August weather here in August

I had wanted to add some pictures from our trip to the lake this week and sent those to my work e-mail last night, but the firewall here at work is delaying the pictures from passing over. Hopefully they show up later today and I can add them. We have been enjoying Jennifer's visit home and have been to the lake twice with the jet ski including yesterday. Just Darla, Jennifer and I were able to go to the lake and it was a nice relaxing day. The boys were with their dad and Jenn's friend Sara had child care issues as her daughter was with her dad (Sara's ex), and she had to pick her up at 3 PM. Jennifer is becoming quite a daredevil on the ski as she is doing 360's and really running the ski hard. The boys always laugh at me as I usually get on the ski with a hat and sunglasses and take a leisurely run around the lake. I have been trying more daring runs with more fast turns and spins. I leave the hat and glasses on the beach now. I took a nasty fall yesterday as the wake was huge and the wind was up a little. The lake was busy and the waves by midafternoon were pretty choppy. I spun out and hit one of those waves and found myself flying off the ski. Unfortunately I hit my hip on the side of the ski on my trip into the water. I'm pretty sore today. The ski continued with the wave and when I came up out of the water, it was about thirty yards from me and drifting in the swells. It took me about five minutes to swim back to the ski and I was so tired when I got there that I just hung on the back of the ski until I could catch my breath and have enough strength to pull myself up out of the water. Darla and Jennifer saw the result of my wipeout with me in the water thirty yards from the ski, but neither of them saw the spill.

It was a pretty awesome weekend for me with poker on Friday night (I was hosting), golf saturday morning, a company barbecue Saturday afternoon and evening and church followed by jet skiing yesterday. I won $80 at poker, shot 43+39=82 on Saturday at Woodcreek Golf Course and thoroughly enjoyed the picnic and skiing. Church was great.

We had the Seniors' pastor, Wayne Bigelow, speak on marriage and family and relate that to our relationship with Jesus Christ as his bride. It was well done and he punctuated his remarks by introducing three couples from his senior's group that had all celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in the last couple of months. One couple are golfers and have played golf in all fifty states and seven foreign countries. Nice. Wayne also told the story of two medical students, one a doctor and the other a dentist who decided to join forces after graduation and open a joint practice. To save money they hired a shared receptionist. Over time, both Doctors began to develop romantic feelings for their receptionist and it became a heated battle for her affections. The dentist had a one week meeting at the American Dental Association that he had to attend and he was concerned that his rival would win her heart while he was gone. He racked his brain to think of how to keep his interests safe while he was gone and he finally hit on a plan. The day that he left for the week away, he put seven apples on the receptionist's desk. Think about it. Wayne then shared the story of the Indian who sat on the cliff watching the sunset. He couldn't figure it out until several hours later when it dawned on him.

Dad and Shirley will be on the road this week on their way to California and the car show in Pleasanton the weekend of August 25th-27th. They will stay with us on the 24th and then drive in to Pleasanton. Darla and I are off to Puerto Vallarta on the 26th for a week and Dad and Shirley will return to our house on Sunday night and stay until Wednesday. We will leave our SUV for them to drive and take a trip in to San Francisco and perhaps Monterey/Carmel depending on their whim. Unfortunately Jennifer will be in Vegas and San Diego while they are here and will not return until September 1st. Darla and I fly back on September 2nd.

Golf this weekend was fun, although I awoke at 6:15 AM on Saturday with a pounding in my ears from the diet of cards and Heineken from the night before. I took a couple of aspirin and was teeing off by 7:25. I played surprisingly well and parred the first three holes. I followed that up with a 6 on the par 3 fourth hole. I finished the front with a double-bogey on number nine after hitting my second shot in the water in front of the green protecting the short par five. I got into a groove on the backside and shot par golf with five pars, a bogey and a birdie through 16. I then went double-bogey/bogey to finish the round and shoot a 39. I shot six over par on the four par threes and ten over (82) in total. It could have been a great round instead of a good round. I played with Bob, a new friend from our life group at church. He played on his high school golf team and shot an 85. Mel also played with us and shot 86.

The barbecue was also great as most of the characters from work showed up. Kathy, one of the underwriting assistants opened her home and we had tri-tip, chicken, brauts, salads, chips, dip, desserts, etc. and had a ball. Dana, Kathy's husband, acted as the emcee and they had a jalapeno bobbing contest which the younger crowd was a part of and Heather, our personal lines underwriter, was able to pluck 17 jalapenos out of the tub of water with just her mouth in 30 seconds. It was hilarious and we got pictures for the office. They have a beautiful home in Rancho Murieta and a wonderful backyard with a pool and a "poop deck" off the back of the house with a hot tub and a great view of the rolling hills around them. The backyard has a nautical theme. The home itself is a tri-level custom with an upstairs master suite with a private office off the bathroom that looks out over the pool. They had karaoke and pool volleyball. It was a great afternoon.

I will take Wednesday afternoon off again and take Jennifer out on the ski. Darla will of course go as well and we hope to have Sara join us again. In the meantime I need to get to work. Stay well and, like the Indian, I hope your mortality has dawned on you and you are living in the light of our Saviour. Ciao