A hard day with a soft landing

Dear Family and Friends,
This has been one of those intense days which I consider a measure of whether I still have it or not.  I do.

This morning at 6 the alarm beckoned, I responded by asking for another hour and rolled out at 7.  Then it was into the tennis shoes, a gift from Nikki and Steve at Christmas, and onto the treadmill.  The program gives me 30 minutes of a pretty good workout with elevations of up to step 5 and speeds up to 3.4 miles an hour.  I use up about 167 calories and the heart rate gets up to 150 but is mostly 112 or so.  What a change takes place from when I stumble onto the machine and when I step off.  I go from cold to warm, from sleepy to alert and ready.

After a quick shower I went down to have a special K breakfast with soy milk.  Then I worked for a bit before leaving to meet Steve at a place at 9:30 locally.  We worked that one and then split up, he to breakfast and I to Antioch for a 10:30 appointment.  Then back to Brentwood for a noon appointment.  The guy started out grumpy but we parted friends, in fact he followed me to my car and talked through the window for a long time.  His wife of 53 years is in the hospital once again and not doing well, he is lonely, scared and filled with angst.

Once I was through there I found a Starbucks as my blood sugar was really low, as I eat less the blood sugar is dropping more and more.  That little drink got me to a new store, Fresh and Easy, a cute little store with lots of good choices of fruits and veges.

Once I got home I waded back into an appraisal but had to leave for Manteca at 4:30.  What a joy it was to meet the people.  Just transferred to Dallas they are hoping for more value than is probably possible, its been that way all day.  Do you know values are the worst I've ever seen right now in nearly every market, the worst in 24 years!  So I tend to break hearts every day with nearly every appraisal, but I'm not paid to be nice, or please people, I'm paid to prove a point, what is the house worth on the day I see it and I base my opinion on what other people have paid recently for their homes nearby.  Its not a perfect science but as close as we can get to solving the riddle of value.

Now I'm home and heading for bed.  So tired. Oh by the way I had enough calories left to dine at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Stockton tonight, of course with the ice cream and salad and bread I'm now over a couple hundred calories but the last two days I've had a hundred or more calories left each day.  The food was great.  I had the senior portion of whole wheat pasta, very enjoyable without stuffing myself.  Oh the bread was good, warm and melted in my mouth.  Wow!

So good night one and all, Jason and Jo are still in the air on a KLM flight to Spain and Nikki is safely tucked into a hotel near Disneyland tonight. 

Love to all,

Tim