Big party this Saturday, We are having a party for mom. Her birthday is next Thursday but we are having the party this weekend. We went to Sam’s club and laid down about $200 for food. We still have a few things to pick up, like my sister at the airport and the cake. It should be a good time, pictures to follow

My mom has gotten an offer on her house. Much less then we were asking, but we started asking before the housing market crashed. The real estate agent handling the property for us (this is down in San Diego) feels the market has not bottomed out yet. She believes that it will continue down for the rest of the year and then stabilize for a couple years before it starts to climb again. I don’t want to have a house sitting vacant for a couple years. I can see nothing good in that. I am coordinating with my sister on the sale of the house. She has been a little more hesitant to sale at a lower price, but talking with her last night it seems that she is starting to except that it is what it is.

Mom was saying that she missed the house. She had lived in it for 50 years and raised both me and my sister. I can not imagine how hard it must be on her to know she has lost a certain amount of her independence. Mom does seem to enjoy our company but it still must be hard. After all those years she is picking up after me again

To hear the story behind these pictures go my friend Nate's blog and read "well that was an adventure"

This is a three day weekend for me, Monday being President’s day. Plans include clean up the garage so I can put my truck in it, watching Ava on Sunday and going to church, and Monday my buddy Nate and I are heading for the desert. Nate picked up a couple of cap & ball black powder revolvers. So I figured we should go try those out and I should bring along my muzzle loader. I have TC 54 cal. I have not had it out of the gun safe for a couple of years, time to dust it off and make a lot of smoke. I am sure that we will bring a couple of other guns as well. Just haven’t figured out which ones.


I am thinking about getting black powder deer permit this year. I did not put in for the lottery on deer permits but there always seems to be some left over that can be bought first come first serve. With black powder the chances of getting a deer go way down. This can be a good thing; I would not have to field dress, drag, cut the critter up. But it is a good excuse to walk around the woods with black powder rifle. It is also upland game season and I can carry my shotgun for grouse. I really enjoy grouse hunting and with my new knees I am hoping that it will be more enjoyable this year, besides Grouse are so much easier to drag then deer.

I was looking through the obituaries this morning. It is a morbid habit I know but I still do it and I am sure that you do also. I saw the Mr. Dick Tyer had passed away. Dick was the gentleman that hired me from a blue collar to white collar some twenty years ago. He was a very nice guy and I enjoyed working for him. Dick had been retired for some 18 years. Whenever I see someone I have known pass away I tend to reflect on my own mortality. My heath issues in recent years tend to weigh a little heavier. I am eligible for retirement in 9 days but I plan to stay through the end of 2009. There are sound reasons for staying but it reading obits does make one think.

I do believe it is time for more coffee and then it is off to the garage.

I got home from work yesterday and my neighbor had removed all the snow off my travel trailer. The trailer sits on the north side of my house in the shadow of the garage. The snow does not melt in this location. There was close to four feet of snow on the trailer and we are expecting a little more tonight. Not only did he remove the snow from the trailer, he cut a path through his yard so I could get into the trailer to check for damage. The only damage we could find was to the air conditioner cover. It was broke in a couple of places. Made some temporary repairs and I figure to replace it sometime this spring.



I am ready for spring this year. If only so my mom can get out of the house into the back yard and do stuff. It has been much to cold and the snow has been much too deep this year to do much of anything outside.

I went to Florida Tuesday and got back yesterday evening. Left 70 degrees came back to 32 degrees and a lot of snow in the yard. Maybe relocation would not be a bad thing.