Good Morning World

Our weather here in Northern California has been nothing short of spectacular for about the last two weeks. We have enjoyed cool nights in the mid 40's and daytime highs in the mid 70's. It doesn't get any better than this, eh? Today is one of those days with a high blue sky and crisp clear sunshine that early in the morning leaves a promise of good things to come. The grass is covered in dew and fallen leaves and the trees outside of my picture window are green and yellow and red, with one lone tree devoid of leaves, but strangely full of white buds as if it were Spring instead of late Autumn.

I was able to talk to Dad this weekend and they were coming home from a meal with Randy and his family. Randy left yesterday for a week in Banff, Canada and a ski holiday. Jenny flew in to Dallas and met the family and they all flew to Canada. Dad and Shirley left Euless yesterday for two days in San Antonio and some alone time on the River Walk. They will be back in Austin with Darryl and Cheryl for the Thanksgiving holiday.

We had a bit of a surprise in our neighborhood this last Friday. A CHP officer from Roseville was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in Yolo County on Thursday and there was a manhunt on for his killers, two men in a light colored Toyota. When I got home Friday night there were news crews and police vehicles all over the cul-de-sac behind our house. It turns out that the neighborhood punk had shot and killed the officer. This kid is bad news and has caused all sorts of grief to neighbors in the neighborhood and was even caught vandalizing cars and stealing property. He is 20 years old and lived with his Mom and two brothers, both of whom are equal idiots. The story has now come out that this kid was the son of a disgraced officer in the Bay Area, who was fired after having a relationship with a victim's widow and then committing suicide when he was caught after a botched bank robbery in Fremont. The family is a piece of work with the Mom recently having been cited for driving under the influence and the son having a court date in December for violating the terms of his parole by using methamphetamines and being arrested under the influence of a controlled substance. The funeral for the officer is tomorrow at our church in Roseville. You can't pick your neighbors, but this group is serious white trash and live in the neighborhood simply because they sold their home in the Bay Area for a mint and left there in shame.

Jennifer did fly to New York on Thursday and was met by the Vice President of the company she was interviewing with. She met with the President and several of the officers for a day long interview on Friday and eventually accepted the position. The company is a military contractor and Jennifer will be a Tech Engineer Level One and will be installing network systems. Her salary is huge and she will make her money tax free while working on government installations overseas. The jobs that she is working on are all bid jobs with specific start and end dates and the teams that work on the jobs live at military installations and are on a per diem while working. The team is paid a bonus for completing the job on time, and an even bigger bonus for completing the job ahead of schedule. She will live in Georgia and will spend about 75% of her time overseas. She leaves for Korea on December 1st and will be home on December 22nd for Christmas. She will then fly to back to Korea on January 3rd to complete the work order and will be back in Sacramento by the first of March when she will make the move to Georgia. I'm proud of her although I had hoped that she would get to stay in Sacramento for awhile. This is a great chance for her to make some money and save up for a house. The company will also pay for her to go to school to get her degree which is nice, although she already has that money coming from her GI bill. She will be covered for Medical immediately and will be covered by a 401 K plan. It sounds like a great job for a young person and it will be using the skills that she has developed in the Army. This time she'll get paid very well to ply her trade, however. The company does NOT work in Kuwait or Iraq, Thank God. The website for her new firm is: www.dasnetcorp.com

I played golf this weekend in the Turkey shoot at Woodcreek golf course. It was a two man best ball. I had 14 strokes and shot a pedantic 41+44=85. Boyd shot even worse (for him) with a 40+41=81. Our best ball score was 68 which qualified us for absolutely nothing. I did win a bottle of wine for being the first person in our foursome to spot the stuffed turkey which was hiding in the branches of an oak tree on number 7. The weather was fantastic and the course is in pristine condition.

Yesterday, Darla, the boys and I made another dump run, this time with two trucks. We hauled all of the old baseboards, an old dresser, boxes, games, toys, and junk to the dump. The side yard was brimming with trash and we were able to haul it all away. As Darla said, she thinks we are actually done with our remodel. Next year we plan to have someone come in and install crown molding in the living room, family room and our master bedroom. We will also have the cabinets refaced and the master bathroom remodeled with a new shower and tile. It was the one room that we weren't able to afford right now. I will work on touching up the cabinets in the kitchen this weekend by putting a fresh coat of Honey Oak stain on the cabinets. It has a satin finish and should look good.

We will spend Thanksgiving up in Paradise at Darla's folks. We have the boys this year and will actually stay over at the old homestead and play games and watch football and eat turkey. It should be fun. Jennifer was invited, but will instead head to Palm Springs with her Mom.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all and take this time to thank God for all of the blessings that he has bestowed on your life. Ciao.