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.
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