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Dear Family and Friends,
Interesting day! Walked this morning with Ken, prayed for more work and money, showered and prepared to leave for an appointment in Oakland. Just before I left I noticed a fax had come in. It was a new COD order so not wanting to miss an opportunity I called and got an appointment for this afternoon. Then I quickly did my research and hit the road. I arrived a bit late for the first appointment in Oakland. The house was nice and in a quiet area near San Leandro. I rang the bell but no one came at first. I did some measuring while I waited and finally a kind old gentleman appeared on the front sidewalk. He told me that his wife was not feeling that the house was tidy enough but I told him that I could easily overlook any house keeping snafu. I finished measuring and shooting my exterior photos and again came to the front door. This time the little gentleman came to the door and said, I've been married 60 years and I'm being told you'll have to come back another day as the house is not clean enough. In all my thousands of appraisals this has never happened before so being basically a nice guy I had to retreat without seeing the inside of the house. So I'll have to drive back another day to Oakland, about a hour from my house just to see the inside. Now the real rub is this, they made the appointment last week so they really had enough time but for some reason the house was not quite up to her standards so no entry. So what do you do, get nasty, I think not. The poor little guy offered to pay me for the extra trip and I declined that offer. Sometimes you just have to be understanding and make your own schedule adjust.
I went ahead and shot the comps and then headed over to El Cerrito to shoot the comps for the place that turned out to be three units. On the way my body told me to find food quickly, the blood sugar was getting low. I located a California Pizza kitchen in a newly completed shopping area and dined on great tasting 5 cheese pizza with fresh tomatoes. Then it was on to the comps which I shot quickly.
I then set the GPS for Pleasant Hill where the COD appraisal was to be done. When I entered the neighborhood I was struck by what a nice place it was, huge 1/2 and 3/4 acre lots, mature oaks, gentle slopes to the sites. My property was the smallest house in the neighborhood with a good sized site, pool, spa and some updating. It had what we call in that area a "tahoe setting". What fun to walk the groups, see the improvements and get to know a new friend. Then it was time to head home and as Nikki pointed out to me on her call, once again I had managed to be through just at the time of day when the traffic was awful. She was right but things kept moving and the trip home was without incident.
Tomorrow I head back to Dr. Makker in Tracy. He is the one guiding me through this new eating plan, well I have been a very bad patient. I'm going because I want to see the results of my blood tests and he will have them. I'm sure I will get a bit of a lecture but I've not felt like jumping through all the hoops yet, actually I've been a bit depressed over the last couple weeks, no excuses, actually I don't need any excuses since its my life and my weight I'm dealing with or not dealing with. I have made some changes, I've increased the amount of water I'm drinking now by 5 fold and I'm also using the medical wafers for snacks during the between meal times to keep the blood sugar more in control. They are really good and I usually end up having one a day at some point.
As soon as I leave the doctors office I have to race up to Lodi to do a $50 inspection and then head home to do the report, email the photos, then see a local property on a rush basis for a purchase and collect a check as well. At 2 pm Keanna comes to visit and that will sure make the day come alive.
So life continues. Over the last 24 hours I've had a chance to trade emails with Richard from Hilo. He is a very precious friend who has GIST and is right in the middle of the battle. We had the opportunity to meet him and visit with him several times when we were staying on the big island. He has a very active role in helping fellow GISTers and when he writes to the Life Raft site it is always helpful information for all involved. In his email he mentioned that he now the proud grandparent of a baby that was born over 10 lbs. Wow, I did not know they came that large! What size of baby clothes do you start out with when the baby is 10 lbs at birth? It was great to hear from him. Friends are one of life's most precious gifts, you can never have too many and you always learn something new from each encounter.
So I bed each of you a good night, love that special one using your best.

love

tim