We are home for a week, getting a bunch of things done while we wait for granddaughter Jessica’s wedding on Saturday.
Here’s the happy bride-to-be, in old photos. I’ll have lots of new ones next week!
Jessica is a third-year nursing student at Cal Baptist University in Riverside. She’s marrying her long-time boyfriend, Nathan Torres, on Saturday. It will be a big family event…everyone is coming, even the Montana contingent. Whooppee!
Of course, as soon as we got home and parked the RV in my driveway, we had a mechanical problem: the slides wouldn’t open or retract. The culprit: a fancy $3.00 circuit breaker fuse. Unfortunately, I had to have a mobile RV repair guy provide me with the answer for…$150.
I had a chance to visit my brother, Terry, at his home in Monterey Park on Monday. That’s where we grew up, and he’s always lived there. We went over some of Mom’s financial affairs (we’re the Trustees of her Living Will), and I took him out for lunch for his 71st birthday. I don’t have any good photos of him; he was younger in this one:
Terry did me a big favor this week. He and I used to do a lot of long-range fishing and we had a ton of gear. Most of what is left is in Terry’s garage, gathering dust. Charlie has a client firm (Segaar Company) which is run by three brothers, and they’ve bought a small yacht to use with clients and family. They have no fishing gear. Terry said, “Take what you want.” So, I selected five rod-reel set-ups, plus a tackle box full of goodies; probably $1,000 worth of stuff.
The next day, I took the RV to the Segaar Company property in Perris so that they could repair my undermount 2-burner range in the rig.
I gave them the fishing gear and they were stoked. It’s really nice to be able to help young people who are just getting to the point that they can have some fun with their small children and friends.
BTW, Greg and Daniel Segaar spent about four hours in my RV kitchen and made the range better than it was originally, with plenty of support within the cabinet structure. They thanked me for the fishing gear and I gave them a $100 spiff for taking the time to rescue Charlie and I.
It’s been nice to catch up on local happenings with our neighbors and friends. The Pace’s (across the street in our cul de sac) have put their house up for sale. They’re asking $510K, I believe. I hope they get it, because it will be a nice comp for our property.
Clark (Pace) has had a tough couple of years, financially. He’s begun to “moonlight” as a part-time sales guy at Giant RV. Although he’s still in training, and not an active salesman yet, he was pressed into service last weekend because Giant got really busy…and he sold one of their most expensive toy hauler trailers to a young couple, earning a nice commission. Hooray, Clark!
There’s a big “Recall the Board of Directors” campaign going on here in Bear Creek, led by my bowling and card-playing buddy, George Knapp. He used to be on the HOA Board, and is fed up (along with most residents) with the current crop of idiots who a supposedly looking after our community. I long since given up on the HOA concept, and will be happy to leave the festering boil when we sell our property here.
Our despicable neighbor “Sharon” is one of the HOA Board members, and she wasted no time upon our return to harass us for parking our RV in our driveway overnight (because it was broken down, Stupid!). Anyway, we’ll be happy to be rid of her when we sell our home, as will the Pace’s. Sharon has really spoiled our neighborhood, which was a very friendly place before she arrived about ten years ago.
Today, Charlie and I are getting our hair cut, and she is getting hers colored. It’s been awhile, and Charlie has a nice crop of gray atop her head. My hair is long and unmanageable, and is driving me nuts. I can hardly wait to thin it out… a lot!
The dogs are re-adjusting to the big house, and Baby is having a blast, running up and down the stairs (it’s a tri-level) with her toys. She’s fun to watch.
I visited my Mom today at her Board and Care facility here in Murrieta. She’s in hospice care, doing as well as can be expected for an 89 year-old lady with dementia. I brought her a $50 bouquet of roses and star lillies, and we sat on the couch, held hands and kissed, and watched TV for a couple of hours. She likes that. Mom doesn’t communicate very well anymore; she mumbles nonsensical “word salad”, for the most part. But, other than that, she seems to be doing OK, and appears to like the place and the nurse gals that take care of her.
It’ so sad that it’s all come to that. But, on the positive side, she’s lived a long and very full life, with much happiness. All of her children are still here and love her. I’m sure she knows that. I’m going to visit her each Thursday, and Claudia, Kellie, and Terry will drop by when they can, as well.
In other news, there was a rare solar eclipse this week. But, it was pretty much overshadowed in the news by more Trump shenanigans. The guy has really cast a pall over the country.
It is, of course, not a surprise when President Trump lies, completely makes things up, and denies that he ever said anything that he actually said. Accordingly, he’s backtracked on any number of key campaign promises.
For example, his Mexican Wall promise. He’d build it, and our amigos to the south would pay for it. Now, it seems, he wants us to build it with our own money, and he is willing to shut down the U.S. government until Congress puts the funding into the Federal Budget.
Mr. Trump, the candidate, also ridiculed former Presidents Bush and Obama for not extricating the U.S. from Afghanistan. We’ve been fighting there for sixteen years, with no progress, etc. This is one area of policy where I agreed with Donald Trump.
So, President Trump made a big speech to the American public this week…unveiling his “plan” to win in Afghanistan by sending 4,000 additional troops there. Not surprisingly, his ingenious plan is the same one that Presidents Bush and Obama came up with.
In other news, my grandson Craig is now in high school. Here he is in an old photo:
He’s also continuing in his martial arts training, and is now a Yellow Belt. I asked him this morning if he’d run into Chubby, the high school kid that threatened him when he was in Intermediate school, and Craig said, “I’ve seen him, but no problem…yet.” Well, I hope that continues, but, if it doesn’t, I think this jerk is going to be surprised when my grandson crushes his nut sack.