The Latest from Home

Well Hi All,

Been awhile since I put anything up on the site, so maybe It’s time to pass along a few thoughts.

Picked up Zachary at Los Angeles International airport last Tuesday and have been enjoying having him around. We thought we had to pick him up at 1:00pm but as it turned out, the time was a little after 2:00pm. The trip to the airport started out on a slow foot, we left later than we should’ve. Forgot about the traffic situation around the airport that time of day. On top of that, we had driven almost the 30 miles to Santa Barbara and realized that we had left the paper work on which flight Zachary was coming in on and the permission slip allowing us to pick him up, sitting on the counter at home.

So after driving back home, picking up the paperwork, and getting back down to Santa Barbara, we were about an hour and half behind schedule. All in all, traffic wasn’t that bad and we got to the airport at 12:30pm. That’s when found out he was due for almost another two hours. Also that only one of us would be able to go to the gate to meet him. Bummer. Anyway, he had a good flight and we were happy to see him. We picked up his luggage and headed off to Los Olivos. The moment we got home, Zachary was off to survey the back yard to refresh his memories of his boyhood home.

Maria and I told him about some of the plans for the next month, camping with Austin and Talon up near San Francisco, maybe a ride on the BART train into San Francisco and the street car down to the waterfront, and maybe, depending on finances, a trip to the aquarium in Monterey. We’ve rented a trailer in a campground near Morgan Hill. It has a swimming pool, miniature golf course, a small stream to play in and a youth clubhouse. Should have enough different things to keep us all occupied. We though Zachary would need a little spending money, so were having him help us strip and repaint our picnic set. He saw our lemon tree with all the lemons on it and suggested selling lemonade out front of the house. We thought he would have better success if he just sold the lemons. He set up a little stand under the new arbor, made some signs and he was in business. In the two days he had his stand open, he made over $4.00 with the lemons priced 10¢ each. Last Saturday and the last two days, he’s been working on the picnic set. He and Maria got the first coat of stain on today. Not going to do the legs; will wait till the old paint buckles and falls off.

Maria spoke with René last night. He likes his new job, working security on Nellis Air Force base outside of Las Vegas. He’s working a modified second shift, 1:00 – 9:00pm. In the area he is stationed, the guard post is in the shade when he arrives, so it’s somewhat cooler. Sara is doing great. They have started feeding her a little rice cereal, so the other night she slept 5 hours straight and he and Joy were thankful for that. They made a quick trip to Santa Barbara to see Al off and Sara seemed to be okay with the traveling. René had an experience changing her diaper, ended up using three of them. I’m sure that won’t be the last time there will be a multiple changing. He didn’t say how far along he was on his plan to have Sara potty trained by the time she was 10 months old, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

The remodel is done in Nicole’s old bedroom. Just a few knick-knacks to go. It came out quite nice, at least Zachary is getting some good use out of it. I really have to give Maria credit, when she has a vision of how something should look, it most often comes out looking extremely pleasant. Next room on the agenda is our bedroom, but not for awhile though. Our tomatoes are growing well, been eating our broccoli for several weeks now and the cabbage is almost ready. But never again will we try to grow cauliflower. Ours came out bitter with even a more bitter after taste, if that was possible.


time to sign off and publish this message.

Love to you all,

Ole, Dad, Grandpa or Junior (Depending on who is reading this.)