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.