Lunch at Taylors, Thanks Dolly

Dear Family and Friends,
This has been a pretty good day overall. The wind was blowing so hard this morning that I missed the walk around the lake. It had blown hard all night, rattled the blinds, shook the chimes and sometimes even the little house. Starr just snuggled even closer to stay warm. I was able to nearly complete an appraisal this morning before the time came to leave for the Oakley appointment. What a set of contrasts, beautiful kitchen cabinets and Corian counters, newly laid tile floors, family room had a beautifully assembled fireplace. On the other hand the entire furnace and central AC had been taken away, the house has no interior doors, the kitchen has no appliances and there were no wall plug or switch covers anywhere. Of course it is bank owned and the people losing their homes tend to do some strange things on the way out.
Then it was time to set the GPS for Novato in Marin County. I arrived there to find it very warm even in the middle of the day. The property there was a two story town home in decent condition with one very broken window which was boarded up. When I completed that appraisal I called Dolly who had promised lunch or dinner depending on the time of day. She had just completed her shift working for the rental car company and was ready to eat. She asked if I minded going to Taylor's. She said they had wonderful vegeburgers. She was so right. The food was excellent and I enjoyed the time as we chatted about our lives and their ups and downs. Dolly would often drive over to see Nan and has really excellent prayers, in the same mature vein as Irene. There is just something very special about being a part of a prayer where the person doing the praying really knows the Lord on a personal basis. Finally Dolly and I had eaten the last crumb of our lunches, she needed to rest and I needed to start the journey home. I'm a bit concerned about my bug lately. It cools well when driving up to speed but in stop and go traffic I can hear the compressor turn on and off repeatedly. I know that will shorten the clutch life and I need to find a way to get it into the repair shop before more damage is done to the other AC parts. It felt good to finally drive into the garage tonight, to greet Starr and Lady and to settle into the work chair to check messages, the mail and do a bit of clearing of the desk. I noticed that when you turn your back on a work desk the papers multiply and stack up.
I've got to put a plug in for the new blue tooth earpiece AT&T supplied yesterday. It is half the weight, much more comfortable and is the best Jawbone yet. For those of us in California as of July 1 we cannot use our cell phones in the car without a hands free device. I really urge you to consider a blue tooth device, very simple to keep charged, to use and in spite of the way it looks it just make things a lot safer.
One envelope got my attention, it was from PG&E and was a 48 hour notice. Well having had the power turned off once at the house when several people were working at their computers I do take notice of 48 hour warnings so I went on line, checked the bank account and then paid the past due portion of the bill on line. Talk about waiting until the last minute! Yikes.
Well someone called on the phone today to request an appraisal so I am seeing it tomorrow morning at 10. Hopefully they will be willing to pay up front and that will help keep the cash flow working. I can't remember any time in my life when money was this tight month after month. It helps one appreciate little things like slowing down in the car. I got 300 miles on the first 1/2 tank in the bug when I usually struggle to get 250 miles. The only difference is 65 instead of 75. Its worth it I think.
I am still in hopes that Dana and Anthony can come on Saturday for their visit and to help with Nikki, Keanna and the baby. I know Dana will get here as soon as she can and has her hands full right now with her own grand babies. She reminds me of Mary Poppins.
Pam travels to Seattle tomorrow using a wheel chair. Our prayers are for her to avoid blood clots and to have a safe and secure trip. She gets to witness Shannon graduating from College. How very exciting for her and for Shannon as well.
Good night,

Tim