Our weekend fades into a New Work Week

The heat was on in Sacramento over the weekend and Darla and I spent the better part of yesterday at the lake. We left the jet ski back at home in Alicia's garage and packed up sodas, books, our beach umbrella, chairs, towels, our beach blanket and our books and headed to the beach after church. Summer is in full swing, as our church which seats 3000 has closed the balcony for the Summer and the upstairs gang is joining us in the main seating area for the Summer months. The church looks full again if you discount the fact that the upstairs is closed.

We arrived at the beach by 11:30 AM after stops for a bag lunch and at Longs for some new air mattresses and some sunscreen. I got a hammock style air mattress with a large pillow for my head and a smaller, narrower pillow fror my thighs. You end up sitting mostly in the water in a hammock style seat. It was an excellent way to beat the 104 degree temperature, but unfortunately it offered little support and I ended up with a sore back for my troubles. We usually stay at the lake for about three hours because the heat gets to us after time and we are ready to go. The air mattresses allowed us to mitigate the heat to the point that we stayed until 4:00 PM, neither of us really being aware of the time. We spent a fair amount of time in our chairs under the umbrella and were slathered with sunscreen pretty good so neither of us is sporting a burn today.

There was a couple on the beach near us that were a commercial for birth control. The woman was likely in her early thirties and the guy likely near the same age. He was a second husband and the woman had a daughter of about six. The guy was relentless in harassing the poor daughter. She was cranky and irritable and throwing a fit at the beach. The guy ran her out in to the water and splashed her and kept running at her and scaring her. He yelled at her constantly and when she kicked sand on him, he picked up a handful and pelted her in the face. It was brutal to watch and finally a couple next to us approached the lifeguard and asked him to call the police. The mother would not intervene and the guy was in the little girl's face. The mom started crying and the guy yelled at the girl and said, "look at what you did, now your Mom is crying." She was probably crying because she was married to this psycho. Darla said that his actions were close to reportable to CPS. The little girl was frantic when they packed up to leave, probably knowing that she was going to get a beating when they got home. You could hear her wailing as they headed to the parking lot. We packed up about twenty minutes after they left and saw them chasing her in the parking lot when we drove out. There was a lifeguard sitting in his truck watching the whole thing, hopefully waiting for the police. What a nightmare. I guess I've been lucky with David and Daniel. We had our battles over the years, but never anything that dramatic or that public. I would have been mortified.

The jet ski continues to sit in the infirmary. The repair was not successful as the seal was not set properly. I would need a clamp to hold the mirror tight to the deck. I am attempting to order a new mirror to replace the broken one and we will just bolt it to the deck and be done with it. We are off to Almanor next weekend and the blog will sit idle until my return on Thursday. This will be my longest visit yet to Almanor. I usually stay until Monday and head back to work. I will stay until Wednesday afternoon this time around and be able to play golf with the guys on Tuesday.

I will play golf at Turkey Creek on Saturday. Turkey Creek is where we will play the qualifier for the 4-man championship of Northern California that will be played in September for two days at Spyglass. We play the qualifier on August 3rd and I want to play Turkey at least two times between now and then. Daniel is away in SoCal with his church group for CIY. I'm not sure what the initials stand for, but I think the C is Christian and the Y is Youth. They will have a week in Southern California with messages each night and beach visits and sightseeing during the day. Daniel worked at the Christian radio station K-Love during their pledge drive to earn the trip. He returns home about ten AM on Saturday and couldn't drive up with Darla in the morning, so I will play golf and then Dan and I will drive up in the afternoon.

Jennifer, you need to get going on your blog. John was supposed to keep you on track and he's doing a lousy job. Let's see an update, girl.

I played golf on Saturday, struggling a little bit with a 43+42=85. It sounds like a normal round for me, but I had two birdies on the back side and still slid to a 42. You can see why I have a day job. If I had to earn my keep on the golf course, I'd be in the poor house. I did win the skin match, taking $7.50 from my playing partners, but lost the front- back- and overall to Mark Konrad on a $3-$3-$3 bet to lose $9.00 and a net loss on the day of $1.50.

I've been asked to rejoin the board of the Roseville Golf Club. They want me to reprise my position as VP, but I will either take an open position or run for President. I don't really have the time, but the board needs the help, so I'll likely be back.

Well, that is the news to the minute. I will be back in a week's time with news of our vacation. Have a good week. Ciao.