Legion of Honor and de Young Museum

Dear Family and Friends,
This day developed much differently than I expected. Ken and I walked this morning at 8 and then I did my normal oakmeal breakfast with grapes and a couple striples. The phone rang and it was Jason. They were going to the city today to the Legion of Honor and the de Young, would I like to meet them. My first thought was, no, I've got to work and then I remembered the Cat STevens song, Cats in the Cradle. First the dad is too busy to play with his son and then the son is to busy to play with his dad, in light of the message of that song I impulsivly decided to meet them and enjoy the day. It turned out better than one could even hope. The weather was perfect, chilly and windy but clear and sunny, I found a parking place right by the fountain at the front of the facility, met them inside and enjoyed the sights, oils from the 1600 and 1700s through new things just completed. We noticed that we were all hungry so we tried an Indian place on Clement which turned out to be very good. Satisfied we then drove to the de Young Museum and again took in all we could take in before becoming too tired. Little Timothy took it all in and charmed the docents, played and crawled and shivered with the cold when we walked back to the car. He was a very good boy and I've included a couple photos from today. Part of the de Young is a tower that is several stories in the air and has floor to ceiling windows overlooking much of San Francisco. That was very interesting. All to soon it was time to head home so they went their way and planned to go by Fort Funston where hang gliders reside and fly out over the surf in droves. I set the GPS for home but once reaching Orinda I was too sleepy to continue. I slept for over an hour and then felt better to make the trip home. Once home I made soup, watched a bit of an exciting movie and have now come into the office to write this epistle.
I want to thank my thoughtful children for including me in their weekend plans. At least now I can keep up when we have to walk places, that is in sharp comparison to the time we spend in Hawaii where every short walk caused huffing and puffing and seemed risky.
I just had the chance to talk to Sylvia who is just back from a business trip for her ultra sound classes. While on the trip she had the chance to catch up with Joyce and Glen Connor who were visiting Kim and her husband and the new baby Hannah. Sylvia is a constant source of inspiration to me. I do not mean to suggest that she does not struggle with this time of recovery, she does and she is honest about it with me and that is a help to me as well. We are both grappling with the reality of the whole process, that our loved ones are not coming back. This raw reality stikes us over and over many times when we do not expect it. Yes we both have the hope of seeing them again in eternity but in this life and in this present time we have to move forward alone with this gaping hole in our lives and hearts.
I was comforted by reading the messages to the blog today. I gain great strength from those who send messages and I deeply appreciate reading and savoring them like fine wine.
I do ask for your prayers that new work might be faxed or emailed in for this week. Its a very slow time and slow translates into reduced income.
Very soon I'm going to share with you a challenge Keith Tall issued to me, I think you will find it very facinating as I do.
Please set yourselves up for a good week ahead. You know the blank slate idea, lets do good things and suffer along with ARt and Connie as they embark on a cruise to the Mexican Riveira, similar to the one Nan and I took last spring.
Love to all, how can I help you this week?
Tim