Cold Crisp start to the week

It is another Monday and it woke with frost on the lawns and rooftops and has morphed into a crisp, clear and sunny December day. So far the fog has only been sporadic this year and sunshine has been the norm, aside from the last week of on and off again rainstorms. The forecast is for more of the same cold, clear days ahead. We got caught up on our rainfall totals last week as it rained from Monday until Friday, clearing for the weekend.

My garage door opener was so old (circa 1987) that I couldn't buy replacement parts or new remotes. I'd ordered some parts that didn't work and finally decided to replace the old dog with a new one. Sears seemed to have the best deal with a unit that included two remotes and a keyless entry. The keyless entry is nice if we take a walk or Jennifer comes over or the boys get dropped off by a friend after school. I was a little cool to the idea of going to the mall to pick up the opener, but went online, picked out the opener, paid for it and picked it up at the Merchandise Pick-up. I never had to go into the store. It was almost as convenient as shopping online and having the item delivered to the house. The boys and I installed the new opener on Saturday morning.

I played no golf this weekend and I think it was my first golfless weekend in a couple of months. We had tickets to the Trans Siberian Orchestra's Christmas show on Saturday afternoon and then dinner that night with the Roseville Golf Club. The show was great, we got our tickets from Gary and Liz Krohn. Liz is a marketing specialist for one of the large malls in Sacramento and has connections. We had seats in the lower level to the right of the stage. It was nice. We met at the dinner location and left our car for the 3:00 PM show. We returned at 6:15 PM for the 6:30 PM party and had a drink while the board members set up. I got a gift of a session with Harry, my Bowen specialist along with a martini sampler. I'll probably regift the martini sampler in the white elephant gift exchange at our Christmas party on Friday night. We will christen our remodel project and the new carpeting with the Burns and Wilcox holiday party on Friday night. We'll have turkey and ham and all of the trimmings on Friday and will have our gift exchange after that.

Jennifer has arrived in Korea and had a surprise awaiting her. One of the guys from her team in Kuwait has also joined the Das Net group and met her at the airport. He is part of the New York based team and won't be working with her out of Georgia, but it was a nice surprise for Jen to see a familiar face in Korea. She is having a good time and sent me an e-mail to let me know that she was getting a new cell phone and buying some international minutes for the phone and would call soon. She will, of course, be home for Christmas and we look forward to seeing her.

Work here is going well and I leave next Sunday for a week in home office for some Branch Manager training. I assume this means that they are happy with the success of the Sacramento and Modesto offices. I will have to pack warm for the trip to Detroit, where there is snow on the ground and a heavy chill in the air. I don't own a wool suit, but I'm sure that I will wish that I did. I'm excited to go back and spend some time in the home office. I've been to Detroit twice for the manager's meeting, but have yet to visit the Home office site. I'm encouraged by the invitation and the continuing good numbers that we are putting up.

As I will be in Detroit, the blog will take a little holiday until I get back. Darla and I were in church yesterday and a gentleman behind us had chest pains during communion. Our church is so large that we have an emergency team of doctors and paramedics on staff that were able to monitor the man and get his vitals stable and he was ready to be transported to the hospital when the ambulance arrived. The pastor stopped the service and prayed for the man and the team working on him. Rick said that due to the size of our church that there is a medical emergency almost every weekend and the Emergency team is called into service. It is nice to be part of a church that plans for every eventuality. Well that's it this week. Be well and stay in lock step with the Lord. Ciao.