Nice Place… and Cold

One day last week Joyce and I drove to Balboa Island and walked the main street. It’s hard to describe Balboa Island. It is part of Newport Beach, a man-modified and man-made island in the harbor. Actually it is three islands. It is mostly residences which are mostly small and mostly in the 2 to 3 million dollar range. There is a two block business district with chic shops, a few eateries, and 4 or 5 real estate offices! Go figure. From the island you can ride the 3-car ferry over to Balboa Peninsula. It has a small Fun Zone, boat tours for whale watching, and lots of really up-scale homes.

Anyway, we walked both sides of the business district, ate lunch and took the ferry over to the peninsula ($3.00 for pickup and two adults). Let me emphasize it was a beautiful, sunny day and not very cold.

I copied this picture from Wikipedia. In the foreground is the mainland of Newport Beach. You can see Balboa Island in the center and the peninsula in the background. Notice the pier at the top. I will post some pictures taken from the pier but I’m not sure if they will be in this post or at the top in another post.

The last time we went up to the kid’s house we drove up Highway 1, known at PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). It was about the same distance as going the freeway but of course took a lot longer. It was an interesting trip going thru all the cities – Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach (notice a theme here?). Some of the way we could actually see the beach, but mostly not. We had lunch at an In-N-Out Burger.

Here is an interesting observation and object lesson. Those of you who have driven the freeways in the Los Angeles area can relate to this. Let me paint a word picture for you if I can. When they built the freeways they poured concrete in “lanes” or “strips” about 12 feet wide. Then, next to that they would pour another lane, then another, and so on. Of course there was a seam or crack where the lanes adjoined each other. The direction of these lanes probably followed where the freeway was going to go – back then. But over time the actual driving lanes were often shifted a little to the left or right and sometimes shifted a lot. The driving lanes are designated by white strips and those little buttons that make your tires go “thump-thump-thump.”

If your eyes get focused on the concrete cracks you can easily wander into someone else’s driving lane and get sideswiped. You always see someone almost do that when the white lines and the concrete cracks have been together for a ways and then suddenly shift away from each other. I have to be very diligent to watch the right thing or I hear “thump-thump-thump” and maybe a car horn.

Here’s the lesson. As you go through life you need to keep your focus on the correct thing or you will find yourself getting sideswiped and maybe disaster will result. You can go along for a long time following the white line but if you aren’t careful your focus slowly goes to the crack. Then the crack takes you away from the white line – “thump-thump-thump.” HONK. Be careful where your focus is.

Here is an interesting PS to this. At night the cracks don’t show up as much but the white line and little bumps reflect your car’s headlights. So it is easier to drive at night. Now, you work that into the object lesson.

Friday was Jeyanthi’s second birthday so her big party was Saturday. I mean BIG party. I think it is really an excuse for the family and friends to get together. We had cupcakes, pizza, salad, pop, a jump house, games, presents, and beautiful weather. Jey held up pretty well, loved the attention and learned to blow out her candles. I think there were 19 children and about that many adults at the party. Full house and yard.

We used this picture in Jey’s invitations.

If you live on the west coast you know about the cold weather. It is cold here, too. Just not as cold as up north. It has been getting down to about 40 at night and up to low 60s or high 50s in the daytime. As soon as the sun goes down, the cold creeps in. It is supposed to warm up by the middle of the week.

Did you hear about the robbery and hostage situation at Nordstrom’s Rack in the Howard Hughes Center? That is about 2 miles from Jana’s house. Friday morning we were going to take a shortcut through the center but police had it all blocked off. It is a Taylor “tradition” to go to Johnny Rockets on a person’s birthday. Since Friday was Jey’s, our plan was to go to the one in the Howard Hughes Center. Nope. The place was still shut down Friday evening. So parents, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa, and Jey ended up at the one in Manhattan Beach.

We brought Lilly back to the RV with us Saturday evening. This was her “special” time with grandma and grandpa. Sunday we attended church at Mariners. It is very large – they claim 9,000 members. They have one Saturday evening service and two Sunday morning services plus a Sunday evening service that is different from the others. I’m not good at judging crowds but I would guess there were 2,000+ at the 11:00 worship we attended. It was a very good worship experience.

In the afternoon we drove to Monrovia to have lunch with Korak, Jana, and Korak’s parents at the Old Spaghetti Factory. We used to occasion to give Lilly back to her parents.

This is our last week in Newport Beach. My next post will be from Tucson – hopefully on time. Blessings

Added Pictures

These pictures go with the blogs below but if I put too much in a post it will not upload at the RV Park. So here are a few random pictures from last couple weeks.

Jeyanthi (Jey for short) at the playground in the RV park.

Evening stroll on the beach with lights reflecting on the water. Some of them are Christmas lights. Notice the full moon! Yes, it was bit chilly!

Walk along the estuary at the Conservation Center.

Eating with the wildlife at the Rainforest Resturant.

Sailor… or maybe a Navy pilot.

Enjoy!

All Smiles

Most of the Christmas decorations are down and the lights are packed away. I guess Christmas is gone and the new year has arrived. So here we go parading off into the future like we know what we are doing.

See. I’m smiling. Actually I have two smiles. Let me tell you about this one first. This is the surprise I mentioned last week.

Do you recognize this place?

Well, Korak called me last Saturday and asked if I wanted to go to the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game. Because he works for the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board he can sometimes land complementary tickets to special events. He had two tickets to each of the above. I thought about it. I’ve been to a couple Rose Parades, I knew it meant getting up at about zero dark thirty, and I knew it would be cold, very cold. But I had never been to a Rose Bowl game and even thought I didn’t really care about Stanford nor Wisconsin, I opted for the latter experience.

It turned out to be a good game and Stanford won. I guess I cheered for them. They had beaten Oregon and if they lost it would make Oregon look worse. Well, having tickets to the game and actually being there are two different things. Here’s what it takes to get there: leave the house at 11:30, drive my pickup to a commuter train station, ride a train to union station, ride another train to another station, ride a third train to close to the Rose Bowl, ride a shuttle bus to the stadium, then walk half way around the stadium to find our seats. As you can see from the picture we were on the 20 yard line and 60 rows up! Not too bad for free seats.

Korak had taken Lilly to the parade (which required the same three trains) and by the time they got back we were running late. We left the house at 11:30 and got to our seats in the stadium at 2:10 – just in time for the kick off! Count the minutes – 160 of them just to get there. Oh sure, we could have driven to the Rose Bowl, been stuck in traffic for hours and paid $40 to park. That didn’t seem like a good idea.

Now to get home. The game is over. We got out of our seats at 5:00. Twenty minutes later we were out of the stadium, looking for the end of the shuttle line. It was miiiiiilllles long. Maybe not quite that far, but it was very long. We opted to skip the shuttle and walk to the train station. I don’t know how long that took but it was a two mile walk. I was proud of myself. I kept up with Korak and made it okay. But it sure was good to sit down. Three more trains, one pickup ride and we were back home -- 8:30. Tired but happy. I got to go to a Rose Bowl game. ☺

Here is the second smile. The University of Oregon Ducks beat the Kansas State Wildcats in the Fiesta Bowl!!! That is football for the uninitiated. It was a great game and Oregon domineered all the way. They played their game, didn’t have any turnovers, made very few mistakes, and simply outplayed Kansas. They made Oregon proud. Can you guess who I was rooting for? I was elated. I was happy. I was smiling.

Later I reflected, but what if they had lost? How would I have felt? I admit I would have been bummed. That led me to wondering, “Am I too emotionally invested in the outcome of a football game?” It is just a game. In reality the results do not really effect my life at all. The outcome has no bearing on how I live. In fact, the University of Oregon could suddenly disappear from the planet and it would not effect me at all. Sure, it’s fun to have a favorite team and to root for them but I must be careful of the emotional investment.

This, then, led me to reflect… what is worth a deep emotional attachment? Good question. What would you answer? I’m sure family – at least close family – rate deep emotions with us. I’m more emotionally attached to my wife, children, and grandchildren than I am to, say, a second or third cousin (sorry cousins!). Some people are deeply attached to pets. Some to treasured heirlooms. Some to ______________ (you fill in the blank).

But what is proper? And to what degree is it proper? Then another question… do spiritual things have a place here? What things? I’m interested in your opinion. Leave me a comment.

Here’s one of the next sailors. I’m trying to indoctrinate him with a tour of the USS Midway.

I served on the Midway from March 1960 to February 1962. It is now a museum in San Diego. I toured it about 6 years ago but they have opened up so much more since then. Josiah and I were there for 4 hours and still didn’t see all of it. Note: the whole ship is NOT open to the public but they keep opening more and more each year.

I think this picture is kind of cool because this in the same mess deck where I ate. Probably the same tables, too!! I might have sat where Josiah is sitting.

I would like to put more pictures on but I am in the RV park now and I’m not even sure I will get this to upload. So, until next time. Blessings.

Cold and Wet

I guess a lot of words and phrases could be used to title this entry. We could say that grandkids are made to tire out grandparents. We could say this has been a fun and busy week. We could say Souplantation is my favorite place to eat. All these are true.

In reverse order, we ate again at Souplantation (known in some places as Sweet Tomatoes). We went there for my birthday right after we got here. And then again yesterday after church. It is a salad and soup place set up buffet style. They also have baked potatoes, muffins, and a few things like that.

What a fun week this has been. Jana came with the kids and their bikes last Thursday and stayed two nights. The bigger RV sure was nice. Everyone had a bed!!! Oh, an explanation here… the couch is a hide-a-bed and the table breaks down to be a bed. Anyway, we rode bikes (I rented one because I didn’t bring mine), and toured a Conservation Center. We didn’t know if this would be kid friendly but it turned out to be great. Also the weather was nice. It promotes the conservation of the estuary that eventually becomes the harbor.

Then we went to the Fun Center on Balboa Peninsula. Not much there except a Ferris wheel, arcades, gift shops, and restaurants. The kids were interested in the first two. Now, as if we hadn’t had enough, we decided to go the Rain Forest Restaurant a few miles away. What a place. It is built like a jungle with vines hanging from the ceiling, wild animals posted here and there, rain dripping down, and lots of screechy jungle sounds. About every ten minutes or so the elephants go into a frenzy and yell and scream, then the gorillas do the same. We were seated next to the gorillas. These are animated of course and the vines are plastic. The rain drops into designated troughs. Jeyanthi doesn’t like loud noises so she wasn’t too fond of the gorillas. But she can imitate their noises and chest pounding.

The next day it rained so we did some inside things and looked at a nautical museum. It wasn’t all that great. The next day it was back to the Taylor house. Joyce and I spent the night there and went to church with them Sunday morning – Marina Christian Fellowship in Culver City.

Saturday afternoon I watched the Alamo Bowl. For the uninitiated this was a football game between the Oregon State Beavers and the Texas Longhorns. OSU should have won it easily – they led (or tied) for 58 of the 60 minutes. Unfortunately is was the last two minutes when they did not lead. Texas came back from a 20 to 10 deficit to win 27 to 31.

I think there is a couple moral lessons here. On the Texas side of the picture the lesson is never give up. Keep going. Keep on keeping on. Keep doing what got you there. Or to put it in common slang, “dance with what brung ya.” They did and it paid off. I canNOT imagine the talk among the players was, “we’re beat,” “they’re better than us,” and “I’m tired; I just want to go home.” Oh no. I think it was just the opposite: “we can do this,” keep your heads up,” stay focused.” The point is that to come out on top you don’t give up. Texas made mistakes early in the game but they kept coming back.

From the Beaver’s side of things the moral is don’t give up a big play. OSU did. Especially the one that let Texas score the go-ahead touchdown. OSU did really well early in the game, they led most of the time. But one little mistake, one miscalculation, one oversight and the pass was over the defender’s head and into the arms of a Texas Longhorn. The previous 58 minutes were good but ended up being all for naught.

Let’s merge these two in what really matters – everyday life. It comes out like this. When the going is rough keep your focus and keep on truckin’. Be careful to prevent one mistake from being your downfall. Lose focus for one minute and it could be bad. Now, you can take this and put spiritual implications on it. You might use Philippians 3:13-14 if you want. Or find your own applications.

It has been off and on rainy – mostly at night but some daytime stuff. It is also cold. By cold, I mean in the low 60s daytime and low 40s at night. We keep a little electric space heater going all the time. In some parts of the greater LA area it is below freezing – east and higher elevation. The ground around our RV is some kind of sand – kind of like decomposed granite. It isn’t really muddy but kind of messy with lots of rain on it. I’ll be glad when this blows over.

This RV park is huge – 362 spaces plus cabins. This map is kind of small but here is an explanation. The entrance is on the right. You will notice there are three sections labeled Premium, Deluxe, and Standard. We are in Standard – less expensive. So are a lot of other people. Our spot is a red one on the far left – sort of across from the “t” in Standard. The lagoon is off the harbor and the ocean is to the left. See the little bridge at the top of the lagoon? There is a walkway that goes all the way around and crosses that bridge – about a mile or so. Joyce and I walked it the first day and Jana, kids and I biked it. The Back Bay Bistro at the top right is a nice place to eat – spendy!

Well, happy New Year to you all. Enjoy. Until next time. I’ll have a surprise to share with you.

(I tried to send this Monday but our WiFi at the park was way too slow to upload it. Sorry)

The Blog Begins Again

It seems that blogging is not as fashionable as it once was. At least for many of us. Now its Facebook, Twitter, Texting or simply sending an email. But I shall try to keep this going for the next few months for both of you who want to know what we are doing – and why. The why might be harder to answer.

First, let me wish you a heart-felt Merry Christmas. I was beginning to feel that Christmas was going to arrive and I would be left behind wondering what was happening. Here’s why.

The weeks leading up to our leaving Salem were filled … make that FILLED… with Senior Adult ministry stuff, regular church stuff, getting a new RV (more later about that) ready for 3 months on the road, and just plain old normal everyday living. It seemed there was no time to really enjoy the season. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love the decorations, the lights, the carols, the pageantry, the message – all of it. I don’t care if it begins early; it’s too short for me anyway. I’m sad when all the stuff comes down and we have to begin a new year. But all this “about Christmas” was lost in the getting ready to leave. I told Joyce we wouldn’t do it like this again.

But last Sunday we went to church at Garden Grove Free Methodist. They had a children’s program, sang lots of carols, and the pastor preached a good message. That helped my spirit a lot. Christmas eve I looked for a service close to our RV Park. I decided the one at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church would be good. Actually they had 4 services; we choose the 7:00 one. It was fantastic. Really fantastic. It is a large church, lots of lights, big choir, orchestra, lots of carols, VERY well done. That helped me a lot. This is a view as the worship area is filling up.

Then Christmas morning we went to the kid’s house. That would be Korak, Jana, Josiah, Lilly, and Jeyanthi. Korak had a great breakfast – omelets, bacon, waffles, and egg nog. Yummy! Then we opened gifts which is always fun with the kids. Fun for me too. Guess what I got? A Keurig coffee maker – with lots of coffee packets to choose from.

How about a little bragging here. Lilly is 6 and Jeyanthi will be 2 on January 11. Josiah is 10.

Josiah is reading the Christmas story before we open our gifts.

Jeyanthi is reading the instructions while mom inserts the batteries. (Ever notice how many batteries are required Christmas morning?)

Jeyanthi loves to dance!

Let me fill in some gaps here. We had planned on traveling to the LA area to spend Christmas, New Years, and Jeyanthi’s birthday with the kids. Our plan was to leave home about the 11th or so. Then I discovered the annual Staff Open House was Sunday evening, the 16th. The “open house” is really like a progressive meal and we were doing the dessert (cheese cake with do-it-yourself toppings). So we left home at 8:00 Monday morning (the 17th) in a terrible rain storm and a little wind. We stopped in Grants Pass to see Joyce’s brother and sis-in-law and a couple friends for an hour, then left for the Siskiyous at 1:00. We made it over all the mountains with only a little rain and some light snow – bare pavement all the way. In fact we had a little sun right at the top. We felt very blessed by the Lord – the next day was snowy with wrecks on the road we had just drove on. We drove in beautiful weather until about 6:00 that evening and “dry camped” in the back lot of the Olive Pit in Corning, CA. The next day we made it to Gorman near the top of Tejon Pass. Very windy that night but nice the next day. Then Wednesday it was on to Newport Dunes RV Resort at Newport Beach. This is now our home for the next three weeks. It is a bit of a drive back to the kid’s house but it was the best I could find and works out fine.

About the RV. Well, the old Alpenlite was just that, old – soon to be 22 years. It was beginning to have some problems and didn’t have a slide out so the living area was limited. We looked and looked and looked for something more to our liking and finally landed on a 2002 Keystone Cougar with a living/dining slide. So we made a trade. Here we are tucked into our little spot, #5305. Ours is the white one!!!

I will try real hard to blog every Sunday or Monday. Again, Merry Christmas to each one of you, both of you, whatever.

A Little Sidetrack Along the Way

I note it has been over 2 months since I added anything to the blog. It seems blogging is becoming less and less important to everyone. This is not just me, I hear it from others also. Tweeting (for some) is the big thing. I haven’t tried that and don’t plan to. Facebook is also popular; I am on FB but I don’t add very much to it. Now it is time to update the blog. A lot – I mean a LOT -- has happened in February and March.

I must begin with what is most important to me and the closest to my heart. Here is the story. Very faithfully Joyce has gotten an annual mammogram. Even when some were/are saying every two years was satisfactory she still had hers every year. Actually it was a little over a year since her last one because of our move and house building and all. So in January she went to the clinic to submit herself to the pushing and squeezing. A couple weeks later they asked her to go in and have another one. They also asked for the ones taken in Grants Pass in past years. Ah oh. Somethun’s up.

What they saw on the new x-rays were little, tiny white dots in the left breast. They weren’t there in the Grants Pass films. This called for a biopsy. So, the middle of February she checked into the hospital for an uncomfortable little incision and a needle removal of some of those little white dots (calcium).

Now, understand. We were only mildly concerned. No worries here. Joyce has no history of breast cancer in her family. In fact she is way down low on the scale of risk factors. So this thing is going to come back negative. Right?

In the afternoon on February 21 our world fell apart. The doctor called (doctor, not nurse) to tell us the diagnosis was “ductal carcinoma in situ.” That means cancer in a tiny milk duct but it is contained within the duct. Wow! This isn’t supposed to happen. Not to us. We’re the good guys. We already have a full plate. Carcinoma IS cancer. But it’s strange how the mind processes something like this. For about three days I refused to use the ‘C’ word. I called it “growth,” “carcinoma,” or simply didn’t call it anything. Calling it cancer seemed to acknowledge it’s presence and give it a life of it’s own. But it already had a life of it’s own. Slowly, with tears and lots of  prayer, we begin to accept that this was, indeed, cancer.

Maybe this is more information than you wanted to know but the doctor explained it this way. The ducts high in the breast are microscopic. The walls of each duct are only one or two cells thick so they need to constantly replace themselves. Some of them go berserk and multiply too fast – which is what cancer is. But as they multiply they lose their source of nourishment and die turning to calcium. This is what was seen in the mammograms. Okay, end of doctor lesson.

This little abnormality needed to be removed. But if things weren’t already spiraling fast enough, now things really started to whirl. We got the biopsy report on Tuesday. Our doctor scheduled us to meet with a surgeon on Thursday. He scheduled surgery for 19 days later and asked us to see a radiology doctor and a chemotherapy doctor before surgery. These were scheduled. Then the surgery date was changed by a week – forward. Now the date was March 6. So we ran from biopsy to surgeon to radiologist to hematologist to surgery – all in two weeks. And all these places and doctors were chosen for us (which was okay because we didn’t have any better suggestions). At one point a frustrated Joyce exclaimed, “I don’t have any control. It is all happening too fast and I don’t have anything to say about it.” That was true.

The reason “they” wanted us to see all these doctors is so we would know the possibilities and be prepared. Jana came on Sunday before the surgery and stayed a week – even though it meant changing her flight dates when they changed the surgery date. And she brought Jeyanthi with her! Yeaaaa!

Here’s some more detail. The area the doctor needed to remove was so small he couldn’t see it. Just before surgery Joyce went into the mammography area and a doctor inserted a wire with a hook on it ending at the little calcium dots. He found that spot because they left a “marker” there when they did the biopsy. The hook held the wire in place and hung outside her body. Then she went to surgery. The surgeon simply (don’t you like that word, “simply”?) followed the wire to the hook, removed a sizable lump, and sewed her up. Oh… he also removed some lymph nodes. Joyce was back home by 4:30. And healing went well.

It was six days before we got the pathology report saying the doctor “got it all” and there was no sign of cancer in the lymph nodes. This means she is cancer-free. Well… as far as any cancer that can be seen. But because of this one incident, there might be another one forming (according to the doctors) so she began radiation on Tuesday, April 10. She is not really excited about it but everyone says she should do it, so has acquiesced. Since there is no cancer left, the chemo won’t be necessary.

One website says this: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer. Ductal means that the cancer starts inside the milk ducts, carcinoma refers to any cancer that begins in the skin or other tissues (including breast tissue) that cover or line the internal organs, and in situ means "in its original place." DCIS is called "non-invasive" because it hasn’t spread beyond the milk duct into any normal surrounding breast tissue. DCIS isn’t life-threatening, but having DCIS can increase the risk of developing an invasive breast cancer later on.

Note: this type of cancer cannot be discovered by self exams. It can only be found with a mammogram. By the time it would reveal itself with a lump, it would be a much, much bigger issue. So Joyce is an unofficial poster girl for annual mammograms.

Pray for her (and us) for the next 5 or 6 weeks. There will be radiation treatments 5 days a week. And this is only one of the things that happened during this time. In the next blog, I’ll continue with the “Life and Times of Gene and Joyce in February & March.”

(Sorry. No pictures. It’s a little hard to include pictures of all this – unless you want to see our local hospital).

Consider it Done

Maybe it never will really be done – with emphasis on DONE – but it is so close. There are a couple things to do on the inside of the addition but it is essentially finished. On the inside. The outside still needs to be painted and landscaped. That will have to wait until summer – whenever that will be.

March 17 was Ginger’s official move in day. She hired some youth from the church who were earning money for a missions trip. They were really hard workers.

The “easiest” way to get to her house is through our garage. When the landscaping is finished she will have an outside entrance.

The truck is almost empty…

…but the house is full. She is busily emptying boxes but right now there are no real good photos of the inside – just photos of boxes. This is the kitchen. Dishwasher is not installed yet.

But  getting to this point was a really wild ride. The first of March Ginger sold her mobile home and needed to be out by March 2o. So I put in a week of 12 hour days getting things finished for the final inspections. The last one was Friday the 16th. We passed. Well, with a couple of minor corrections that weren’t too hard to fix.

The cabinets had to go it. Dave, the husband of a lady Ginger works with, came to help.

The floor had to go down. Dave came to help one day and my nephew, Roy, came to help me finish it off.

Joyce’s brother, Jack, came from Eugene to put in the window and door trim.

The range hood went up – not very easily. Jana is helping me. She was here the week of Joyce’s surgery. Yes, a lot of the final work happened that week. To make a long story short, it was a really crazy four weeks. We found out about Joyce’s cancer with all the subsequent doctor’s visits, Ginger’s old house had to be packed and cleaned, her new house had to be finished, my sister, Doris, had a stroke so we went to Eugene to see her each Sunday afternoon (3 times). Doris went home to be with Jesus during this time but the funeral service was not until Monday after Ginger moved in (thankfully). Of course, all during this time life had to go on.

When it was over, Joyce and I celebrated by going to the coast for three days. We had a nice room with an ocean view and a hot tub overlooking the ocean. Oh, let me show you a picture.

Nice, huh?

Well, I need to post this. It has been so long I better get it going before any more time goes by.

Closer…

Closer. That’s all I can say. We are closer to being finished with the addition. The last time I blogged we were in LA enjoying the g-kids and the warm weather. We hated to leave the kids and the sunshine but it had to be. Our 29 hour trip home on Amtrak was 29 hours. Surprise. Then it was back to work.

While we were gone Ginger was able to prime all the walls so she and Joyce (and a little bit of me) went to work painting.

Our friend, Joann, is having fun pointing out a spot Joyce missed.

I began putting up light fixtures, switches, and outlets. We found a few problems with “what goes where.” I had some really good help but this also meant I didn’t know the exact wiring layout. I am working that out along with other “fun” projects.

We got all the underlayment laid down. Then it was a “really inspiring” umpteen hours on my knees – screwing it all down. But it is done. Almost 40 pounds of screws in it.

We put up a kitchen cabinet yesterday and hung Ginger’s bathroom cabinet today.

Oh yes, the electrical panel and meter I mentioned a couple blogs back. We got that fixed finally. We hired a guy from church to dig down and find the electric wire coming in from PGE’s transformer. He managed to do that without electrocuting himself! Our electrician coordinated with PGE to put in the new line and meter the same day he put in the new panel. We now have a very FULL 200 amp panel.

We hired some church kids to fill in the electrical hole and do some other dirt (mud!) hauling. It began to rain before they finished and it rained like in the days of Noah. Many compared the flood to the ‘97 flood (1997, I think). It was bad in the whole county – but only in spots. We didn’t have flooding but we did have run off. And the run off went under the new addition. So we got a sump pump and I think (hope) it didn’t get up into the insulation. There is still water under there. I’ll deal with it later. We fared much better than some.

Because of church obligations I have only been able to work 2 or 3 days a week so that is slowing the work. Also I did very little this week because I came down with a chest cold which is now becoming a nose cold. Hate this!!!

So I hack and  sniffle along my way. Wishing you better health.