Home to lovely winter weather.... RAIN

Dear Ones,

When I last wrote I was sitting in a room at the La hue airport waiting to board the flight to LA. It left on time and every seat was filled. After about half of the trip the air began to be really rough. One time I was in the restroom and I just held on to the little handle they have on the wall and waited. I've heard the stories about people ending up on the ceiling due to sudden drops of several hundred feet by the plane. I sat with two young guys who were experiencing only their second time on a plane. They were very pleasant but wiggled a lot in their sleep. I caught some sleep and was glad when we landed in LA at 5:40 this morning, on schedule. The next flight was at 7:40 to San Francisco but they offered $200 toward a ticket if someone would bump so I did. Then they paid $10 for breakfast too. After breakfast I found a large pillar and a little pillow and sat against the pillar and slept for nearly two hours. Then onto the place at 9:40. My seat mate was a lovely woman who in conversation mentioned that at some point in her past she lost 75 lbs. I was immediately interested and she shared a couple sources she used to learn a new way to live. She went from a size 20 to a 4 to 6 depending on the cute of the clothes now. We talked about losses we had both experienced and she was very insightful. She had just flown in from Australia.

After collecting my bags that had flown on the earlier flight I found the car and amazingly it started. Pay the $130 for parking, yikes! Head home through rain and high winds. Taco Bell for lunch, one burrito, then home to wade through mounds of mail, found one check and a check from a dear friend of our family, Liz Shafqat. She is the sweetest little senior citizen and was a wonderful nursing instructor for years. I opened many cards, letters and Christmas cards. Some made the tears start as people comments on what Nan had meant to them over the years.

I discovered that Nan's reef tank had a total lighting failure. When I left I knew we were down to one bulb and that one failed so I drove to Dublin this evening and got new bulbs for the tank and we'll start over getting it back in shape again. LeAnn was very faithful about putting in the chemicals and water but without light some coral appear to have died. For some reason I thought the lights were hundreds of dollars so had not even tried to purchase new ones, who has that kind of money but today I learned that they are only a few bucks each and then the store gave me a discount since Mom had been a good customer in the past.

Our weather has turned very wet and windy. Driving to Dublin this evening I was glad I had taken the van as it is heavier and has traction control built in.

It was good to hear ideas regarding a possible book from you today. If we can pull it off it would be wonderful to let a wider group of people know just what kind of person mom was and how she fought for life.

On the plane the young guys showed me how to get a photo out of the cell phone, very clever. You just go to the right place and type the email address into the line and then hit send. The photo with this letter is from the beach behind the Marriott last evening. It seems a million miles and a long time ago already. How I love that place and I just can't tell you how thrilled I am to have gotten to be there with the kids. Two loves at the same time, Hawaii and the kids, what a winning combination. I have so many happy memories from both places, Kona and Lahue.

Just for the fun of sharing I've included 3 photos I found in my phone. While they are not perfect they capture very special people.

Sending my love to each of you,

Tim