Sunday Chillin' & thinkin' ahead

Whew a nice relaxing weekend it has been..

well, wait a minute, yesterday was a home housecleaning kind of day that started early and accomplished much with a bonus.. Shane showed up with Manny just before lunch while I was gone bringing Greg to the dealership to pickup his car, and they both cleaned my kitchen/laundry tile. Now it to me looked clean, and the grout being a darker color already, seemed clean also... but wow, when they left it looked awesome.. We did buy the boys Subway lunch for when they were finished working.   thanks for the early birthday gift Shane..

Manny was the only one I snuck a picture of as Shane can't have this on facebook or the cat would be out of the bag of the perk I got..

 

 

The rest of the afternoon was finishing laundry of towels and doing some neatning up around the house, and then watching lots of college football.  It's been heating up, and today we have the AC on.  Greg had alot of work to catch up on and to get ahead on as this week we are doing a road trip north "somewhere" after we stop in Chowchilla on Tuesday.

 

I usually take this week off with my birthday in it and so that is the same this year. I started with planning a trip north to see the volleyball games of Chowchilla Brook has a Tuesday night game in we will head out towards Tollhouse against Sierra. The town is about an 1.5 hour east and south of Bryan and Stacy's so we will meet them at the game as they will have to come after work and will probably be a little later than us.  We might hit the "outlet" mall in Tulare if I can get Greg on the road before noon as he wants to do.. But I'll be driving as he talks on the phone and works on his lap with quotes and drawings.. ha, I'll have my headphone plugged in as well as he is constantly on the phone.. I don't like the driver seat while he's on the phone.. So this will be the route we will take.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&gl=us&daddr=33326+Lodge+Road,+Tollhouse,+CA+93667&panel=1&f=d&fb=1&dirflg=d&geocode=0,37.036108,-119.452351&cid=0,0,6213808414914529593&hq=sierra+high+school+tollhouse+ca+website&ei=ccFoUI7CIu30iwLKxICgDw&ved=0CIQBEJ4CMAA

 

Brook is a junior in HS, and plays a middle blocker and this is her first year on the varsity team, and the middle blocker is out on a motorcycle injury and so Brook has starting position. Might make it up there for two games this year.  It will be good to see the family for even a brief evening.. Sydney is an 8th grader and Brayden is a little over 2yrs old.. That is if Grandma and Grandpa Dykstra come to the game and bring the kids... otherwise seeing them might just not happen as the game and the drive back to their house would be late for Sydney and school the next day.

 

We were originally thinking that we'd go to San Francisco and see Alcatraz, Monterey and down to Hearst Castle along the ocean drive home... or now, Greg mentioned Yosemite/Sequoia National Park if the fall colors are in yet.. So our way of traveling in a point and shoot idea of spontaneous travel is that I suppose we only have to know when we wake up Tuesday as to where we are going.. not much difference in clothing so no packing big deal other than hiking shoes or just flip flops and walking shoes. We haven't set a number of days we will be gone either so that is nice..  will let you know.

 

Tonight we will have mini church, and I was asked to bring dessert, so there is a oreo cookie ice cream dessert in the freezer that I made after lunch today, note to self, make that the day ahead next time...

 

Watching NFL games and I must say that my 3 picks today are only going well in that I picked the Vikings, Packers, and Giants... Vikings were victorious, and the Packers are letting there lead slip away.. Tonight I will miss the Giants game but will be wishing them well in my mind!  I love football season..

 



Monday Morning traffic

I had all kinds of aspirations for getting to work early, getting the dreaded Payroll cinched up for the prior week and then onto some needed projects.  But....................

5 miles from my exit into my commute, traffic on the 710 North comes to a standstill and we all creeping along for 5 miles doing 2 miles per hour................... OMG that was so slow, and people are zigging and zagging into every nook and cranny of open space like that is going to make a real big difference when all lanes are nearly dead stopped.. So with no idea what has been going on in the dark of 45 minutes later, I'm still listening to Pandora and decide to now find a news channel for traffic report if possible.. but my exit will come up soon and so I merge to the right... and then on the radio news channel I find they announce that the 710 North has a 5-6 car pile up and the right three lanes are closed... dang, because I just had to fight my way over to the slow lane in the 5 lanes of traffic.  In the lane to the left and perhaps one car back I suddenly here ths "CRASH, SMASH, BANG" as they hook there bumpers together in relatively slow moving traffic.

Thankful it wasn't me, I now have to start merging to the left back towards the fast lane as the smoking flash sticks (that look like dynamite) and the Highway Patrol cars are pressing us left... Once I get up to the accident scene it's a tangle of cars waiting for tow trucks all smashed up into each other..  Needless to say I was not on time for work nor did it matter.. my supervisors showed up late and in the quiet I got some headway before they came in to start deferring my attention if I let them....

4 more days and I'm on a week of vacation.. YAY... and then I'm back in the office a week, and then off to MN to meet up with Ashley for a week of vacation together with family and going to the Women of Faith conference in Minneapolis with other family. 

Today I got a notice in the mail that I have now been summoned to Jury duty at the end of Oct, which will put me back in the office after MN for just a week before that will start..  I actually like the jury process and hope to get on a good case with intrigue..  wish me luck..

the buzzer has gone off for the chicken and rice to finish for mine and Shanes dinner.. Greg has a business dinner with his once again visiting manager of the so cal territory and I'll be home watching Monday Night Football... Go Packers!

Yes this weekend the Minnesota Vikings beat the favored San Francisco 49'ers. Go Vikings~

An Endeavor kind of day..

This is a picture I enlarged with picture manager from one of the closest that Greg had gotten of the 2 mile away shot... this one will be copied and hung in Gregs office. He took it he gets the credit for all the pictures in this blog..  yay Greg!

I watched the take off in Florida on TV of the Endeavor Space Shuttle piggy backed on a 737 (I think that's what kind of plane it was) on Wednesday early morning. It was starting it's voyage to So California where it will be an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Space in LA near the USC colliseum.  On Thursday afternoon it landed in Palmdale CA at the Edwards Air Force Base.  The reason that the specific Endeavor Space Shuttle is coming to So Cal is because this particular shuttle was built completely in CA with numerous facilities participating in it's build.
http://www.thereporter.com/ci_21608479/space-shuttle-endeavours-final-flight-thrill 

This is an article I read that gives the perspective of those who scrambled out of offices, schools, onto rooftops, top of the parking structures, and hanging out of their 2nd floor bedroom window as Greg did as he works from home for that glimpse of the historic flight.


So for it's farewell tour on Friday and I think to build up excitement for the visit to the museum when it is installed, they circled major locations for the most exposure and it flew literally 250' off the ground through its route.  I saw it twice. Once above our UPS facility and then it made another round and I was then driving home and it flew right next to the 710 southbound as I was going. Their was passenger in a truck to my left who was sticking his camera outside the window towards the right side and thats when I noticed it was parallel to me... what a sight again. As the plane crossed the 710 to the west, I quickly called Greg to tell him "It's coming your way" "It's coming your way", just in case he had ventured back to his desk.... but he didn't answer...... but he was ready to take pictures if it came close to our house and sure enough it was about 1-2 miles north of us as it flew over the Downey Aerospace facility. So these are pictures that Greg took from our second floor window, having removed the screen. He had my camera with the 300 lens on it and he did a great job taking pictures so that he didn't miss the "best" ones.. He had some trees and poles between us that conflicted at times due to the plane being at 250' of height. But he kept clicking and got what I think was the best one with the flag in the shot.  The City of Bellflower has a large scale flag that flies right off the freeway.  Loved it that he got a shot with the plane going East and the plane going West as it made a circle to head to the next landmark it was hitting on it's itinerary.

American exploration being saluted, and how appropriate that he got a picture with a flag, several times.

this is the photo in real time that I enlarged above at the beginning.

 The plane was traveling in an east direction and started it's bank to turn north and then return back to the west almost the same path it took previously.

 

good job honey and for taking the initiative with the camera to get these pictures we will always remember.

Monday randoms

just some random thoughts on a Monday..

the weekends go to quickly, but then all the days after Monday lead towards another one.

California highways are a dangerous place in the city to manuever safely.. come on people look before you change lanes.

I'm determined to soon read and understand the instructions to my coffee maker so it's done when I get up in the morning and ready for breakfast at 4:15... I said "soon"..

only 9 more work days and I'm on a birthday week vacation.

saw the movie 2016 Obama this afternoon and it only validated some of my underlying expectations of 4 more years and made me sad.  Good movie to see whether your democrat or republican.. it won't hurt you but you'll know the depth of the man much better and who he aspires after from his own words in his book and life.

my pick for tonight's football game is the Bronco's and either way I will enjoy watching the football quarterbacking of Peyton Manning.

raising kids and then observing them in adult situations isn't easy.

I have chicken baking in the oven... smells yummy and it's time to go

wknd relaxing

This was a holiday 4 day week and yet it didn't seem like a short work week... oh well, there is always a wknd to offset it.  2nd wknd in a fow that we "went" somewhere out of the normal for an afternoon. Greg generally uses the weekends to make up for time he didn't have for paperwork, and while I'm all over being sympathetic to his need for writing quotes and engineering some drawings,  I pulled rank. 

Last weekend we drove on Sunday to the mountains, and yesterday (Saturday) we drove to Malibu along the ocean, drove to Ventura and bought strawberries, oranges, tomatoes and cucumbers from a road side stand. We then went to Camarillo outlet mall just up the road and walked through some shops, I wasn't in much of a shopping mode, but we had one item in mind and picked the stores strategically for just that.. Greg got a new pair of work shoes at Timberland that are casually dressy and yet can take on some oil that he mucks in while out in his customers shops.. His present work shoes the soles were shot and cracked open. He'd still be wearing them if when he told me, I didn't force the issue.. sheesh!

We had lunch at Red Lobster, not a place we frequent to often so it was a nice change of pace. Having your lobster lunch fresh out of the tank was as fresh as it can get..

We stopped at Pt. Magu State Beach which is north of Malibu and not very populated stretch of beach, and sat enjoying the sound of the ocean crashing on the shore, the wind blowing to keep us actual quite cool, compared to the 90's we left at home just a short time ago. Once it got a bit chilly and we had forgotten sweatshirts, we packed up and headed back towards home along the ocean again.  Saw alot of kite surfers, board surfers in a small area of the ocean from where there is shallow water and a short beach. Takes alot of skill to keep out of the rocks and yet they seemed to know what they were doing out in the might wind that was blowing. We hadn't seen them in the earlier part of the day but as the wind picked up they were out in droves competing for space along the coast.  We arrived home at around 6:30 to warm up leftovers and to watch some college football until we called it a night.

Sunday morning we went to church, hearing a good word from Pastor Ken, do we come to church to bring something or to sit back in the chairs with our arms folded waiting for the pastor to bring something to us?  He demonstrated how the new sermon series "the story" a years chronilogical walk through the bible stories is coming 31 weeks in a row hearing the sermon, reading 4 minutes or 2 pages out of the book "the story" 217 times in that year, and meeting in a small group with others to share what was preached, what we read and what it means for our own life.  I think this is another great series of "D groups" growing together with easily followed materials.  I confess that I did not do a "D" group last time, and while I am considering it this time, I am really more or less just considering reading the book each week.

I will be starting Alpha again this week. Also a friend and I are considering doing a study together, if that should work out, it will take the place of a D group need.  There is only so much that one should get themselves involved in and yet, I do need to move my life i more of a direction towards faithful service and devotion.  I am way way on the other end of the scale that tips it to nearly NOTHING devotional going on right now... selfish choices... God calls me to more...

After church we walked over to the Mexican restuarant Casa Gamina (Gamino) and had lunch with Shane.. These afternoon lunches are the rare time to catch up with him and to interrogate ask questions of him... and to have somewhat our parental insight to what is laid onto the table..  Most often it is low key, and there are times that it needs to have a more serious talking point. Today was insightful.. Good times,,

Well, selfishly I'm watching football and will get back to that. Have a great week ahead..

Wednesday wonderings

Thankful that two work days are done, and only two more to go.. this summer I've had a less than "gun ho get to work" desire. I think it's more that the work will always be piled up and headway is tough to make as much as it's vacation season..

I came home today and found that Shane was home working on his recycle pile that was growing between our garages.  As you can see from the pictures he was working on the plastic bottles, and he had a pile of bottles and cans the same size.  It makes for some gas money of about a $100 whenever he turns them in.

 

Why are you taking a picture?

 

 And then there is his usual grin

Today my housecleaner came and I'm reconsidering my choice as Greg said she wasn't here very long,,, what the heck?? Now he wasn't sure how long she was here, but what he told me dropped my chin to the floor... could he just have from his office not noticed?  But for what I pay to have it done, I expect that she is tripping over the extra's if she runs out of things to do because she is so fast with her helper... But I like having the help for sure, but not at that price, I could hire myself and do that much time and be satisfied..  argh..

As an American, I was shocked that the Democrats changed their platform to "remove" God in whatever context it was stated, and the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  Obama stands in charge of his platform, and then today in a reversal of fortune in what was most likely an outcry of disgust. But the nonetheless this afternoon they told a "voice" vote with our notorious mayor Villaragosa having to do it three times in order to decide if what sounded like a No vote was determined a 2/3 Yes vote from a small crowd. But trust me I was watching and it was not a 2/3 yes vote. There were even boo's after the vote when it was declared a Yes vote.  God barely made the cut to be recognized by 2/3 of the representation of 1/2 of America's politcal party who has a large voice in society.... I was watching CNN at the time, so don't claim I was watching slanted coverage against the home team..  How sad is that?  One nation under God was at one time a sacred and reverant under pinning of the belief of this country.  To imagine the end times being worse by far than where we are right now seems that we are slippery sloping that direction in a hurry.

I pray for an America that we can continue to live in the freedom to worship freely, blessed by God in it's diversity that is pretty diverse, but not where we sell God out.  My God is mighty, holy, and bigger than what we the people can throw at him, and that is where my faith and trust is aways.

a Labor day wknd...

Happy Labor Day wknd holiday with a respite from work. I like that.

This labor day wknd we started it out on Saturday with some yard work. Greg tore out the garden, I pruned away the summer death in the flower beds where the heat of long vacations without water that took it's toll. I went to Armstrong nuresery and purchased a flat of pansy's or is it pansies.. and some flowers to drape over the edge of the two hanging pots that totally died from either heat or over watering! I placed them into the shade for a later date.. And then we retreated into the house for some A/C as it was heating up outside. Watched a little college football and just

Sunday was a bit cooler and so we decided to head off on a drive in the morning, to the mountains or to the beach.. Chose to head to Lake Arrowhead and we spent the mid part of the day sitting by the lake, strolling the shops, and then headed home as the crowds were thick in the village.  We arrived home around 4pm, watched a little football, and then after dinner I set to plant the flat of flowers, finished just as it was getting dark. The driveway looks clean again with only one spot in front flower bed to fill in a open gap perhaps with a bushy color that needs some height.   But not today~!

As I type this I am watching the US Open of Tennis and just saw a commercial for a 90" tv., holy cow. Our 47" in our living room and that was huge when we later got the 2nd, a 55" in the den.. always a bigger better kind of world.. I would love if they'd make the remotes less complicated in a remote for the tv, a remote for DISH and a remote for the DVD player and what goes first before you hit the next remote....

Okay off to enjoy the day, you as well.