Milestones

We passed a new milestone today. Georgia grabbed a good handful of beard hair. I've been wondering when that would happen. Her mom and aunts were real good at it. It looks like the skill didn't skip a generation.

Yesterday and Friday I worked in the garage some. Among ather things, I rewired an old ceiling lamp that my dad had made out of an old acetelyne lamp. It used to hang in my parents house. Actually I have two. I hung the first one in the garage and have the second ready to go too.

I may blog some more later, right now I'm off to the mall with Sara, Rebekah and Georgia.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. All the kids and baby Georgia were here. We had Christmas dinner and breakfast Christmas morning.
Christmas Eve mom, Doug and Janie, and Heather and Randy were here. It was a real good time of seeing and talking to everyone. We had barrel cooked tri-tip, and other delicious dishes. Rebekah had done apple and pumpkin pies for dessert. After dinner we opened presents.
Christmas morning Jan made a great breakfast with Swedish Pancakes, bacon, saugage, English Muffins and bagels. Anna and Ken cooked the sausage at their house and brought it over. When breakfast was over we opened our stockings. It is always fun to see what stocking stuffers everyone has come up with.
By early afternoon everyone had left for other festivities and we spent a peaceful afternoon at home.
It was a great Christmas.

Wireless

Rebekah and Jan got me a wireless router for Christmas. They decided I should open it early, so I did. It works very well.

Over the weekend I was part of the Urban Mission Fresno project. We started on Friday evening at the Mennonite Biblical Seminary. For dinner we were sent to restaurants that were supposed to broaden our horizons. My group, made up of more veteran Fresnans decided the Chinese buffet we were assigned to was not outside our box so we went to a Pho restaurant on Kings Canyon. It was good. A couple of us think nezt year we'll offer a list of restaurants that really should broaden a few horizons.
Saturday the team I was with spent the day in downtown Fresno near Broadway and Divisadero at the World Impact building. We helped get ready for their Christmas Open House. We cleaned up, hung lights, and generally decorated. As 5:00 pm approached we also helped get food ready.
When the doors opened at 5:00 most of us worked food booths. I served egg rolls. People loved them. Lots of people from the community came and enjoyed the evening.
When we were finished, about 7:30, we cruised a few neighborhoods. We were given directions that took us to the westside, the Rowell neighborhood and the downtown area.
On Sunday we went back to World Impact and cleaned up, then had a touring church service giving us a look at some of the areas in town that World Impact is impacting. We were greatly blessed by the opportunity to see their ministries. Our weekend ended back at the seminary at 3:00 pm.
It was a great time. The staff was well prepared and worked hard to give us a missionary experience.

Thursday Afternoon

This afternoon I met at Starbucks with my men's group from church. We meet every Thursday. Mostly we talked about Acts chapter 20. That's where Mountain View is in our annual Bible reading. It is always a great time. It is good to get together with the men and talk about God and come to him in prayer. I look forward to it every week.

Cookies

Tonight I made Scotch Shortbread (p. 674,Boston Cooking School Cookbook, 1944). I used the wooden mold my Aunt Sibella gave me when she found out I like cooking shortbread. It has a Scotch Thistle carved in it. I plan on taking the cookies to school tomorrow. I made enough for home too.

Since a week ago yesterday I've been meeting with a friend and going for a walk before work. He is a former Calwa student, although he was a middle schooler when I started working there so I didn't have him in class. He is a fire fighter and in lots better shape than I, but he seems to be okay with me as a walking partner. We have settled on a route that takes us down Cedar Ave. to the railroad tracks on California Ave. It is a little less than a mile one way and gets me back at work by 7:30 which is a little later than I'm used to, but plenty early nonetheless.

Newness

We had a great weekend. Saturday Sara sent me a text message asking if we felt like having company, which of course we did. So, the Woodys came up.
I got to have Georgia at 5:30 or so on Sunday morning while Sara got to get a little sleep. I greatly enjoy those mornings. Sara, Ricky and Georgia came to church, making everyone happy. Lots of people had been praying for and looking forward to getting to see the baby. It was a great day. Georgia's aunts had a wonderful time showing her off. They really love her.
I imagine everyone who has ever been a grandparent can relate to what it has been like these last few weeks. Even before the birth, I was realizing that this is a new amazing time of life with interesting things around every corner. I think grand babies make you pay more attention to life.

Back to the Salt Mine

Today was the second back from Thanksgiving and I got to fill in for a teacher who is sick and who had no substitute show up. It is a sixth grade class. The students are good and smart. It is nice to get back in the classroom once in a while. Of course some things I wanted to do didn't get done, but I'll work them in sometime.

Day After and Still Thankful

Thanksgiving was great at Anna's. The food was almost as good as the company. Anna did a great job with everything. It was our first time cooking baby backs (Actually I did one rack in a small barrell for Rebekah's birthday, but never on this scale.) in a barrel tri tip style. They took about two hours and came out just fine. It will be interesting to experiment with different rubs and maybe wood chips. I'd also like to figure out how to cook a little slower like they do on the Food Network.

Today I got a picture album of Georgia up on Yahoo. I've never had an online album, I guess it worked out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have much to be thankful for. Our girls and boys are doing well.
Rebekah is a history major at Fresno State thinking about being a teacher. She works at Gottschalks. She makes the best holiday pies in the world and is making one right now.
Anna and Ken are working hard and successfully. She is a sixth grade teacher at Turner School in Fresno. He is the youth pastor at Mountain View Community Church. They keep busy with work and church projects. They are hosting Thanksgiving dinner today, their first in their new house. Anna has baby back ribs as well as turkey and the traditional fixin's on the menu.
Sara and Ricky are in the funeral business. It keeps them busy. They have five funeral homes in the business now. They had a baby, Georgia, on November sixth. She is a wonderful little girl and Sara and Ricky are great parents. They are coming to Fresno this weekend to see some friends and it will be nice see them all.
I am thankful for Jan being my wife for 30+ years. She is the best.
Jan and I are thankful to God for his great provision, protection, presence and salvation.
Have a great Thanksgiving

Homecoming and Thanksgiving

Jan came home last night and although I am glad she got to be in Bakersfield, I was sure happy to see her. She had a great time with Sara, Ricky, and the baby. She got to help out with Georgia's first real bath.

Tomorrow we have Thanksgiving at Anna's. She is having ribs. Granny, Heather and Randy are coming.

The blogosphere is getting bigger. My cousin Betsy has put up a blog. I've added a link to it.

Visiting the Mom, Dad and Baby

Yesterday after work I drove to Bakersfield. Last night everyone got a good night's sleep. I thought I might be some help in case Georgia needed to be awake, but she slept just fine.
Today I baby sat a little while Sara went on an errand or two. One thing she did was print birth announcements.
We went for a walk with Georgia in the stroller. The ladies across the street having a Christmas Bazaar rightly think Georgia is beautiful.
Tonight I might get to make dinner or maybe stay with the baby if Sara and Ricky want to go out.
Tomorrow after Thanksgiving lunch at church Jan is coming down.

Today I spent the day back at work, although my mind was in Bakersfield. I don't have any new pictures to share today, but Sara has some great ones on Georgia's blog.
Sara and Woody are great parents. It has been great seeing them with Georgia. She is a lucky little girl.

Sunday Morning

Today I am heading back to Fresno. Jan is staying until at least Monday and maybe Tuesday.
I imagine We'll have some time next week to come back and visit. Fresno Unified has Thanksgiving week off so if things work out We'll be in Bakersfield early next week.
Thanksgiving is at Anna and Ken's house so that will be nice. We're having ribs cooked in a barrel.

Aunts and Uncles

Anna and Ken dropped by today to see little Georgia. They had been down south visiting with Ken's parents. They love their niece.

Beautiful in the Morning

It is Saturday morning and I am holding Georgia. Sara and Woody are trying to get some sleep. Everything is just as it should be. There are even tree trimmers outside adding to a lovely November day.
This beautiful little one is making faces once in a while. Sometimes she looks surprised, sometimes happy, and sometimes like she's thinking real hard. Thursday Sara said she thinks Georgia dreams and I think we get to share in those dreams through the little faces she makes. What wonderful things she must see.
I wonder what she has to dream about. I wonder if dreams need some experiences to build on. Maybe before we get them, babies are singing with angels and she's dreaming about heavenly things.
Anyway, it is a beautiful baby this lovely morning and grandpa is happy, with a little tear of joy in his eye.

Happy Grandma and Grandpa

Doctor Visit

This morning Georgia is going to visit her doctor. Her mom amd grandmother are taking her. She is four days old today.

Bakersfield Babe

Today after work I drove to Bakersfield. When I arrived I got to hold the baby. I am still pretty good at holding a baby and having dinner at the same time.
After dinner I drove Sara to Target so she could shop for a few things that she needed. After shopping Georgia had a good meal and went to sleep. Right now Woody is holding Georgia sitting on the couch. Things kind of look like a Norman Rockwell painting.
It has been a very good evening.

Last night I drove home from visiting the mom, dad, and new baby in Bakersfield. Jan and Rebekah stayed. Today Anna and Ken went for a visit.

I visited mom this afternoon and showed her the pictures of Georgia on this blog. She enjoyed seeing them. Later we drove over to the Eye Institute and picked up her new pair of glasses. Then we went to Sonic. She likes Sonic Blasts with Butterfinger. Tomorrow I'm going to pick her up for dinner. I think we'll go to In and Out or some other fast food place.

Pictures of Georgia

Here is little Georgia Woody. She was born today at 1:02 PM. She weighed 7lbs. 10 oz. Mom and baby are well.

Visiting the Baby

Jan and I are going to Bakersfield tomorrow to visit with Sara, Woody and Georgia. Jan will stay most of the week. I will come home and be at work on Tuesday. Rebekah is going too a little later. She has to drop off a term paper at school first. Anna is trying to take Tuesday off so she can visit then. We'll try to get some photos up tomorrow. Rebekah will have her laptop and digital camera with her so we should be able to post pictures.

We got the lighting projects done on Sunday. We had to take several trips to Home Depot and Lowes but eventually had success. Sara and Woody's house is a cool old place and there were a few surprises in the wall. My favorite was to find that the paneling in the baby's room is new (a relative term) with old stuff underneath. When I cut a hole for an electrical box, I could see the markings left by an earlier light fixture on the older wall.
The baby's room looks nice and ready for the little one.

Wiring

Tonight I am in Bakersfield. Sara and Woody took Rebekah and me out to dinner and to a cool little ice cream parlor afterward. Tomorrow I am going to rewire a couple light fixtures in the baby's room.

Yesterday I finished, To Kill a Mockingbird. I had never read it. My daughter, Rebekah suggested it to me. It is a good book. The cover says it was voted the best novel of the 20th century. I guess it could be. Usually I don't get in to the crowd that sees deep meaning in stuff, but I'll be thinking about that book for quite a while. And now I'll know what a Boo Radley moment is.

Today I put a roof on a storage container I built. I patterned it after something I saw in a Martha Stewart magazine. It is in the style of shabby chic, made out of some old doors. It looks like an outhouse. Right now there are some lawn tools and patio chairs in it.

Earlier today I downloaded Open Office on to Rebekah's new laptop. I learned about it at a technology training put on by the school district. It is an open source product that seems completely compatible with Microsoft Office and it is free.

I spent most of this week at work trying to get ready for the new school year. I got a lot of things done, settled in a little more into my office, took care of a few things for some teachers and pondered the end of summer.

Wow, this blogging could change a person's life. Who knew I'd still be pondering things I read on a blog days ago, or even conversations last week about the Dixie Chics? Anyway as long as it is okay to talk about little or nothing on one's blog, here are some thoughts connected to the Dixie Chics, last night's Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young concert and Ed's Blog from July 13th.

1. It is good to have political diversity.
2. It is good that the folks on either end of the political spectrum don't run the show.
3. It is good that we have those folks.
4. It is good that the president's obligation to protect the Dixie Chics' freedom of speech is greater than their obligation to agree with him.
5. Same about CSN&Y.
6. I still love their harmony.
7. Why do we listen to the famous?
8. Why do rock stars find political activism so easy when I struggle with talking to my neighbor about Jesus?

Heat Wave, Corn Fields, and Ceiling Fans

My dad would say, "It is so hot you can hear the corn growing". I always figured that was a midwest thing since there is so much corn back there. Daddy was from Illinois and I imagine on a breezeless afternoon you might just be able to here the corn grow.

This morning I helped my son-in-law, Ken put in ceiling fans. He was in his attic by 6:30 trying to beat the heat. The Weather Channel says it is 112 degrees this afternoon so getting started early was a good thing. We got three fans up and running.

More High Chair

I worked on the high chair some more today. Most of it is glued up and the hinges and lock that keeps it from folding up when it shouldn't are painted antique brass. Tomorrow I'll have to go to the hardware store for screws that will hold the wheels on. So far I think it is turning out well.

Family

I got a phone call from my cousin Betsy this afternoon. She and her sister Jane were in town visiting their mom, Jean. They wanted directions to mom's so they could drop by for a visit. I went over too. I had a good time. It was good to see them.

High Chair

I've had this box in my garage for a while now. The high chair that I had as a baby was inside. I don't remember being a baby and using it, but I do remember babies that came after me using it. It was a cool high chair. It hinged in the middle to become a car. It even had wheels, although no steering wheel.
I have spent a few days getting it ready to be put back together. Lots of the work had been done years ago, probably by my dad or sister. I finished sanding a few parts and remaking one. I still need to make a new tray to replace the plastic one that is missing.
Happily, whoever rescued the high chair also saved the hardware for the tray. I'm pretty sure I can make a wooden tray that will work well.
I've dry fit most most of the parts. In fact that is when I noticed the piece I had to replace. Today I hope to get the base glued up. If I get that right, adjusting the seat to fit when I glue it up should be doable.

Blogging

Today I have become convinced that blogging everyday is hard work. Having nothing to say I visited a few blogs that Sara has links to on her blog, interesting. I was especially impressed with the craftmanship of Adam and the thinking of Ed about the topics of global warming, not lying to get free tickets and Jesus.

Granny and the Internet

I helped mom get on the internet today. Several people had emailed her since Randy (my brother-in-law)set up her Yahoo account a few days ago. I don't know if she will get in to email. It was all so new to her. Using a mouse and clicking don't come naturally. I'll give her another lesson in a few days. There are lots of people who she could keep in touch with if she gets the hang of email so I think it is worth a little more effort.

I had no luck finding the crib part for Sara, although the garage is getting cleaned up pretty well.

Garage

Today I spent most of the day cleaning my garage. I have two reasons to clean up. First Sara is working on the crib that Jan gave her and a part is missing. I hope it turns up in my garage. Second I plan on parking Grandpa George's 1951 Chevy Pickup inside while I work on getting it road ready. If all goes well I'm going to get it from my brother Doug later this week.

My other project for today was to make a part for a piece of furniture I'm trying to fix up. So far it is going well. I have one more piece to try to recreate. I think it will be nice when I am done. If so, I'll get some photos and put them up.

Another bit of curiosity is that Granny, my mom has and email account now. What do you know? I hope she gets interested in it.

Sunday

Today was a great Sunday. It started with church this morning. MT needed a greeter and usher so I was glad to be outside welcoming folks and passing out bulletins. I was working alonside a young friend, Mark, who is finishing student teaching this fall and planning on getting a job as a P.E. teacher when he is finished. It was good to have a time hearing about his plans for the future.
Church was good, with Pastor Fred continuing the series on spiritual fitness. It has been good to be challenged to get into shape with God. We also heard a testimony by one of the ladies who had been on the mission trip to Keyna. I am still suffering from a little mission envy. I am happy that Rebekah and Anna and Ken got to go. They had a great time and saw wonderful and miraculous things.
After church I met with my Fire Team men's group. We have a good time sharing and praying for each other.
Later I visited mom and had a good time talking to the ladies in her new home. She seems to be doing quite well, eating better and sleeping less. I think she is stimulated by her new surroundings.
Yesterday Sara was up from Baskerfield to visit. We had a wonderful housefull in the afternoon with all three girls and their aunt JoAnne from San José.

Cruising

I drove over to church with the cooler attached this afternoon and gave my friend Wil a ride. He could definitely feel cool air coming through the vent. It was good to get a second opinion.

Cool Understandings

I solved the problem of hanging the cooler on my pickup's window today. I scavenged a waist strap from an old knapsack and another from a bag to an old leaf blower, bent a couple large washers into hooks and what do you know? It worked. Next I'll go out for a drive and see what happens.
When I took the cooler apart there were two cords that I didn't understand. Last night I began to wonder if they were each wound around the cooler pad drum in different directions to allow the driver or passenger to pull one or the other to rotate the drum and re-wet the pad. I'm thinking that must be right so later I'll add those cords to see how things work. I've got some cord that almost matches the old stuff.
Alrightythen, I'm off for a test drive.

Alrightythen

Sara Helen called today and my grand daughter has a name now. She and Woody have been kicking around several names and it sounds like they have decided. I bet you could check out Sara's blog to see the name.

Cooler Follow-up
Today I replaced the old aspen cooler pad with a new one. I had to trim the pad to fit and I got the cooler all together, but haven't solved the problem of hanging it in my window. Tomorrow I'll look around for an idea.

Cool Cooler

Today I started to work on an old automobile swamp cooler. My sister gave it to me. Years ago she saved it from the farm where we grew up outside of Chowchilla. I don't know any story behind whose it had been back in the days before car air conditioning. I know I thought it was old when I was young and I haven't been young in a long time.
Eventually I got the thing apart and found it was full of some nasties. Something had used it for a nest. Whatever had built the nest was was long gone, but there were nesting materials that resembled cotton or maybe the stuffing out of an old chair or something. As I recall, either would have been plentiful in the old barn where the cooler lived for many years.

I found that it works muck like a modern swamp cooler for a house using a pad of aspen shavings that adds moisture to the air that is scooped in as you drive down the road and swirled through the vents into the cab. I haven't been to OSH to get a cooler pad yet but when I do I'll have to figure out how the cooler hangs on the window and door and exactly how the whole thing works. I used to think that the pad inside spun around like a squirrel cage as you drove, but now that I've seen inside I think I was wrong about the spinning.

I hope I can find an old timer or car or cooler buff that can fill me in on some of the details about this type of car cooler. In the meantime I'm off to the hardware store.