A Great Sabbath

Dear Family and Friends,

Except for it being nearly 70 degrees today, just too warm for comfort this time of year, this has been a really good day.

Rolled out at 6:45, hit the shower in a very cold room but the chill was gone due to the little heater doing its job once the shower was over.

Built a fire using wood that Steve cut up into small pieces.  It quickly helped knock off the 58 degree chill in the family room.  Had a delicious breakfast and then drove to the kids to pick up the girls.  They had not eaten breakfast but were dressed and after some hair brushing they took food for the road.

Angel was the teacher today as Kim was vacationing somewhere.  There were just two girls, her daughter and Kallie and both were wired but Angel did a really good job with them and used her IPOD to play music for the songs, very clever.  Jackie arrived just as SS was over but caught some snacks.

Then we did a variety of things the girls wanted to do which included stops at WalMart, the Dollar store and Strings where we met Nikki for lunch.  At that point I lost the girls as they had a party to attend later in the day.  I drove home with a very quiet car.

Not wanting to just sleep the day away I watched some Christian dish programs and then using the wheel barrow loaded up all the wood that Steve had cut up for me to use to start fires.  The back of Jason's Subaru was full.  Two wheel barrow loads later it was all on the back porch in the wood holder and covered.

Since I was outside I decided to see how hard it was to install the new hatch struts for the back of the VW.  I went online and found the cheat sheet, it was easy!  So went and tried and 5 minutes later I had both new ones installed and the hatch works perfectly now.  It even releases when the button on the door is pushed and opens easily.  You would not believe how big the box they used for shipping, it was huge and filled with those silly little air pillows.  Oh well its all in the blue recycle bin now. 

As the sun was setting I noticed the rims on Jason's Subaru, they had not come clean when I had the car washed.  In fact they looked terrible.  I filled a bucked with soapy water, grabbed a brush and sponge and gave each wheel some attention.  While its not perfect it is certainly much better now and the car actually looks respectable.  Kind of fun to try to do little things to help your kids no matter how old they are.

This evening I went online and found lift struts for Jason's Odyssey, his struts have totally failed as well.  So I ordered them and when they arrive I'll see if they install as easy on his van as my car was.

I found that failure of the struts to be really dangerous as it was hard to hold the hatch open and get my ladder out at the same time especially with a right arm that suffers from tennis elbow.  So now I feel much better about the bug and the hatch.

This evening after having dinner at the local BJs at the Streets of Brentwood, our local fresh air mall I happened to come across great performances on KQED.  It was a performance of Phantom of the Opera that was held recently in the Royal Theatre in London and it was incredible.  Wonderfully staged with a top flight orchestra, beautiful costumes and outstanding singers it was a very enjoyable way to end the day.  I turned on the receiver which gave me four more Bose speakers and the sound and picture were just perfect.  How well I remember when we flew to LA and took Jason and Nikki to see the Phantom in the Dorothy Chandler, we all loved it, had great seats and have never forgotten it.  In a very ordinary life there are spots of art, music, beauty that just make everything worth living through.  Need more special times and less ordinary times.

I don't know about you but I really don't care much for 2013 but I have high hopes for 2014 for me personally and for my delightful family.  Mine will involved more gym time, more careful selection of what to eat and when and a taking control of the way I live.

Sending love to all,


So good to see friends at church today, precious people every one.

Tim