Post Thanksgiving Meanderings

No, We aren't in Mexico anymore, Dorothy! You can see above the freak storm that hit Roseville and Northern California on the Friday after Thanksgiving and completely upended my golf plans for the weekend. The white is not snow, but hail that fell Friday afternoon. The hail clogged the downspouts and caused the torrent of rain water that you see outside my back door looking out to the pool (double click on that picture and you can see the size of the hail stones raining down). That storm quickly moved out and was followed by an area of high pressure that brought with it winds up to 40 MPH on Saturday. Two of the three players in my foursome called to cancel Saturday morning and I called the fourth and he was on the fence. We were traveling 45 miles to Rio Vista to play the Trilogy course there where winds were gusting up to 60 MPH. We both reluctantly agreed to fore go the golf.

By the way, my car was left out Friday afternoon after Darla and I returned from a trip to the theater and a screening of the Sandra Bullock film, The Blind Side. It is a tremendous film with humor and tragedy and a heartwarming ending. I highly recommend it for a wet afternoon. Sandra Bullock will likely at least be nominated for an Academy Award for her strong performance in the film. The rain was supposed to pass on by about 4 PM and it did, but hail followed and then even stronger rain and I had to brave the onslaught to run out and retrieve my car from the hailstorm.

The boys were home for Thanksgiving, if only briefly. They arrived home late Wednesday night and were headed back to Cal Poly by Saturday afternoon as David is working on a project that is due next week. Daniel hopes to graduate by a year from June and David will still have two years left on his 5 year degree in Architecture. David won't graduate until he is 24. He got a little sideways on his credits for Cal Poly coming out of Junior College and is on the 6 year plan for college. It took me 5 years, but there has been inflation since 1980. Daniel went straight into Cal Poly out of high school and has strong plans to graduate on time. His girlfriend, Becky, will graduate this Summer and is looking at graduate schools now.

We spent thanksgiving with Darla's sister, Alicia, and her fiance, Don's home in Folsom. The boys were with us and their cousins, Shae and Taylor came into town from Willits, arriving late and being the first to leave. Shae works for AT&T at a phone store and had to work Black Friday early. It was a nice visit. Don and Alicia will marry in January and they have a baby due in late May. We had a good time, eating, watching football and playing the card game 3-13.

I did receive my payment from United Airlines for my golf clubs and they made me whole. I had a couple of items that I didn't have receipts for, so they dropped those to $100 each, but I am able to replace the set and was very pleased with the speed and sensitivity that United exhibited in the claims process. They were very apologetic for our inconvenience and even gave us a $150 credit for future travel.

Unfortunately, I also lost my i-phone on the Saturday before we left for Mexico and it was never recovered. I had it in my golf cart and it was gone when I finished the round. We stopped for drinks at the turn and someone must have seen it and grabbed it. I shut it down immediately, but the phone was lost. The i-phone does not have insurance if it is lost or stolen unlike other cell phones, so I had to eat the loss. I was able to upgrade to a 16GB i-phone on the 3Gs network, but I was out the cost to replace the phone ($300). I will treat this one like the small computer it is and be more careful.

I saw a funny e-mail pass my desk the other day and saved it to add to my blog:

"Something Else to Worry About

Here's my concern...

• 3 years ago, Chinese calendar year of the cow . . .
Mad Cow disease.

• 2 years ago, Chinese calendar year of the bird . . .
Avian flu.

• This year, Chinese calendar year of the pig . . .
Swine flu.

Next year is the year of the cock.

Is anybody else worried?"

I was born in in 1957, the Year of the Cock. (I know, I'm proud.)

I talked to Jennifer on Thanksgiving. Her project at the City Center in Las Vegas is quickly winding down. Jennifer said the Circus Soleil is already practicing for their opening in mid December (it will be an Elvis themed show). She had thought that she would be working all weekend overtime, but her GC called her in Wednesday and told her that he is keeping her on until the end of the project and letting some others go. He was giving the jettisoned workers the option of working overtime for the weekend, so Jennifer was able to drive three hours to Redlands and join her Mom (and Diane's husband) for Thanksgiving at his parent's house. John had Samantha for the weekend and took her to his grandparent's house in California as well. The good news from Jennifer is that on her next project she will be promoted to a foreman position and will direct a crew. Where or when that is is still up in the air, but she should be at City Center until the end of the year. Good for her. She works hard and is good at what she does.

Well, that's it for this week. I was able to make it to church today for the first time in about 6 weeks what with Detroit, golf and vacation. It was nice to be back in our portion of the church. It felt like HOME. You all be well. I hope Thanksgiving was great and that you are all hale and hearty. My tan is quickly fading, like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz. Ciao.