Saturday January 11, 2014

Catch up time! I am sitting in my office on a rainy Saturday afternoon in January (Jan 11). It is dark and gloomy outside but a perfect time to catch up. My last blog was January 1. Since then Nancy and I have been very busy. The following is a brief summary of our activities since Jan 1. Thursday January 2: Nancy and I loaded up the rental and headed to LA to see Missy and AJ. We took the I5 to LA. It is the fastest way to get from SF to LA. It goes through the San Joaquin Valley. The Valley is a huge agricultural area that requires a lot of water for irrigation. I always read about the water fights between the greens and the farmers. The sun was out but a haze blocked it. It took us 5 hours to get to LA. We are staying at the Sheridan 4 Points at the airport. We stopped by Missy's condo and they were waiting for us. It was great seeing them. We took AJ back to the hotel for a swim. She and Nancy went swimming while I watched. We all had dinner at the hotel. Friday January 3: We all had breakfast at a restaurant in Brentwood. Missy had some work to do today so we took AJ and headed to Century City Mall. AJ and I went to a 1100 movie, Walking with Dinosaur. Nancy went shopping. I liked the movie. After the movie we headed back to Missy's. We all had lunch at a place call Lemonade Cafe. I like the Brentwood shopping district within walking distance of Missy's. For dinner we all had frozen yogurt. It was not well balanced but tasted great. Saturday January 4: Today we headed back to San Jose. We took the 101 back. The 101 is a little longer but more colorful. We had breakfast in a small rural town along the 101. The place was called "Mother Hubbard's", it was next to a gun and knife shop. Not all Californians are liberals. I really enjoyed this ride. When we got back to San Jose we had put 800 miles on the rental. Sunday January 5: Today is an easy day. We did visit a Japanese Gardens in San Jose. Nancy took pictures to take back to show the folks on the Meijer Garden Japanese Garden committee that she is on. We watched some movies on Netflix. Monday January 6: It is back to work for Debbie and we are heading home. We got to the airport early and learned that our flight had been delayed two hours. This delay would put us into Minneapolis one hour after our flight to GR had departed. The weather in the midwest was miserable. After spending about an hour trying to see how we could get back to GR, we decided the heck with it we will spent the night in Minneapolis. As luck would have it our flight to GR was delayed an hour. We sprinted through the airport and made the flight to GR. It was very cold and snowing when we got to GR about midnight. We took our car to the airport because we could not get a cab. I was worried the car would not start. No need, the car fired right up. It was tough getting home from the airport but our driveway had recently been cleared so we got up the drive with no problem. Despite the cold and snow it was good to be home. Tuesday January 7: We slept in and then shoveled the walk. I decided to try and get back to my routine so I went for a swim at MVP. I had hired a neighbor to shovel the walk while we were gone. He did a great job. I settled up with him. I will use him when we go to Panama. Maybe he might want to cut the grass. I also bought Jim Borst our next door neighbor a bottle of wine. Jim checked our house several times while we were gone. When we left the power was out and temps were below zero. I was worried about a frozen pipe. The power was out for about 30 hours. Jim checked the basement and let me know every thing was ok. Wednesday January 8: Breakfast Club today. The temperature was still in single digits. The turnout was light. After the meeting I stopped at the Wealthy Street bakery for coffee and a chance to read the WSJ. I am now reading the WSJ on my mini iPad. I like the color. Nancy worked at the gift shop. Our internet went out so I had to call ATT and have them walk me through the steps I needed to take to get our service back. It took about two hours. In the afternoon we visited the SE YMCA to see what they had to offer. We will stick with MVP for the time being. Thursday January 9: Went swimming at MVP. The best time to get a lane is around 0700. Nancy had a Doctor's appointment. We also stopped at Costco so Nancy could get a prescription filled. I bought a Blu ray. We had dinner at Great Lakes Shipping. Friday January 10: Went swimming and did some calisthenics at MVP. Nancy also went to MVP. MVP is very crowded but so far it has been a positive experience for us. Ms P came home today. I tried to set up the Blu ray but got discouraged. Called my computer guru to come over and set it up. He is coming Monday. Nancy and I had dinner at Brann's. Lucas face timed us and I asked Steve how to install the Blu ray. Steve helped me set it up. It was easy. We got a Netflix account and watched a movie. Saturday January 11: It was raining hard this morning. Nancy and I had breakfast at the Omelette Shop. After breakfast we stopped at Mr Thang's so Nancy could pick up a pair of pants she had altered. I walked to the Post Office to mail a letter and then continued on a walk. I got in three miles. It is now 1600 and Nancy is watching Netflix's "House of Card" as I write this blog. We are having soup for dinner tonight. I will watch some football before turning in.