Summer arrives with a BANG

6:15 PM

109 degrees officially, but it was 118 degrees on my car thermometer when I left the Golf course today and it only cooled to 113 degrees by the time I got home. The 118 degrees was the temperature on the hot pavement of the parking lot, but it didn't cool dramatically on the drive home. The pool is at 86 degrees and we need some relief. It was 103 degrees yesterday and we had Darla sister, her boyfriend and Darla's Mom and Dad over for a swim party and tri tip on the grill. We ate outside and thank God we have the new canvas and metal gazebo with zippered netting on all sides. It was hot when we ate at 6:30, but we didn't have bugs and we all sat in wet swimsuits and enjoyed the dinner before hopping back in the pool afterward. So, this is what it feels like to live in Vegas, eh, Jen?

Golf today was absolutely brutal. I walked the course against Darla's better judgement that I should have taken a cart. I haven't been walking at night lately with Darla's broken foot and I'm getting a little soft around the edges. I think I lost about five pounds in water weight today. I played really well on the front side while I was fresh, but withered down the stretch and shot 38+42=80, a net 71. We endured playing behind one of the slowest members in the club and he exacerbated his reputation with a 13 on a par five. He was lining up his putt for 13 like it was the last hole of the US Open. We were hooting at him. I had about 215 yards into the hole after a great drive and came up just short of the green after waiting about ten minutes to hit the shot. I hit a nice chip and had a tap in for birdie, but I'm a tempo golfer and don't do well with waiting. I did pick up two strokes on my Eclectic score ( the year long tournament that keeps track of your best score on each hole) and I'm now at 32+34=66 on the year. I was so hot when we finished the round that my clothes were absolutely soaked through. There was very little breeze on the course. I guess I'm out of shape, because Bob walked the course as well and shot a 33 on the back side for a 73. I will play golf on Friday morning at 7:30 (the July 3rd holiday) and again at 7:40 AM on Saturday.

Darla is inches away from winning her trip to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico in January of next year. She needed $5,000 in sales as of last week (it includes her whole team of 20 reps) and she is right at the finish line with two days left. I'm excited about this trip as it is at an all inclusive resort in Riviera Maya and that includes all drinks, food, golf, massages, activities, etc. Last year there were over 550 reps at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas and as of last week only 205 reps had qualified for Mexico. Darla said , "Make that 206" as she says she is in. The only problem I have with the trips is the amount of vacation we get. I want to spend time in Las Vegas with Jennifer and Samantha, we take our yearly trip to Nuevo Vallarta, have another week of time share time each year (one in Puerto Vallarta and one in Hawaii every other year), plus we take the annual trip to Lake Almanor that comes up July 11th - 18th this year. I only get three weeks of vacation plus another week of sick time. I guess it is a good problem to have, eh? I'm proud of her. What pushed her over the top was her last push sale, which if you look at the picture of her on her scooter was called "Boot scootin' savings!" She has a scooter and is in a walking boot. We've invited Jennifer and Samantha to join us for part of the trip to Almanor this year.

8:45PM

I just got out of the pool. I washed the 300 and was dripping wet when I finished and not from the hose, so dove in the pool and cooled off. It is supposed to get down to 85 degrees at midnight tonight and down to about 70 degrees at 4 AM (About Vancouver's high temperature yesterday). It looks like the heat wave will break on Tuesday with a forecast high of 96 degrees and an overnight low of 63 degrees. Nice.

Our computer printer went out this week and I scoured the repair blogs and the Epson site to find a fix. The printer shut down and has an error message saying "Take in for Service." What I can tell from the blogs is that there is an ink overflow pad that gets full and needs to be replaced. I called around and everyone wants $100 minimum to service the machine. Epson said we could ship it to them and they'd do it for $35. I said, "bunk" and ordered a new HP Wireless All-in-one Printer on Amazon for $99, no tax and no shipping cost. the advantage with this is that Darla's HP laptop will be able to print as well. She is forever sending work items to my e-mail to print. Now, she will be able to print from the living room and I can still print from my desktop computer, which also happens to be an HP.

July 4th is around the corner. We have been invited out boating on Friday with Alicia and Don and I will rush back from golf for a day on the lake. I hope you are all well. The speaker, Vince Antonucci, was great today at church as advertised and we encourage Jennifer to try out his church in las Vegas. I hope you are all well, hale and hearty. Ciao.