A beautiful day

Dear Family and Friends,
The winds were back today and while they are rough on allergies they sure clear the air.
In life there are times when the air has to be cleared too, even in relationships there comes times when little things have become large and have to be faced. Any of you that know me well know how much I dislike confrontation of any form. I'm painfully learning though that to live a successful life one has to confront issues, people, ideas, bad behavior, poor performance. One has to speak up at times when things are wrong or people are being hurt. Its a very tough lesson to learn, so much easier to just let everything slide and not make waves. Easier but wrong on so many levels.
John and Karen Cress were helpful to us in so many ways, they were wonderful pastors, exciting human beings and loyal friends. John knew how to confront, he really did and it was helpful to all of us.
This afternoon an appointment came through for Richmond. One thinks twice about going to Richmond in the afternoon because by that time of day the dark side has woken up and are on the streets. Let me tell you one drives very carefully when in some of these neighborhoods, one would not want to have an accident, might be hard to find witnesses to tell it your way. The broker I work for in the Oakland area was robbed three weeks ago at gunpoint. Of course he drives a Mercedes convertible, a beautiful car while I drive a very old bug, it could be my safety blanket really.
Once again I was thankful to drive into the garage and turn off the engine. Today it turned 190,000 and for now is going strong. I give thanks to the master mechanic for keeping it going day by day.
I've sure enjoyed seeing friends lately, Art and Connie, Dolly, Bart, Bob and Carrol, Glen and Joyce and others, just great to feel the connection with friends. I'm so looking forward to this weekend. I think I'll get a chance to drive down to spend time with Timothy and his loving parents. Its been a while as I didn't want to go when I was coughing so badly. It seems to be better at least today.
This afternoon Nikki let me know they would be at UNO's having lunch so I managed to catch up with the girls and watch Kallie as she ate at some food that was ordered just for her. It was fun to find out what they were doing and from there I drove on to work appointments. Its a great lift to spend time with precious little ones. I think I know how excited Loren and Emily are these days as they begin to enjoy the pleasures of being grandparents. Its like nothing else.
May God use you to love someone today!

love

tim
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