Low Key day

Dear Family and Friends,

This evening is a quiet backdrop to a busy day writing reports, touching up the house a bit with the vacuum, giving my bedroom linen  a complete wash and trying to figure out how to dump weight.

I didn't get up early today, felt with the lingering illness still very much with me I needed rest, its was great.

This afternoon I got to drive about 3 blocks down Willow Lake Road to inspect a home, nice to be so close.  It is a clean nice house that backs to the same lake I live on, Willow Lake.  The entire family was engaged in doing hobbies and it was just nice to see them at leisure.

I've just come from Safeway, seems like there is always something I'm missing.  So now I have water bottle for the girls, Starbucks Mochas for me, fresh tomatoes and sandwich bags.  Things one needs as life moves along.

All through this winter I've managed to stay busy and as I've been busy I've continued to learn how to do a better job of writing up these reports.  No resting on ones laurels here, have to keep learning how to make the case better with more evidence.  For anyone thinking that joining this profession means easy money they really need to keep looking and looking.  Yet for one who knows the trade and is in it this can be a worthwhile profession, I'm always grateful to Howard and Dolly who taught both Nan and me years ago how to do appraisals.  They were incredible teachers, kind, professional and great friends too.  It was great working with Larry Seyfang, Bart and Julie and others as we all learned more and more.

This evening I'm working on a report that is for a home here in Discovery Bay, its a large house and there are very few sales to make the case so its an adventure like usual.

I am so enjoying having the black bug back in service.  The new radio that Steve installed is really amazing, it has beautiful sound, grabs distant stations, plays CDs perfectly and even has XM that shows the stations on its dial.  For me where daily life is pretty mundane having the newer washer and dryer or now this new stereo in the bug is a big deal.  I am so thankful for the basics of life and for these extra's that come along.  It has been a long process of reclaiming my life after losing Nan.  She was the incredible glue that held our world together, so capable, so fun loving, so trustworthy and so exciting all the time, great food, great companionship, great travel partner, super mother and loving wife.  I am very thankful for God granted me in spite of my many mistakes along the way.

Now I look forward to the next chapter.  I hope to meet with my friend Ron this week, Ron has taken control of his life and changed from being 280 to about 1/2 that now.  He is a very bright guy, practical and I hope to glean some insights from him before the week is over.  He is a long time friend from church and someone I admire very much, one of those totally good guys!

So I'm sending love to all this evening,

I'm so thankful for every member of my immediate family, everyone is precious and adds so much to the total family.  What a huge blessing our families are to us.

Tim