Christmas Past

|Becky and I had a terrific time in sunny rainy California. Got there on Stephen’s birthday, Dec. 23, stayed at his and Kathie’s place a couple days, then Kim’s place, then Kathie’s parents’ place, then a final night at Kim’s before flying home on New Year’s day. A trip to Tahoe was delayed on account of blizzard conditions, resulting in our stay with Doug and Carla, terrific hosts. Stephen and Kathie went ahead to Tahoe on Friday. California was cold and rainy pretty much the whole visit, while Kansas enjoyed balmy 60’s and 70’s. That changed when we got back to Kansas. We now have a winter storm warning, with prediction of an inch of ice overnight Tuesday, to be topped with 4 to 7 inches of snow Wednesday. They figure a few (understatement) trees and power lines will go down. Being armed with my laptop in California, I got started on Stephen and Kathie’s wedding website. You can check its progress at steveandkathie.chappells.us. ||

|I decided to buckle (knuckle?) down and put the new brake pads on the Miata this morning. Pulled off the wheel that was making the noise and the pad was nowhere near worn down. Still at least 50% pad left. Truly amazing, these are original pads after 13 years and 75,000 miles. Put the wheel back on and drove to work, with no unusual noises. So, maybe it was some dust, after all. I don’t really think so, but I couldn’t find anything else. |

|After work I picked up Cinnamon at the vet’s where she was boarded during our trip. She was happy to get home, I think. Actually, she zonked out and has been sleeping all evening. She got to give Santa her Christmas list. They got a slightly blurry picture, but it’s still kinda cute. I’ve offloaded the Christgmas pics from camera but haven’t sorted for upload to album yet. Will try to get to that within a few days. ||

Rushing Up on Christmas

I feel like I’m rushing up on Christmas at about 110 m.p.h. Time is flying by. I know I’m forgetting lots of stuff, not just Christmas stuff, either. Work, too, probably. It’s gonna be really really nice to actually get to Christmas day and, hopefully, relax.

It’s about ten degrees outside. The grass is still green! I’m still driving to work in the van, since there’s been no time to put new brake pads on the Miata. Actually, I like the van. You’re up there where you can see past the cars in front and rear (well not so much rear since I still haven’t glued the rear view mirror back on), and generally see what’s going on all around you. Kind of relaxing.

Okay, back to work. Working at home, at least. Becky’s in Ottawa dropping off presents for her relatives.

Wedding Bells

Stephen is enraged!! I mean engaged!! To the pearl of his dreams!! I mean girl of his dreams!! Okay, let’s see if I can calm down and get this right. Stephen is going to marry Kathie Chan. Of course, I think everybody in the close or near family knows this, so talking about it here might be moot, but you never know what distant relatives might happen by, or friends and acquaintances. We met Kathie last summer, and the prospect of her as daughter-in-law is most pleasant.

A couple days ago I picked up faint brake sounds from the back of the Miata and hoped it might just be a little extra dust in the pads although I knew what was coming, since it’s 75,000 miles and still has original pads on the back. Well, tonight on the way home from work they announced in no uncertain terms that we’ve reached metal on metal. And it’s like 15 degrees out there, I’m swamped with work, Christmas is looming, and there’s no way I’m kneeling/sitting out in the garage for three or four hours fighting with wheels. Coincidentally, however, in anticipation of hauling a large box or two to UPS in the near future, Sunday I put the battery charger on the van. It should be good to go in the morning, after I air up the almost flat tire, assuming the air compressor will run. Much less work than changing brake pads. I could go ahead and grind up the disks, but that would violate certain personal principles.

Speaking of boxes and UPS, I should get cracking, or packing.

I’ll leave this open for comments and we’ll see if the spammer comes around again.