Nice Relaxing Weekend

Temperatures in the mid nineties, but cool overnight and in the early morning. The overnight low in the upper fifties is great sleeping weather and I actually wore a jacket when I teed off at 6:25 on Saturday. This is often the "Dog days of Summer" and the beginning of "Hot August Nights", but we have been lucky this Summer with relatively mild weather. We had two heat waves that came and went. There is a possibility that we will move back to the 100's next weekend, but initially the heat was moving in mid week and that has been pushed back, so we'll see. Darla and I have been enjoying the warm days in our pool with cold drinks and water lounges.

I spent today thinning out the ground cover and plantings around the pool, cutting back the agapanthas and fertilizing and watering all of the plants. I also drained the spa into the pool and put fresh water into the spa and did the chemicals for both. The African daisies that are so beautiful in the Spring with their vibrant purple blooms, get heat stressed and weary in the Summer and need to be pruned back and thinned out. I removed some of the dead and dying plants and hopefully with the fertilizer and thinning, they will get a second life this Summer. Those plants will come back in the Fall and give us another burst of color before going dormant in the Winter.

I played golf on Thursday with our local US Reports representative. Us Reports is a Burns and Wilcox sister company, also owned by Kaufman Enterprises. Aaron took Peter and I out to Morgan Creek Country Club and we had one of Pete's agent's, Phil join us. Aaron played one year of college golf and shot a 77 using nothing but a five iron to tee off with. I can see why he only played one year with his driver issues, but it was impressive to see a 5over with irons off the tee. I struggled and shot 43+41=84, but had a great time. That course is so nice and well maintained. I then went home, did some work from the house and played in my twilight league and shot 39. Steve and I are in first place among the 18 teams in the league. It is close and we will have to continue to play well to stay where we are.

The Olympics are in full swing and I think I've spent a total of about thirty minutes watching the event. I think I've grown tired of the whole spectacle. I know Dad and Shirley loved the Vancouver Olympics and it was civic pride, but the whole overblown opening ceremonies where they try to showcase how savvy they can be in making the crowd turn into a big TV screen is embarrassing. I saw some scene of a bunch of kids in their pajamas singing with Mary Poppins-looking women flying in the sky and turned over to a tivo'd episode of 20-20 and was eminently more entertained. I guess it is fun for some people, but I don't need to see Eskimos singing or nannies dancing. What does any of that have to do with sporting excellence? If they want to showcase London, show bad teeth and an outdated monarchy system that has been usurped by Parliament. Also, what is with NBC tape delaying Michael Phelps first medal attempt on Saturday? Did they honestly think that anyone interested would not look at the internet or ESPN to see who won? Very strange decision making by the number three network. I will catch bits and pieces of this Olympics, but there is absolutely nothing compelling to me about the games this time around.

Darla and I had dinner with Neil and Lilly last night at Sabores restaurant in Roseville. They only have a beer and wine license and both Neil and Lilly love margaritas. Thgey were already seated when we got there and Neil was drinking a diet coke. Darla and I had a diet coke and iced tea respectively, but Lilly was only drinking water. The servers kept coming by and asking her if she wanted anything and I think it irritated her. Finally on about the third time they asked, she said, "yeah, I'd like a shot of tequila!" A few minutes later the waitress returned with a shot glass filled with Los Cabos tequila. When I asked how they had tequila, she answered that they make wine margaritas. Huh? I think she poured a shot of the bootleg tequila that the boss keeps in the cupboard. We had a good laugh over that. They leave Wednesday for Eugene and will be in Seattle on Thursday and Surrey on Friday. Dad and Shirley will have lunch ready for them and they will go out and see (I'm guessing here) Fort Langley and White Rock Friday afternoon. They also have a car show on Saturday and Neil has already been drafted to drive the '39 over the the park. He is REALLY excited about being not only at a car show, but part of the show itself. I'm sure he and Dad will have a ball together and dad will introduce him to all of his buddies in the BC Hot rod club. They will be there over the weekend and I think Neil plans an afternoon trip Sunday up to Whistler. I know that Dad and Shirley have tickets to Yanni on Sunday night.

Well, some good news on the job front for the boys in that Daniel has landed not one, but two jobs. He will be working with a civil engineer from Lafayette doing some piece work for her. This will be part time. Daniel also got a job at Kohl's department store and will be working in sales. Congratulations to him.  David continues on the hunt.

I did also play golf on Saturday and we once again enjoyed Power Hour, the first hour of tee times in the morning that are $30 with a cart. I shot 40+43=83 on Saturday. We will play Power Hour again on Saturday and then I have a tournament at Diamond Oaks on Sunday. Darla had a retirement jewelry party on Saturday from 10-12 at the house, so I stayed a little late at the course and enjoyed a meal of pulled  pork and cole slaw sandwich and a beer. I got back right before noon to a houseful of women frantically shopping over the racks of jewelry in our living room. Shawna, my assistant, was there as well and freaked out because she had come straight over from yoga and I saw her. Darla made her feel better by letting her know that I hadn't showered before golf that morning.Thanks, hon.

Boyd made it out for golf in spite of some problems at home where his ex daughter in law had committed suicide and left her kids behind. His son is single and it will be a hardship for him to do on his own. Boyd and his wife will end up having to pick up the pieces for him. His wife insisted he get out of the house and play golf on Saturday.

We have made our reservations for Vegas and I will miss the Club Championship this year. We fly out August 24th and will stay at the Circus Circus in Vegas for three nights. We got a Southwest vacation deal for the flights, room, resort credit of $50 and a rental car for $700. Sam will like us staying at the Circus Circus and we will take her down to see the circus acts. We can also take her over to the amusement park as well. we look forward to seeing them and really missed Samantha at Almanor this year.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope everyone is doing well. I was happy to see the blog top 10,000 hits this week. I have been doing this for thirteen years now and what is more amazing to me is that we have been without Mom and Gramp Lyon for that amount of time. Hard to believe. Be good. Ciao.