Tuesday, May 30, 2006

A Perfect Weekend!

Well, Memorial Day has come and gone, but what a great weekend it was! Since Memorial Day was on a Monday, I had a great three-day weekend, and even though the weather man had promised cloudy weather for the whole weekend, by Saturday Morning the clouds were gone, and the sun came out in full force. And so far, the sun continues to stay high in the sky, and it seems that summer is finally here. This year we have had a serious case of what we call “May Gray” with gray and overcast skies, but not this weekend! So, what do we do in SoCal when the weather is really nice? For me, the usual; take Mikey to the skate-parks, walk the dog, jog a little bit, ride me bike, a little picnic at the park, and barbeque on the grill. Screwed up my mountain bike, the whole derailleur got caught in the spokes, and the whole thing broke off. Fear not, I just got on my street-bike, and rode some more. Better to ride the darn thing and have it fall apart, than letting the thing rust in the garage! Also, a little digging in the yard, and the weekend is complete! Our new dog Sidney continues to tear up the backyard, we have given up on flowers (she just tramples the poor things), and now we will try bushes instead. Our house is a never-ending project; built in 1983, nobody had done anything to fix it up, even the original carpet was in! When we moved in (November 2002), there was no way of telling what the original carpet color was (dirty gray, or was it dirty tan?), save for a patch in the living room, where a large curio cabinet had left an imprint that looked like something from outer space. Ergo, the carpet had been pink at one time! Needless to say, we to tore that old thing out, and at least we have decent carpet! By the way, it is now lunch time, and I finally have some time to update the blog. I have an office that also doubles as manufacturing storage, kinda cool, I can sit and listen to one of my favorite web stations (www.ksbr.com), a progressive jazz station from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, SoCal. So how did I get here? This is not my beautiful house, this is not my beatuful wife, this is not my beautiful car (to paraphrase the Talking Heads)! Well it is, so Ha There! All it took was nine and a half years of night-school while working full time, and then working two jobs for another three and a half years! Yes, besides my engineering job, I also worked at Home Depot between fall of -97 and spring-2001, a pain in the back, but it gave us an extra $50,000.00, which we used to pay of some bills, and then buy our first house after our bankruptcy in -90. Just work like a dog, and you too can have a house in Irvine, CA! All joking aside, I’m proud of my accomplishments, and very happy that I have both the strength and the support from home. And when I pray, I only pray for three things; Strength, a long life, and that I never have to bury any of my kids. Now that’s not too much to ask for!!! My goodness, the sun is still shining, I think I will get some more done in the backyard tonight, what a great life! So, until next time; Rock on, don’t take life too seriously, and enjoy the company of Family and Friends!!

Yours, PL

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Santa Barbara Again!

Time again for a Post from lovely SoCal!!! Well, if you gotta be working, being in Santa Barbara is not a bad place to be!!! It seems that I don’t have time to update my blog from the house, and currently I’m too darn busy at the office to get any thing done, besides work that is!!! Anyway, it’s great to be employed, I was laid off in 2001 for 4.5 months, a very scary time indeed!!! No, we did not loose our house or get divorced, but it was quite scary nevertheless. I did quite a bit of remodeling of our old townhouse, a couple of bathrooms, and later on we redid the whole kitchen!!! However, there were a few nights during that time that I woke up in a cold sweat, thinking how am I ever going to do this!! No income, and three kids and a mortgage. Fortunately, Kathy worked two jobs during that time, at Home Depot during the evenings and as a substitute teacher during the day!!! She truly is the best thing that ever happened to me, and she has also given me my three kids, the most wonderful thing ever!!! But I rant on, this is about the here and now, and now is in lovely Santa Barbara!! I go here every few weeks, and stay for a night. Just enough to truly appreciate what I have at home, since I miss all of them, but if I gotta travel, I gotta travel!!! My travel buddy Randy May is getting ready, we are going to go to the Fish House, a great local restaurant, and eat ourselves silly. Then it’s back to the hotel, and collapse in a big heap!!! Anyway, life continues to be great, Kathy’s arm is getting much better after her fall, and my dad is back home after almost 3 months in the hospital. He is getting better every day, has a physical therapist that comes to the house a few times a week, and we are all keeping our fingers crossed that he gets completely recovered.
Gotta go, love all of you, have the most wonderful time until the next time!

Yours, Peter L.