I leave very early in the morning for the cruise. I need this vacation and I am looking forward to it. I am not sure when I will blog again it may be a few weeks. Until then take care and God bless

The bride and my daughter are in San Diego packing up my mom’s house. I will be rearranging my basement this weekend to make room for the stuff we are having shipped. My basement is 1000 sq ft so I will have plenty of room. I was looking into a storage unit but the cost and inconvenience did not make sense to me.

Mom and I took off yesterday and headed for Wendover NV. It is on the Stateline between Utah and Nevada. It is where all of Northern Utah goes to gamble. We took the 2 ½ hour drive, parked in the parking lot in Utah and walked through the front door of casino into Nevada. Had a wonderful prime rib buffet and mom helped me go through $70 on the slot machines. It was fun and well worth the money.

The bride and I will leave this coming Friday for our cruise and to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. My sister will fly in from Georgia and spend the week with mom. It will be nice to get away and relax. As soon as I get back I will have both of my knees replaced. They have giving me fits for a number of years and having gotten so much worse in the past year. I figure if I am going to improve my quality of life I should do it now while I am still young enough to enjoy it. Between the cruise and my surgery I will be out of the office for at least 5 weeks. I am getting a lap top so I can keep up with my work from home. I have been in this particular position for 11 years and I have been one deep the entire time. Now it seems management has figure out that nobody else knows how to do my job and are in a panic. I am in charge of nonnuclear munitions loading for the F-16, and I am the weight and balance authority for the aircraft.

They have assigned fellow to be my alternate this past Thursday. I know him by sight but don’t know where he sits. He works in another building and I don’t think I have spoken to him more then two or three time ever, and that was about fishing. One of my bosses asked if there were classes that teach my job. I explained to him that I learned it through 11 years of on the job training.

Retirement is looking better and better all the time. I believe I have about 129 days until I am eligible. One more cup of coffee while I read the paper and I will tackle the basement. Wish me luck.

Things are going well with mom here. She has put on some weight and is enjoying herself. I have gotten most of the items completed that I need to for her to stay. I'll admit that most of these she does not know about. I tell tell her that she was staying. She got upset and told me if she stayed she would just pout. I told her that was fine. She pouted for a couple of hours and now she is just being herself.

It was a fight and a half to get my mom up here. My eldest son and my daughter got the job done. Mom does not know that she is not going home. As I have said before she can not live alone anymore. The comparison of her now and the picture I post a couple of weeks ago is dramatic. She has lost so much weight I would bet she is down between 20 to 30 pounds. She is getting three squares a day now.

I went to an assisted living facility this morning to check the place out. I did not get any warm fuzzies over the place. I think I am going to see how mom does here for a while. Get some weight put back on her and stimulate the old brain matter some. I need prayer