Catching Up

Getting caught up on the blog from Christmas, New Years and Shirley's 80th Birthday Cruise. Darla said that I am OCD and I'm turning over a new leaf. I will work on the blog perhaps monthly, but will not let it control my life. I thought I was just disciplined, she thought I was obsessed. I'm also taking a break from golf (Hell, it's cold outside). The word of the year is "discipline" (and self-control). I get kidded by the kids because the beer in my fridge is always months old and I decided also to purge the house of all liquor in a quest for discipline. I only drink when we have guests here as Darla doesn't drink, so decided to clear out my liquor supply, It was hard to do, but I never drink it.

I started the backing off of liquor on the cruise. I didn't want to drink just because we had the drink package. My brothers looked at me like I had two heads, but my mouth is less controlled when I drink and I just want to practice discipline and self control in my life.

The cruise was a lot of fun. Seeing everyone including Cam and Sherry's kids was great. There were 22 of us on the cruise and we had cabins side by each (as the Canadians would say). Darla and I took a separate trip just by ourselves in Mazatlán and cabbed over to the Gold Zone and had a nice spot on the beach in front of a 4 star hotel. It was nice and Darla get a massage right on the beach.

It was especially nice to spend time with Wayne and Marilyn, who we have dubbed the fourth brother and his wife. I know they had a great time and the highlight of the cruise for Darla and I was the day we spent with Wayne, Marilyn, Randy and Cake in Puerto Vallarta. Great memories and a lot of laughs.

We had a nice quiet Christmas as both Darla and I returned home from the cruise with colds. I had it bad over the weekend with a sore throat and decongestion. Darla caught it Monday and we were both down for Christmas. We just spent the day alone as we were supposed to go to Don and Alicia's, but did not want to get the family sick. We did got to Dan and Becky's on Christmas Eve for a seafood boil, complete with crab, shrimp, crawdads, corn cob, sausage and cornbread. It was unique and interesting and after all of the pomp and circumstance of knives, forks and plates on the cruise the barbarism was a nice touch, We played games after dinner and tried not to sneeze on anyone.

New Years Eve was spent with the kids and Darla cooked a huge meal of Chinese food for our Chinese New Year. She fixed sweet and sour pork, Cashew chicken, Mongolian beef, won ton soup, lettuce wraps, pork fried rice and white rice. It took her all day to prepare for the dinner, but somehow she managed to pick up a new King sized bed to house the King mattress and box springs we got from Vance and TerraLee. I was home for lunch and saw the bed set up on the neighbor's yard with a price of $100. It is a nice Cherrywood and we now have room fir Samson to come up and visit in the morning. He still sleeps in his canvas crate at night.

New Years Day we went to a new restaurant in the Downtown Commons, Echo and Rig, and had a great meal with Charlie an Freida. We then went to the Kings game at Golden 1 Center which is located right next to Echo and Rig. Well, that's it for this epistle. I will be back in February with tales of my golf trip to Scottsdale and visits with Jimmy Walker and Webb Simpson. Ciao for now.

Thanksgiving 2018

It is that time of year again for leaves and clogging downspouts. I had both in spades after the first real storm of the season. We had heavy rain and wind on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a second round due in on Tuesday thru Thursday of this week. The rain and wind absolutely inundated my yard with leaves and you can see the huge pile of leaves that encircle my home above. The city of Roseville will be out tomorrow with a truck and a loader and they will have the entire pile cleared up. They do a great job here in Roseville cleaning up leaves in the neighborhoods that border the city parks.

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving holiday with dinner at Don and Alicia's on Thanksgiving and I was able to enjoy the Cowboy win on tape delay after lunch. We played cards and had a fun afternoon Dan came for lunch and David and Miya came for dessert. It was a fun visit with family.

Earl and Frances have moved their RV to the Elks Lodge here in Roseville and we had dinner out with them on Wednesday night at El Azteca, our local Mexican food taqueria. Earl has 100 questions for me on his homeowners policy and it takes me back to my Continuing Education classes. I have told them to save all of their receipts, including food and clothes, PO Box, gas, mileage, etc. He is such a good Christian man and says "I'd have to eat anyhow." True, but you wouldn't have to go out to dinner and you have groceries in your house. They had really bad cell service and wifi up in North Chico and decided to move closer to family as they await the word on when they can re enter the Paradise area. It is closed to everyone but emergency workers, Insurance adjusters, PG&E crews and first responders.

Darla and I went out to lunch on Friday and I spent some of the afternoon clearing the gutters and downspouts which were all clogged. We have the gutter covers, which are screens that stretch over the gutter tops. The problem is that small leaves and debris still get into the gutter and the downspouts end up clogged and overflowing. I fixed the first three with no issues. The final downspout was clogged, not at the opening of the downspout but actually within the downspout and I had to disassemble the downspout and damaged the sleeve that drops through the three inch hole into the downspout itself. I jerry-rigged it back together, but need to stop at the hardware store and pick up a replacement.

Saturday was "leave" day as I worked for about three hours picking the leaves out of the bushes and raking them off the driveway and lawn. I got them all piled up and then spent another hour on the back yard cleaning up leaves and cleaning the pool. Darla and I spent Saturday early evening at church and then went out to dinner afterward. We were seated in the bar area and basically forgotten. It was terrible service and we both were frustrated with empty drink glasses and they didn't bring our appetizer until after the main meal was served. It was a disaster and I wrote a nice note to the owner and told him his new bartender is useless.

Today, I played golf and struggled in the cold and wet conditions just breaking 90. Ron shot 93, his friend 102 and Paul shot a stellar 78. The sun broke out after the front nine and we enjoyed the weather and fellowship, if not the golf. I came over and took Samson to the park and had him on his leash as their were other dogs in the park, He wanted to go visit them and took off at a full run when I had stopped and my feet flew out from under me on the wet grass and I landed on my tail bone. He was pulling me and I had to yank back to get him to stop as I rolled around on my back like a turtle out of his shell.

Darla came back from her errands and we had a turkey in the oven. Charlie and Freida joined us for dinner. Daniel and Becky came by to visit before dinner, but had been visiting with Becky's folk who rented a house up in Camino. The family went to the Indian Casino nearby and enjoyed the all you can eat buffet about 2, so were not up for an early dinner at 4:30, so said their goodbyes and headed home.

Well, that is the news that is fit to print for this epistle. I will sign back on in the coming weeks and let you know what we have been up to. I hope you are all well and look forward to seeing the family on the upcoming cruise to Mexico. Ciao.