way I hang on to my three regular readers and stay regular. Nice.

We spent yesterday in Santa Cruz with Jennifer and her boyfriend, Ryan. The weather was ideal, reaching about 80 degrees. Good beach boardwalk weather and good beach weather. We left the house about 8:30 a.m., a half hour later than planned as Jenn and Ryan were running a little late. It worked out fine as we took Alicia's Durango, which seats seven, and still made it to Santa Cruz by 11:30. Even with a stop for gas and an extra stop for a potty break for Jennifer. Our Explorer only seats five as we don't have the extra seat. Jennifer and Ryan squeezed into the rear seat which is cramped and left the middle seat for David and Daniel. Ryan is 6'1" and weighs about 210 pounds, so with our boys, we had a load of beef in the car. It was nice getting to know Ryan a little bit and watching his interaction with Jennifer. He certainly cares about her and the feeling is mutual. The boys got a kick out of spending the day with Jenn and Ryan and they went through the park together, going on every "make you puke" ride in the park. Jennifer even talked me (shamed me) into going on the Fireball, a 12 person ride that lifts you up and turns you inside out. I begged off, citing my poor back, but Jenn and Ryan said that it just looked rough, that it was actually an easy ride, easier in fact than the wooden roller coaster that I went on with Darla, Daniel, Jennifer and Ryan. I belted in after storing my hat and glasses in a "cubby" provided for that purpose. Jennifer and Ryan seated next to me both turned to me and said "Sucker!" at the same time as the floor dropped below us and the instrument of torture began it's ascent into the sky. I felt some G forces that likely were not the best on my back, but the kids all got a good laugh at my expense, so what the hey.

Darla and I set up camp on the beach when the kids went on their way through the park and as I was lying in the sun, sipping a cold Dr. Pepper and contemplating life, it dawned on me that this theme park experience was one of the best I've had as an adult. Normally, the Disneyland experience is wrought with tired feet, hot asphalt, cranky kids and over-priced food. We brought a cooler, our beach chairs, umbrella and a blanket and Darla got to read her book and I napped under the sea air. It was, frankly, invigorating. Darla and I went and rode the log ride and got soaked and then relaxed some more at the beach. The boys got a kick out of Jennifer talking Ryan into riding the Typhoon, a two-armed 360 degree ride that I've always known as the hammer. Ryan apparently begged off and Jennifer pulled him on to the ride, with the words, "I don't date wimps!" The boys laughed and laughed again when relating the story to us. We left about 6 p.m. and stopped for pizza in Gilroy on the way home.

Darla and I had met Ryan for the first time at the football games on Friday night. He was understandably quiet as he didn't know what to make of me or Darla, who was her ebullient self. We certainly got to know him better on Sunday and he seems like a nice kid.

The football game was as difficult to watch as any I've sat through. The idea of starting one quarterback and shuttling in another in the second quarter and basing the decision on who would start the rest of the season on that performance was absurd. Breaking that promise within a half hour was unbelievable. David started the game, which was right as he had earned the position in the preseason. He played well, but wasn't able to score on his watch. Adam started the second quarter and played as well as I've seen him play, even leading the team to a touchdown which was scored on a running play. He fumbled the ball once and was stuffed on a running play where he tucked the ball and looked like a prisoner caught in the glare of a floodlight when he was hit. We went into the locker room down 12-6. I felt that the coach would use Adam's touchdown as an excuse to start Adam the rest of the way. David started at free safety and played the whole game on defense. When the teams came back on the field after halftime I caught David's eye and gave him the thumbs up/down sign. He gave me a big thumbs up and indeed started the half and looked relaxed as he guided the team down the field against the number ten ranked team in the Sacramento Metro area and scored a touchdown on a sweep. We were thrilled. The other team scored on it's next possesion and David ran the team again, giving the ball up after two first downs. Our defense was able to hold and the third quarter expired. I saw the coaches talking to David and then he stood way off to the side with his head down as Adam came into the game at quarterback and proceeded to immediately throw an interception and the other team scored to go up by 15 and the rout was on. We lost 40-25 and David was inconsolable. Both games ran long and the game finally ended at 11:30 after an interminable delay for a player who broke his leg. It took at least 45 minutes to secure his leg, cart him off the field and wait for another ambulance to come take the place of the first, which is league rules before play can resume.

David was so mad, that he met with the head coach and offensive coordinator for fifty minutes after the game. He finally called us at just after one to say he was on his way home. When he didn't show up by 1:45, Darla drove over to the school and found David, his Dad and the offensive coordinator huddling under the lights of one of their cars. Darla was livid and gave all three of them a tongue lashing. David's cell phone was off and she was afraid that he'd had an accident. I was in bed asleep by the time this all went down. The coaches' answer to David's complaints was that he put Adam back in the game in the fourth quarter because he wanted to "open the game up". David asked him how that went (or should have) as the result was an immediate interception. David told the coaches that the team is hungry for leadership and tired of the quarterback shuffle, that the coaches need to make a decision and stick with it. The coach told David not to worry, that they consider him the team leader and that this was a non-league game and a chance for the coaches to continue to evaluate the team. David told him that, as a senior, this may be one of the last ten games that he gets to play football and that he felt the way it was handled had cheated him and cheated the team of a chance to win that game. The coach looked at David and told him that was the type of fire and leadership that he was looking for in his quarterback. David said, "Then let me lead!".

David told me afterward, that if the coach picks Adam at this point then he knows the coach is talking out of both sides of his mouth. He was very frustrated and upset by the way he was treated in the game and the boos raining down on the coach from our sideline after the interception let him know how the fans viewed his decision. This guy has the instincts of Wiley Coyote. Adam used to be one of David's best friends, but he hasn't handled competition well and some of the things he has said and done behind David's back have put a wedge in the friendship. Adam walked off the field after the interception yelling at one of the receivers for running "a lazy route". The interception was RIGHT in the arms of the d.b. and there wasn't a receiver within five yards of the play. As a quarterback, Adam will make a good Clinton Democrat, always blaming someone else for his shortcomings. Oh well.

Daniel played as good a game as I've ever seen him play on Friday night. He played both sides of the ball and only came off the field for special teams. His team won 35-13 and looked sharp throughout. Daniel was opening huge holes on the offensive line for the running backs and plugging holes on the defensive line, once sacking the quarterback and twice stuffing runs for negative yardage. He is really growing in to a fine football player at 14 (15 next month). He is 6'1" and 225 pounds of manchild.

Jennifer will be leaving for her 26 hour trip to Kuwait on Saturday and will be gone by the time I write again. The only good news is she'll be that much closer to getting out and returning to civilian life. Dad: Jennifer will have dinner with us one night this week and we'll call you and Shirley and let her say her goodbyes. Anyone else who wants to wish her well, call her at (310) 927-6311 before Saturday. I'll write again at that time. Ciao.

Hey and hello. Back from the long weekend refreshed and relatively relaxed. I lost a big account last week midterm and the loss of premium on the return premium has my figures in the red so far this month. I'll have to work extra hard to get caught up. All that and my assistant, Anthony, ate too many deep fried twinkies at the California State Fair over the weekend and called in sick today.

On the bright side, Jennifer is back home for two weeks. She survived her drive home with her Mom from Georgia (just barely) and is trying to jam a year of fun and good times into a ten day period. She has checked out of her base in Georgia and most of her supplies and uniforms, etc. have been shipped ahead to Kuwait. She brought just a few personal items with her and some items to store until her return in 14 months. Her boyfriend, Ryan, arrived last night and Jennifer picked him up from the airport. Jenn was waiting for Darla and I when we returned from Almanor with her feet up and relaxing at our house. We have a remote entry for our garage door and all of the kids know the code, so she was able to get in. In fact, she stayed there Sunday night after partying in Chico with her friend, Jason. Jennifer asked Jason if he wanted to meet Ryan and he said NO. I think Jason still carries a BIG torch for Jennifer.

Almanor was great. The temps here were in the 100's and were in the upper 70's and low 80's in Almanor. We relaxed and read books, talked by the campfire at night and basically slept alot. We didn't even take the boat out until Monday morning when we took a tour of the lake and looked at several lakeside homes. Darla's parent's, Earl and Francis, are contemplating buying a home in Almanor. The ranch is wearing Earl down a little (he has to return in a couple of weeks to oversee the harvest of almonds) and Francis is ready to sell the ranch and move to Almanor. Earl's bout with prostate cancer and treatment scared the family and we would be thrilled to see them really retire to a resort area. Almanor does get snow in the winter, although a foot on the ground at any time is about the extent of it. Earl and Francis would travel with their 5th wheel during the worst of the winter and return in late Winter/early Spring. I hope they manage to find a nice home with some room for all of Earl's toys (boat, 5th wheel, etc.). The Lake Almanor area is an area that they both love and have had family vacations there dating back to when the kids were very young.

I enjoyed the trip as much as I possibly could. NOT being in a tent and being able to sleep in the 5th wheel, on the hide-a-bed was nice. The bed was not ideal, it had a bit of a hump in it and wasn't overly firm (which I need now with my bad back), but overall it beat tent camping. Alicia, Darla's sister, ended up in the tent outside and we got to hear in the morning how cold and uncomfortable she was each night. I took a conciliatory tone with her, but was glad it wasn't me as I likely would have been stuck prone after a night in the cold. Darla really enjoys the trips to Almanor and has very fond memories of family vacations past with her extended family in tow, much like my family's trips to the Okanogan in days gone by. I can still recall the red cream soda in pop bottles and the creamsicles that were orange sherbet filled with vanilla ice cream. I have yet to manage a week in Almanor with the family because of my job situation. Next year may be the last Westra family vacation to the Almanor Resort, but if Earl and Francis do buy a home, the vacations will simply shift to the family estate.

Alicia has a client with a vacation home in the Lake Almanor Country Club and we took a trip to see the home. It is older and dated in it's decor and amenities (the house has a Kelvinator refrigerator in it!), but it overlooks the lake and sits on about two parcels of land. It is a definite fixer-upper with a wood shake roof and only six-inch logs for insulation (it is a log cabin style home). The home is "A" frame and two stories so the roof doesn't get much wear. The linoleum will have to be replaced as well as the shag carpeting. It has a beautiful stone fireplace with a built-in heatilator and three bedrooms. We took the owner of the Almanor Resort, Frank, with us to look at the home. He is a licensed real estate broker and Alicia wanted to get an idea of the worth of the property for her client. Earl said that if he was ten years younger, he would buy the place and renovate it. Unsaid in all of that, is that if he were ten years younger, he'd still be working.

Earl and Francis have a neighbor who lives in the trailer adjacent to their site who is 94 years old. His wife is in her eighties and a spry thing. They have a cat that takes walks on a leash. It is hilarious to see this little old lady walking her cat around the resort. She leaves him on the grass in front of her trailer tied up to a leash and the cat catches squirrels. Kay, the lady, makes her cat give up the squirrels instead of eat them.

Jennifer will be busy this week. Her boyfriend, Ryan, is from Pittsburgh and has never visited California so they will go to San Francisco and he wants to see an Oakland A's game. Jennifer wants to take him up to Lake Tahoe and show him all around her hometown area of Sacramento-Folsom-Roseville. Darla and I will take them to either Great America ( a theme park in San Carlos) with the boys on Sunday or Santa Cruz, which has a beach boardwalk with rides and amusements. It should be a great visit.

David and Daniel will have their first football games this Friday. Daniel will play offensive and defensive line and David will play quarterback and free safety. David has completely outplayed his competition at qb, Adam, but Adam has threatened to quit if David is named the starter, so the coach is trying to mollify him. I'd kick him off the team. David will start the first quarter, Adam the second and the better player will play the second half. Huh? Make a choice and stick with it, coach. If Adam quits, he's not a team player. David was in an article in the local paper on Sunday and it's link is: http://www.thepresstribune.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=16&ArticleID=4967 . The article in the paper has a picture of David at quarterback. Too bad it's not in the online link.

Well, I will write more next week. Stay well, be nice to each other and buy or rent "The Passion of the Christ" now that it is available. You will never look at Communion in the same way again. Ciao.