Andy's funeral: Darla did just great on the Eulogy

Darla was understandably a bit nervous before the funeral, but what a great and understated job she did explaining her grandfather's roots and what made him so special to her. When she read the eulogy to me two nights before the funeral, she was emotional and cried and I told her that she had to work through those emotions. That if she was emotional during the eulogy, all that anyone would see or hear would be her discomfort. If she wanted to do her grandfather justice and be able to tell his story, she had to relax. Darla was genuine, relaxed and even extemporaneous in her comments. She laughed at some memories and stressed some points about his grace as a husband when his first wife suffered from Alzheimer's. She had a strong set of themes in the eulogy and touched on each of them extremely well. I was very proud of her courage and her delivery that day. She heard many good comments from friends and relatives and it went off well.

I was a pallbearer, along with both boys, two nephews of Andy's and Darla's brother, Steve, who flew home from Hawaii with his wife, Kristen, for the funeral. We headed from the funeral home to the graveside service, where Andy was buried beside his parents and next to his first wife, Effie. Andy's widow, Liz, attended on her first foray out of the convalescent home. She was gracious and extremely alert and touched by the funeral. Her comment on Darla's eulogy was "Beautiful!" There is a picture of Liz in the silver car above.

I was able to meet Darla's Uncle Gene and his partner, Jim, for the first time. We also were able to visit with members of the extended family that I haven't seen for years and others that I met for the first time. The reception afterward was nice with jello and ham rolls, potato salad and orange punch and cookies. I went over to my Modesto office afterward and checked in with them before heading home.

We hosted the family to a barbecue and swim outing at our house the next day. David had left for Montana, but his cousin, Shea, was there and Daniel came by for lunch before heading to work. We had Darla's folks here as well. Their house is still torn up from the water damage and they are working on laying wood flooring in the entry, kitchen and family room. The carpet will follow later and the interior office is framed and sheetrocked. All of the sheetrock is done and painting will come soon. Earl has decided to have his cabinets redone during this process. They obviously couldn't host everyone, so asked if we would. I barbecued hamburgers and we relaxed in the pool afterward.

I played golf both Saturday and Sunday and struggled a bit both days. I shot a pair of 84's, but it was how, not how much that was the problem. In today's tournament, I fell apart on the front nine with four double-bogeys and limped in with a 45, but pulled it together on the back nine with three bogeys and six pars for a 39. I hung around and helped with the scoring for the blind draw two-man best ball. If I'd shot 39+45 instead of the other way around, I would have been in the parking lot turning over cars. Saturday was 41+43=84 at Woodcreek in a "fall down the stairs" back nine that included four "lip out" putts. We teed off at 6:28 AM on Saturday which allowed me to get home in time for the barbecue. I had a strange experience when I approached the tee at 6:20 AM to drop my cart and walk over to the putting green, the starter stopped me and asked me if I was Manuel Fernandez. Apparently he was waiting for the fourth player in that group. I looked at him and said, "Do I look like a Manuel Fernandez?" I think I'm getting too much sun this Summer.

I forgot last week to mention the hassle we had getting out of Almanor. I went down early to pull our jet ski out of the lake. When I pulled it up to the cabin it was dragging and I found out we had a flat tire. Darla and I drove out to Chester and picked up a can of "Fix It" flat repair that did the trick. 45 minutes later, Alicia pulled Don's boat out of the water and also had a flat tire on the trailer. She drove into Chester where they found a defective valve stem and had her on the road in 30 minutes. That was a strange end to a good trip.

Samantha called us on Saturday while we had the gang over and I visited with Jennifer for awhile. She and John were moving into their new home. She was stoked. By the way, when I say Samantha called, it's true. She got ahold of Jennifer's phone and speed dialed my number. I'm guessing it wasn't by accident. I told Jenn to update her blog and get some pictures of Samantha on their as well as more pictures of their new house.

Well, it is Sunday night and Darla is waiting for me on the couch. Gotta go. Ciao.

Almanor is in the can, Basil Cell carcinoma is zapped off my back and God rest your soul, Andrew Keuning!

Darla's grandpa, Andrew, died last night at the age of 89 from complications of pneumonia. He had the car accident on June 24th and had made great strides toward recuperating. In fact, he had been released from the hospital last week and was put into a convalescent home along with his wife, Liz. Unfortunately he had heart disease and swelling in his extremities. They moved him back into ICU at the hospital on the weekend and his heart finally gave out. Andy was a wonderful Christian man and he will be missed at our family gatherings. I enjoyed his prayers that were always spiced with many thees, thous, yeahs and yees and spoke of a simpler time. Darla and the boys had planned to go to Modesto and see him today, but they were a day late and now the funeral is Friday.

You can see smoke on the water in the pictures of Shea (Darla's niece) and Darla above, but the weather on our trip to Lake Almanor was mostly outstanding. Darla proved that she is still one tough mother by wakeboarding this year. I rode the jet ski and managed to (shocker!) get in a game of golf while we were there. I still bore the imprint of the sliced and diced mole on my back and had it covered with a bandage during the trip. Darla cleaned it and scraped it a little harder than I thought she needed to each night. I did spend a good portion of the trip on the dock reading or on the boat (while it was moored) sleeping, but Darla made sure that I was appropriately lubed and SPF'ed before I let my fresh meat out into the sunlight. Darla's parents came along on the trip, but arrived a day late and left on Wednesday.

Earl and Frances suffered a loss on their home during the fires. They were evacuated twice from their home because of the fire and on their last evacuation, a pipe burst in the inside atrium of their home and water poured throughout the house and downstairs and finally out of the garage. Someone finally noticed it and got the water shut off, but the inside of their home is a mess. The firefighters pulled back the carpets and pushed all of their furnishings to one side of each room and Frances was rather exercised looking at the mess that was her home. Earl has met with the contractors and they are in the process of pulling the old floor coverings and doing repairs to the sheetrock and baseboards. They are rebuilding the house to eliminate the atrium and make that area a small office.

Daniel came up with us from Saturday until just Monday as he has a job working in a warehouse testing and then packaging the credit card swipe machines. His job pays really well, but will end on July 31st as the contract will be fulfilled by then. He may have a chance to continue with them beyond that if they get another contract, but perhaps not. He works from 3 PM to midnight daily.

David has left his job at the engineering firm and plans to do some traveling this Summer. He will leave for Montana and a visit with aunts, uncles and cousins on Friday after the funeral. They have a backpacking trip in Montana planned leaving on Sunday. He will stay about two weeks and then will drive north to Canada and a visit with Dad and Shirley. I think Dad will be amazed at David's maturity and depth of character as they visit together. David is a 21 year old that will make it well in life. He has a great foundation in the Lord and a good work ethic, both are things that are sorely missing in today's generation and highly sought after by employers. His coworkers at Haulsten took David to lunch on his last day and presented him with a steel holder for his architectural drawings. David has spent the last three years designing docks, gangways and metal walkways and awnings and the holder was built out of the material used as the undercarriage of the walkways. It is about 2 cubic feet in total size and probably weighs twenty pounds. They will miss him and I think he will miss the job. He knows that they will welcome him back next Summer, but he wants to perhaps branch out and work with a different architectural firm or engineering company in the San Luis Obispo area next year.

I got home from Almanor and in the mail waiting for me were the results from the biopsy and I have (or had at this point) a basil cell carcinoma on my back. They had me scheduled for electrosurgery at 11:15 AM today at the dermatology clinic. I wanted to reschedule as the timing is terrible for me just coming off vacation, but Darla put her foot down and said, "I don't think so, bucko!" I went on the internet and googled basil cell carcinoma and after experiencing far too many pictures of bleeding moles and red rimmed protrusions on faces and necks, heads, arms, backs and shoulders, I found out that basil cell is the most common form of skin cancer with over 500,000 cases handled each year and also is not a melanoma, which is the cancer that lead to Mom's premature death. I went into the office this morning and got the call from Darla about Andy. I then worked until 10:45, eating three turkey tacos about ten thirty to ward off the possible fainting spells that come with loss of blood. The procedure was mostly benign (good word, eh?) with the most pain coming from the sting of the shots into my back. The doctor scraped and branded my back with an electric prod, burning the skin and cauterizing the cancerous cells. There is nothing quite as exciting as the smell of your own flesh burning..sort of like chicken. I will go back to the dermatologist in six months to make sure the cancer is gonzo, but this procedure takes care of over 95% of the cases, so I feel good about my prognosis.

I did play golf in Almanor at the Bailey Creek resort course, playing as part of a six man group and shooting the low score of 84. It is a tough course with a lot of sand, water and hills. Darla got home this weekend and hosted a jewelry party and kicked me out of the house. I went over to Diamond Oaks and hooked up with two other singles who I spent the round trying to get them to join our club. I managed to shoot 40+38=78 for my best round in a couple of months. It was a great day with temperatures in the low eighties and no smoke in the air. It was nice to shoot a good score and be striking the ball so well. I finished with four pars and a bogey for the 38 on the back side.

Jennifer and John will likely be in their new home this weekend. They are approved and the holdup has been some repairs on the home. They have a freon leak in the a/c (that's BIG in Las Vegas) and that is scheduled to be fixed this week. They also have a portion of the roof that is damaged and needs to be repaired. Right now the escrow is being held up and they finally agreed to move forward with money for the repairs held out of the loan amount until the repairs are complete. John should sign on the house this week and they plan to move in over the weekend. Jennifer is very excited.

Darla and I have booked flights to Vegas arriving on Jennifer's birthday, August 28th, and staying over the Labor Day weekend and arriving back home on the 2nd of September. I really need to get my Samantha fix and look forward to seeing the kid's house and having Jennifer show me around her workplace. Jenn is working with the union and doing electrical wiring on the new civic center in Vegas located just off the strip. Her team works in a basement area and she has several apprentices working for her. John plans to also join the union and work on the civic center after they close on the house. His job has slowed way down as he is working on entertainment centers and home theaters in upper scale homes. He can come into the union at a team leader level and make some good money. Jennifer enjoys what she is doing and doesn't want to work on John's team. Good call, baby girl. I'd leave Darla off my work team as well. It gives us something to talk about at night instead of our combined work.

Well, that is it for now. We'll be off to a funeral on Friday and I'll touch base with my satellite office in Modesto after that. Take care and be well. Ciao.

Vacation, Smoky skies and Skin Cancer

Quite a title, eh? Darla noticed an odd skin growth on my back while we were in Mexico. I set up an appointment with my physician and she took one look and sent me to a dermatologist. That scared me a little bit with what happened to Mom. I went to the dermatologist on Thursday afternoon and he immediately did a shave biopsy, where they numb the area and cut it even with your skin line with a razor blade. I bled like a stuck pig and then started to shake and almost passed out. The nurse said my face went white as a sheet. They brought me some cranberry juice and I was fine five minutes later. I was sweating like a teenager on his first date and clammy hot. It didn't help that our air in Sacramento is smoke filled from all of the fires in our state and it was 108 degrees on Thursday. I will get the results next week, but the doctor confirmed that it is skin cancer and he may need me to come back in and do a "scrape" of the area. I had only eaten a tuna fish sandwich all day and that likely compounded my problem with fainting. I'll make sure I have a rib eye or something if I have to go back for the scrape, which really doesn't sound too pleasant, does it?

We are off to Almanor tomorrow and have to drive about 90 minutes out of our way to get around all of the wildland fires. There are still over 300 fires burning in our state. Some have suggested that the fires are because the state allowed gay marriages effective July 1st, but I have a merciful, gracious God and He wouldn't punish innocent homeowners because gays want to get married in this goofball state of ours. We will drive up to Truckee and then take Highway 89 across the top of the Sierras to Lake Almanor. The 3.5 hour drive will be closer to 5 hours tomorrow.

Well that's it for now. I'll add more next weekend after our trip. Ciao.

I can't get used to working..we're going back on Vacation

Yes. Believe it or not, we leave for a week up in Lake Almanor next week. The fires right now are threatening the trip as Highway 70, the Feather River Highway, is closed due to remnants of the fire having caused a weakening of the hills next to the roadway and the potential for rockslides. Cal Trans is working on the problem and hope to have it fixed soon. We will take the jet ski with us, but I told the boys that I will pay for the first tank of gas (about $175 for the tank and two five gallon containers of gas) and they are on their own after that. David has more money than the local government and Daniel seems terminally incapable of finding a job.

Darla's grandpa, Andy, is doing amazingly well after his accident. He is out of his medically induced coma, has been on his feet and is out of the woods medically speaking. He still hasn't seen his wife, Liz, as she is in a care facility after the accident. Darla has been to Modesto several times to see both Andy and Liz and they are both doing miraculously well. He wants to go home, but I'm not sure either of them will ever be able to return to their little home at the retirement facility. It is more than likely that they will require a convalescent facility with 24 hour care.

The other picture is of the back yard. The cement stain that I put down several months ago was beginning to wear out in spots as I didn't seal it. I sealed the stain last year with a solvent based sealer and it turned out terrible. I talked to the rep at the Spec West facility (they specialize in concrete applications and products) and he said that I should try a water based sealer, but that he only had 5 gallon pails in the store at $106. I went to Home Depot and got three gallons of the Behr "wet look" water based cement sealer and it worked like a charm. It gives the stain a "wet" look and seals it from water and the elements. It even has a UV blocker and is supposed to last for two years. I own stock in the parent of Behr, MASCO products. They also have Delta faucets, Kraftmaid cabinets, Millgard windows, Liberty Hardware, Arrow Fasteners, American Shower and Bath, and Cobra Products, among many others. Buying Masco was like diversifying into the entire Home Improvement products industry.

You can also see the ground cover around the pool that has grown unbelievable this Spring and Summer. The ground cover has grown as high as two feet in some areas and I have to be constantly pruning it. It has little red flowers on it and the bees come from miles around to taste the nectar. You can also see a little white planter full of the red plants that used to grow in front of the pool. Those plants died off in the winter, but we still get hundreds of little volunteers sprouting up in the ground cover and I decided to plant some of them to see if they would grow and amazingly, they did.

Darla and I were up early this morning for church, but the boys played the part of heathens and slept in until noon. I have trouble praising that sort of laziness and just shake my head when they finally stumble out of bed and look to their Mom for food. The sermon this morning was about Faith and Hope, the crux being that without a faith in God there is no Hope. Christians are often criticized, but materialists who live just for today are dead inside. There is no hope for the future, because there is no future. Sad isn't it?

I played golf yesterday at Cherry Island and shot 42+41=83, a frustrating round that could have been much worse save for about four putts that I made of over 20 feet. I have several golf excursions planned for this year including Monterey in August, the Serrano Country Club three day invitational in September, the NCGA second round qualifier that I play in August 21, a President's NCGA meeting and golf outing at Catta Vadera CC August 18th, and then the coup de grace, a three day outing to Bandon Dunes on the coast in Bandon, Oregon the first week in October. The three Bandon courses are all rated in the top fifty course in the United States. My golf tour of the United States continues. Next year: Myrtle Beach?

We had so much fun in Mexico this year. I really hope we can get Darryl and Cheryl, Randy and Cake, and Dad and Shirley to join us next Fall. The Nicklaus redesign will be done and we can play golf and relax in paradise. We talked about doing it this year, but couldn't get a commitment. What is it we all work for, but vacation and relaxing. I know that Darla and I will be back and hope you can all work it out in your schedules as well.

Little Samantha continues to grow and prosper. She is now crawling and watching her on the Skype is more of a challenge as she toddles to and fro in and out of the camera range. She is adorable. Jen put her in a baby "jump up" that hangs from the door jamb and Samantha was kicking and jumping like a jumping bean. There is a reason that babies are born to younger women as we watched Jennifer chase her down and bring her back to the camera. Jennifer and John will close on their house this week and hopefully be moving in next weekend. Darla and I will be there in August to see them and celebrate Jennifer's birthday. We are looking at being there perhaps the 14th - 18th, so if Dad and Shirley want to plan a Vegas outing near then, we will be in town.

Well, again, we will be in Almanor next week, but I will try to get to the blog sometime during that week. Be happy and content in your lives. Ciao.