Today is Tuesday, Nora and the children arrive today

I must say it was a pretty restless night, I did not sleep all that well with the expectation of the drive to Portland to pick up my family from the Philippines. The car that I drove up was a very nice Chevrolet Impala four-door sedan. It seemed to get pretty good mileage and it was comfortable. The aircraft landed at 8:34 AM and it took about an hour and a half for Nora and the children to appear. Everything went very smoothly and no problems We stopped at the T and a truck stop and have breakfast then stopped at the farmers market north of Lebanon and bought some vegetables and from there went home. Maria came over for a short visit then Nora and I went to mega-foods and lots of groceries and went a couple other places and then back home. The evening was pretty quiet everybody’s tired and and in the midst of unpacking and investigating the house. They seem very happy. We’re going to bed now it has been a very long day.

Today is Monday and Nora's last day in the Philippines.

I woke about 5:30 AM this morning after having slept pretty well. I text to Nora, with no answer and called her and she answered about 5:50 AM. She’s very tired, but she won’t get very much sleep as she will be getting up at 3 AM Tuesday morning to go to the airport with the children. I went to McDonald’s this morning for coffee I left the house at about 5:55 AM. I was back home by about 7:30 AM made some oatmeal and cleaned up the dishes. I then stripped the bed and the laundry is washing when it’s all done I will make the bed again solo be fresh for Nora when she arrives tomorrow. Today I need to go to the bank and deposit the check from Gareth, also I need to make sure to stop at Rhodes Warden and get a copy of my insurance for the car rental place I need to go to the dollar store and buy the balloons and perhaps go to Safeway and buy some flowers to put on the table. At about 4:30 PM Delbert should pick me up and take me to Albany to the enterprise lot where I’ll pick up the rental car. Nora told me this morning that she would call me when she woke up in the morning which should be about noon I believe that would be 3 o’clock there it may be a little bit before noon. I do hope that everything goes smoothly for her and the children and that they don’t have any trouble at the airport.

Today is Sunday here in the United States and Monday in the Philippines Noras last day there

I slept quite well last night, did not wake up until about 5:30 AM, I text with Nora then called her and we just chatted for a while she still had many people in the house so not ready for bed yet. After that I got dressed and went down to McDonald’s for coffee.

After I got home I proceeded to finish the laundry and cleaned the bedrooms dusted and dusted the other things that were out here in the living room and dining room and also clean the mirrors in the bathrooms. Everything with the exception of the yard is as good as I’m going to do for now.

Tomorrow I will purchase the flower arrangement and the balloons at the dollar store and I got here. About 430 or so Del will come and pick me up and take me to Albany to pick up the rental car. I do need to go to the bank tomorrow and also stop by Rhodes Warden and get a copy of my insurance.

Well here it is Saturday morning and a beautiful day.

I woke up this morning at about 2 AM, and could not really get back to sleep after that. I started calling Nora at about 5:30 AM and she returned my call at about 5:45 AM. She is not sure if she will go to church today as it is raining quite heavily there in Marilao. I left the house at about 6:15 AM this morning to go to McDonald’s for coffee and stay down there until about 7:50 AM at which time I came back home. I noticed a garage sale a few houses down from me and I picked up a storage unit (made of wood) that will hold all my VCR tapes and some DVDs. I cleaned out the right side of my closet so that nor will have at least half, but I still need to remove the stuff that is on the shelf above the hanging rod. Today is Sunday and the Philippines, so Nora has today and tomorrow and tomorrow night she must go to bed early because they leave at 3 AM Tuesday morning for the airport. That is exciting. I have a few more things to do here at the house today, but the major cleaning will be done tomorrow and Monday.

Greetings and it is a very beautiful Friday.

Last night I actually slept pretty well, I heard a thunderstorm coming about 2:30 AM then I dropped back off sleep and from what the neighbors tell me it came right over the top of me and I never heard a thing and it rained from about 3 o’clock until probably 4:30 AM or so.

I woke up to a message on Yahoo from Nora, we chatted for a while, she has been packing her suitcases and she tells me that she’s happy and excited and sad and I told her all 3 are very understandable emotions at this time. After little bit longer of chatting back and forth we said goodbye and I went down to McDonald’s for coffee.

I came home, got my tools, and went down the moms to take the door off the refrigerator and change the gasket around. It seems to work a little better so maybe it will be okay. I also cleaned up the range and scrubbed out the kitchen sink… Lori is by no means a good housekeeper she didn’t clean anything except the cupboards.

I went down to Bi–Mart and bought the trays for the burners on the range, but they don’t fit very well so I will probably have to exchange them. I also bought a carbon monoxide detector and mounted on the wall back by the bedrooms. I still need to purchase a furnace filter.

I think once I get finished down at moms, I am going to come home and take a shower. I think this afternoon it is going to be very warm again.

Finally finished up down there, it is nearly 2pm and I am dripping wet.  Taking a shower now!!!

Thursday Morning… maybe it will rain today??

I woke up about 4:55 am and used the bathroom, then went back to bed but couldn’t really fall back to sleep so go up at 5:30. I am now at the computer, waiting for Nora to get ready for bed, probably in about ½ hour. I think maybe I will mow the yards at Mom’s place and here today, must also drop off the keys to Barb’s property management this morning. A little later after talking to Nora I will go go McDonald's for my morning coffee.

Today is Wednesday and a beautiful day it is

Well I cannot say that I slept well last night I didn’t hear the text that Nora sent me and therefore I didn’t answer it so, about 5:30 AM this morning she called me because she was worried when I did not answer her text. I explained to her that I was sleeping and was in the middle of a dream and could not understand why my phone was ringing and it took me a moment or 2 to answer it. She has her tickets, unfortunately the travel agency raised the price 6000 pesos from yesterday until today when she bought them. Their reputation as being a very corrupt nation is well-deserved I am glad that this saga of our life is almost finished the last money she should have to pay in the Philippines is the 750 pesos each to use the airport facilities... they call it a travel tax. I went down to Kevin’s Café and had breakfast and surprisingly Lindsey, Mike’s daughter, works there and bought me breakfast which I thought was extremely nice of her I met her boyfriend/stud and he seems like a nice gentleman also much better than her choices of men in the past. The carpet place is installing the carpet at mom’s house this morning. I stopped by Rhodes Warden and started the landlord policy on the house. That will cost us about $318 a year. I had them mail the information to Lollie and Gareth so that they can reimburse me half of the expense. I have heard nothing yet from Mark Moreland regarding the Toyota, perhaps today he will call with the bad news. Tuesday will be a great day, Monday afternoon I will have Del take me over to Albany to enterprise where I can pick up my rental car and then I will leave at 5 AM Monday morning for Portland airport.

Today is Tuesday and today Nora will have her tickets in her hand…

Well yesterday, the travel agent tried to put a little bit of salt in our ointment, by telling Nora that she could not use my Visa card to pay for the tickets. So I told her to give them enough money to hold the tickets until tomorrow and I will send you a money gram and then you can take Philippine pesos down and pay for the tickets.

So this morning, I transferred the necessary funds to my checking account and then went to Walmart where I purchased a money gram in the amount that she needed to complete the transaction at the travel agency and obtain the tickets for her flight on Tuesday morning. So this afternoon about 4 PM she will wake up and then I would imagine she will go to Manila about 10 AM to complete the transaction.

I told her to make sure and ask the travel agent about how much luggage she is allowed to take both check-in and carry-on. She may end up buying another bag or 2 if she is allowed more luggage on the aircraft. She will be flying via Delta Airlines. She is due to arrive in Portland Oregon at 8:35 AM Tuesday morning 30 August. I am excited!

I will probably hear from Moreland’s automotive today about how much it’s going to cost to get the Toyota back. Mark’s original estimate was about $1000 but I am actually expecting about $1500 hopefully, no more than that.

The folks installing the carpet at mom’s house should be there sometime around noon, I dropped a key to the house off at the store right after I had coffee this morning.

Stopped by the house mid-afternoon and saw that they had removed the old carpeting... the lady from the carpet store called and told me they would install Wedesday morning.

Nora left about 10am to pick up the funds and then head to Manila to pick up the tickets... Yea !!!

Enjoy your day.

Monday again, we are so close now...

Well, I woke up at 5am this morning, went to the bathroom then back to bed. Could not fall back asleep so here I am in front of the computer waiting to hear from my lovely wife Nora. Nothing too special is planned for today, a care package from Lollie is supposed to come today… she said it has chocolates in it so that might be interesting considering the warm weather. I just disassembled the speaker for my computer sound system and will later take it to Radio Shack and see if I can order another midrange speaker. I may stop at Pro Audio/Auto and see if they have access to such an animal. Maria told me this morning that in January she will return to the Philippines. She and Wayne are not getting along well at all. It is sad to me as she is really a nice lady. I decided to go to Pro Auto and see if Jim had a speaker, they tested mine out and decided that the tweeter had gone bad… they sold me a pair of tweeters (replacement) with crossovers built in for $19.95. I brought them home and installed using alumina weld epoxy and it seems to work just fine. Lollie and Gareth are having some computer problems again, the gray screen descending and then the sound is acting up also.

Today is Sunday a beautiful day with a couple of clouds in the sky.

I woke up this morning to the sound of an incoming Yahoo messenger message from Nora. I then called her via Yahoo and we chatted for about 10 min. she was just getting ready for bed and baby Denny was with her and he was so full of formula and so excited about playing that he threw up all over her and the bed so she had to change bedding and change her clothes and take another bath. The little guys seems to have a pretty nervous stomach. I lost about 6:15 AM to go down to McDonald’s and have coffee. I didn’t get home until about 9:15 AM, I was busy talking to people, reading the paper and whatnot. I do not have any particular plans for today, I may go to coastal Farm and home in Albany and by some licorice or maybe not. I haven’t really decided yet. Yesterday I did get the cut off valve installed in the main shower so that is done. I may go on the Internet shortly to see if I can find a dealer for Hardy plank, a variety of siding. But I won’t make any decision on it until Nora is here to help pick out a color and we may have to wait until next year to do it anyway. Other than looking around on the Internet I don’t have any particular plans I may play around with the new software program “acorn” that I purchased using my Apple in-store credit. I hope everyone has a nice day.

Blue sky and Saturday morning…

Well here it is the weekend I spoke with Nora this morning about 5:15 AM I woke up about 4:30 AM needing to use the bathroom then couldn’t seem to get back to sleep.

She had taken some medication earlier in the day and no longer has a fever but she has a persistent headache which bothers me.

She hopes to go to church in the morning when she wakes up but it will depend greatly upon how she feels.

I went down to coffee at McDonald’s at about 6 AM. Talked to Tim for little bit, he seemed to be a little bit more affable today. I left at about 8 AM to come home and have some toast and take my medicine.

I need to fold the last load of clothing that is in the dryer now.

I will go to the plumbing store this morning and by a short nipple cutoff valve for the children’s bathroom shower.

Sometime next week the Toyota should be finished, I hope that the head will be salvageable. If not, it will add another $250 at least to the price of the repair. Mark did tell me that he has never had one that could not be surfaced.

The 1st shopping trip that Nora and I take will probably be to Costco and that will be a little expensive I believe.

Thank God It's Friday!!

Well I made it through another week albeit a rather expensive one, but at least it’s finished for now.

Nora called me this morning before the alarm went off which was just fine. She says to me “honey, you know what?” I said to her no, what? So she tells me I have the visa! I could see the happiness in her words she is so relieved and so am I. She told me that she will go to Manila tomorrow to see the travel agent and buy the tickets for her and the children.

She knows what she has to do and she knows that wherever she enters the United States she will have to go through immigration and it will take a little time because there are 3 of them to do. I hope that she chooses to go through Guam or Hawaii or even a straight through flight to Portland would be good. I expect I will have a schedule from her by Monday perhaps even some time yet before I go to bed tonight.

I cleaned up the Mini Cooper washed the outside, the inside, the Windows, the door jambs then vacuumed everything inside and cleaned the floor mats. It looks pretty darn good. I am considering whether I want to wax it or not. Maybe no.

It is a beautiful day today I probably should call Mark and see if he plans to pick up the Toyota today or not. I also need to go down town to the carpet place and see about having mom’s home re–carpeted. Then I need to send Lollie and Gareth a bill for the money I’ve spent already on the house.

It is going to be nice weather all week long and from what I understand quite warm. I’m glad I have the majority of things that I need to do outside completed.

A very beautiful Thursday morning, blue sky and a blown head gasket.

Good morning everyone as the headline announced today is Thursday I went to McDonald’s this morning at about a quarter till 6 AM sat there had my coffee got into an argument with Tim and then left at about 7:45 AM to go down and pay the plumbing bill. While I was there I asked Frank to stop by and give me an estimate to run the black gas line over to where the new gas range will eventually go.

I also asked Frank about putting in a water recirculation pump under the kitchen sink which would allow us to have instant hot water at any faucet vice having to let the water run for so long before it becomes hot it will be an over time savings for us. The cheapest pump I have seen which looks pretty good and gets very good reviews is over $200.

The pickup didn’t want to start this morning, to give you a little history it has always used a little water and in the back of my mind I guess I always knew it had a seeping head gasket. I think it is no longer just seeping. I will call Mark Moreland today and get an estimate to repair it. I hope that the head is not warped.

When I talk to Nora this morning, and also yesterday morning she indicated that she will leave the Philippines at the end of the month… I wish it were next week. Well more money goes out again I guess. Today I need to call the car rental places and see what it will cost me to rent either a small van or a sedan to go pick up the family when they arrive in Portland.

Perhaps more will be added to this today I’m not sure if not, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Wednesday... Hot Water Day Yipeee!!

Well, today is Wednesday. The man from Northwest natural gas came down to mom’s house and put in a new part in the gas meter, turned on the gas, and made sure everything well only 2 things the hot water heater and furnace are working properly.

I have moved the filing cabinet and the water dispenser away from the Bosch on-demand system in preparation for South Santiam plumbing to install my new 50 gallon water heater. I am not certain when they will appear, but I assume it will be shortly after lunch.

Nora sent me a message on Yahoo messenger this morning and that was my wake-up call. We chatted for a few moments and then I got up, dressed, and went down to McDonald’s for coffee.

I was back home by 8 AM, made a call to Wells Fargo bank and got information that I needed and will conclude my business in about 3 days.

It is supposed to be warm today in the high 80s, that is nice. I have no plans other than to be at home while the installation of the new water heater takes place.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.

I decided to buy the DropCopy app for the phone and another one that scans networks and allow you to assign icons and alias’s to them. I found out also that Dropcopy will not work in the background.

Frank from South Santiam Plumbing and his crew came about 1:20 and began the plumbing update. I now have an A.O Smith 50 gallon hwh and a new faucet in the front of the house. The estimate for the hwh was $$$$ but then there were some issues and the added job of replacing the broken hose bib (faucet). That brought the total amount to $200 higher so that is still reasonable as they were able to put the hwh exactly where I wanted it.

Tuesday and a beautiful one at that.

Good morning good morning today is Tuesday, 16 August in the year 2011.

What a great day it was yesterday with the news from the embassy of the approval of Nora’s visa. When I called her and told her she could hardly believe that it was true, she was so excited. I certainly don’t blame her after all, we started this journey in May of 2009 and then she see it finally come to reality is a very uplifting experience.

The visa coupled with the information from Dr. Thayer about my blood pressure has really lifted my spirits tremendously. I expect my family will be here before the end of the month and that will be a wonderful wonderful thing.

Frank, from South Santiam plumbing, came out yesterday and looked at the situation involving the Bosch on demand hot water heater and told me that he could install a tank style hot water heater in the same location. I’m going to have a 50 gallon hot water heater put in, it will be gas fired so the recovery time will be fast. I bought one with a 10 year warranty which according to what I read will be a better made hot water heater than the five-year warranty model.

They will be out to install it on Wednesday.

I believe that today a little bit later on, I will go down to mom’s house and repair the bad board that is near the steps on the rear deck.

Monday... the week begins afresh

Well here it is Monday morning and the time right now is 8:30 AM. I got home from coffee at about 7:45 AM and started looking at one of Lollies photo albums that she posted on Picasso.

At about 8:15 AM I called Dr. Thayer’s office to see if I could get in to see him this morning. They have a 15 min. appointment available at 11 AM so I will be there at that time. Cindy checked my chart and said that there was no report written up from the Lebanon hospital emergency room visit that I made Saturday.

No news yet from the embassy, but is 11:30 at night so that makes good sense, I did however, get a reply that they had received my e-mail.

I will add to this a little bit later after I see what Dr. Thayer has to say.

I just called Ries plumbing to see about an estimate to replace the on-demand hot water system with a conventional gas tank style water heater...

I am going to stop by the fire department and make sure my FireMed insurance is up to date...

Re-instated my firemed insurance and added the family to the list of eligible people. Went on over to see Dr. Thayer, he said that he is sure the dropping of the Hydra... medication (water pills) was the culprit and wrote me another prescription for another water pill that doesn’t have the same side effects. He also reassured me that there is no Arterial problem leading to the high blood pressure, rather he believes it is the stress and meds change that caused it… he read the EKG results and lab results from the ER and said all is good there.

Frank, from Santiam Plumbing came to the house and looked at the Bosch tankless and told me that he can install a water heater where I want it.

Del came over, wanted me to show him how to set up his voicemail on his phone, I showed him how and also sent him an email with the instructions on installing it and changing his password.

Called Nora at 4:10pm, she had just gotten up, we chatted for just a little and then I told her to have coffee and breakfast and call me back when she was finished. She said OK. I also informed her of the things Dr. Thayer told me so she feels better about all that stuff too.

I just got an email from the US Embassy 7:20 PM. Nora’s Visa was approved Aug 15, 2011.

Sunday... seems like Autum temperature wise...

Good morning everyone, today is Sunday I just got back from McDonald’s and it is about 8:18 AM now. Believe it or not I turned on the hot water faucet to do up the dishes and guess what? The hot water worked. The reason I’m going to replace it with a tank style is because it is not dependable and I need to have something dependable when the family is here.

Tomorrow is Monday and I will contact a couple of places to see about having a hot water heater installed in place of the Bosch on demand system that is now failing.

The system I have now is over 9 years old so I suppose there is such a thing as built-in obsolescence, but this Bosch system has always been undependable in the fact that when she set the water temperature, it sometimes will go to cold when you least want it to then you have to turn the water off and back on and hopefully it will recycle itself. The problem lately is that it does not recycle itself so you’re stuck with cold water.

Not a good thing when you’re in the midst of a shower.

It is overcast today and on the colder side outside. I turned the heater on in the house to bring the temperature up a couple of degrees.

Saturday... a good day

Well today is Saturday, it is overcast outside and a little on the cool side. I went to coffee about 6:15 AM after chatting with Nora little bit. I came home about 10 min. after 8 AM. I made some oatmeal for breakfast after taking my medication, a little bit of brown sugar and some milk topped off the dish. Lollie and I chatted, I helped her with some of her iPhoto stuff and also had her read the email that I sent regarding my ER visit today… Nora came on a little earlier that I expected and I told her of the visit to the ER also, she was worried and called and I explained it to her and assured her that I am ok. She was going to early mass at the church and maybe Joyce will go with her.

The end...

I have decided to end the online blog posting of my daily life in the desire to create a more private life and less exposure of myself and my family… there will be postings still, but not of such personal nature as has been the case in the past… Thank you for your patronage and interest… denny

Hump day is gone and the weekend Looms...

Good morning to everyone. This is Thursday morning, and Thursday evening in the Philippines. My lovely wife, Nora, will soon be getting ready to go to bed. I have sent her a couple of instant messages through Yahoo already this morning but she must be watching television because she has not answered me yet. My right foot is indicating that perhaps it has a little uric acid build up maybe from the one beer I had yesterday I’m not sure. But since cutting out the one medication that Dr. Thayer had me taking, I have not had another attack and I have been drinking beer. Nothing really pressing that I need to do today however, I may go down to mom’s house with a bucket and some rags and my commercial vacuum cleaner and begin cleaning the things that Laurie missed. As I told Gareth on the phone, there is probably about between 2 and 4 hours of work remaining. Yesterday the man from the Lebanon utility company came out to inspect the water meter and found that the meter itself had a cracked flange where it attaches to the main water line. It is on the city side so they will be responsible for it he said they have a lot of work right now so he’s not sure when they will get out to take care of it. He indicated that he does not want me to turn off the water if I want to replace my faucet gasket he would rather I call him. It’s not that hard to turn off the water a 90° turn of the valve does the trick. It’s 5:38 AM right now and I will wait until 6 AM to go down to McDonald’s for coffee. I will continue to try to get a hold of Nora in the meantime. It really does start my day off well if I get to speak to her… I miss her a lot. Well perhaps I will post this and add to it later on if anything happens that might be interesting. Have a wonderful day, take advantage of the opportunities presented to you, stay healthy and be careful. I called Apple to find out about fixing the issue regarding reading PDF files in Safari, we had gotten to the point of starting a remote viewing session when some alarm went off in the site he was in and we had to terminate the conversation and he is to call me back… odd stuff happening there. He called me back in about ½ hour and we continued… he solved my problem and for that I am appreciative. Wayne came over and convinced me to go to mom’s house and wash the windows and vacuum the cobwebs, he helped me and then after that, we loaded up the Organ and donated it to Teen Challenge and also gave them the console stereo… everything is now out of the garage at moms place. I then took Wayne out to lunch at the San Pedro mexican place next to Sum yan… $23 spent there. Came back home and tried to turn on the hot water, no luck so I went out to Reis plumbing and had the tech come over to trouble shoot the Bosch on-demand hot water system… wouldn’t you know, it worked just fine… that little diddie cost me $95 bucks… dammit I wish it would have acted up for him like it did me. He did clean a little sensor but I doubt that it was the problem… He had the same opinion of Bosch as do I now… Never again. Piece of Carp crap.

Wednesday and blue skies... cold though !!

Today is Wednesday, I had so nice clear blue with blue sky, however it is nippy outside. The weather was much more like fall weather than summer. Nora sent me a text message about 5:45 AM this morning, I was sleeping. I then called her and we chatted for a while she was watching television and getting ready to go to bed. I went down to McDonald’s and had coffee, it is now 8 AM and I’m back home. I have a few minor things that I must take care of today I need to get a new outside faucet handle to replace one at moms house. I probably should get a pail of hot soapy water and go down to moms and go from room to room cleaning the things that Laurie missed. Not too much but there are some things. I went down to Bi-Rite and got another faucet handle and some washers to fix the outside faucet at Moms place and the one here at mine. I had to make 3 trips to Bi-Rite to get everything but it is finished now and doesn’t leak so that was the desired outcome. I pulled the access cover off my water meter and found the whole thing swimming in water so I called the Utility company and they will send someone to look at it today… I went to LinnCo and closed out the Money Market account, also Karen reversed the returned charge of $27. That made me happy… I went to Wells and deposited the money in checking and will transfer it later. Then I stopped in at NAPA and saw Ben, while there I bought the oil and filter for the Toyota. After I got home, I dropped the oil, changed the filter then refilled the crankcase with Castrol 10-40, checked for leaks and now it is good to go... I got to chat for a little bit with Nora, it is after 9am there and her and Kenneth are on their way to Manila for the suitcase shopping spree… I probably will not be talking to her until tomorrow morning.

Chilly Tuesday morning... time passes albeit slowly.

Today is Tuesday, the sky is overcast and it’s a little on the nippy side. Actually the weather now is more like what you would expect to see in the fall of the year. I woke us morning at 5:30 AM and called Nora we chatted for a little bit that I went down to McDonald’s for coffee. I just got home and it’s 7:58 AM. McDonald’s was quite busy this morning. There are no pressing plans for today, Barbara should be here this afternoon to take a look at mom’s house and give me an idea of what she thinks it would rent for and if there are any improvements I need to do prior to contracting with her to take care of the rental. I haven’t decided what I’m going to make for breakfast but I think that probably oatmeal will be on the menu. I thought about going down to the big Jim’s Café, but really don’t want to spend the money. It’s not that I don’t have the money, but I know that once the family is here what money I have will be quickly depleted if I don’t keep a very watchful eye on it. Anyway we will see how the day unravels and will take whatever events come up and handle them in whatever way we can. Decided on having corn flakes and milk for breakfast… that and a cup of Hot Chocolate.

A dreary Monday morning... Shrub butchery time today !!

Today is Monday, I woke up at 5 AM and called Nora shortly thereafter. She was wondering why a woke up so early and I really didn’t have a good answer for her. We chatted for a little bit and she asked me to see if I could remember how long it took from the time we sent the documents for the children to the embassy and the time the embassy notified us that they had approved the visas. I will research that today. It’s cloudy this morning and a little on the brisk side, the dew is quite heavy and leaves a missed on your window. I just took the hose down to mom’s house and watered down the area around the shrubs in the front so that Myron will be able to pull the weeds easier. He plans to arrive about 9:30 AM. He’s bringing his gas trimmer and I guess I will use it to trim the tops of the shrubs and once I get it down to a manageable level he will take over from that point. I am going to trim them down to the bottom of the bedroom windows and the hedge, I am not sure about. I think that today I am going to take to cover off of the Harley and see how difficult it will be to remove the gas tank and empty the old fuel. That I think maybe later today I will go to Earls and see how much your battery will cost for the Harley. I would like to get it started. But most important I need to get the old gas out of it. Myron came about 9:35am and I went down and trimmed the top and end of the evergreen hedge, he was then going to trim the shrubs next to the house, pull the weeds and put down bark mulch… it will look much better then. I got up in the bed of Myron’s pu and trimmed the top of the hedge and the end facing the street. I then came home and did some stuff then after awhile I went back down and took my blower and cleaned up the garage and the driveway so now it looks really nice. I also turned over the sign that said ‘Tillie and Cecil’. Just blank white now. A little after 6pm, I went to Mega Foods and bought bread and soup and cheetos… 2 loaves of bread, 8 cans of soup and 1 bag of cheetos and 2 boxes of corn flakes… $26. Well, when Nora finally gets here I am sure my eating habits and shopping habits will change… for the better !!!

Sunday, a great day to rest and reflect on the past week's happenings...

Sunday! Well my sweetheart is asleep and when she wakes up it will be Monday morning and she will take the documents required to the courier service and they will be delivered to the United States Embassy. It is my hope that she will receive her visa within 5 to 10 days. Of course, the sooner the better. Today is a cloudy and quite chilly, not what one would normally expect for the 2nd week of August. Weather all over the United States has changed and shifted. I am having some cinnamon sugar covered toast for breakfast I haven’t done so yet but I will soon make a cup of hot chocolate to accompany it. I have nothing in particular to do today, although Ralph did call me to let me know that his son, Johnny, said he would possibly give me $8000 for the Harley. I am not too excited about that. I realize that I am going to need a bigger vehicle to accommodate the size of my family, but I don’t know how much I am willing to compromise or lose on selling my Harley to accomplish that end. I don’t have much to say on here today, I think I will go make my hot chocolate and see what kind of news is on the Internet. Have a great day, rejoice in the fact that our God is looking out for us. Got a couple of quick text messages from both Sean and Nick… Also had some Mushroom soup for lunch, tricky to heat up even in the microwave... The soup was pretty good. I am checking on some keyloggers and find that most are around $70 bucks but all seem to do about the same thing. Might be a good investment with the kids coming here and all. It is 4:21 PM and I tried to get hold of Nora, but no reply in YM or on the phone in YM so maybe she is still asleep. Actually I did finally get hold of her but it was about 7:30 her time. I went downtown and got some money from the bank and then stopped at the little Mexican restaurant across the tracks from Sum Yan and had a pretty tasty dinner for $11 including tip. Back home by a touch past 7pm… Nora sent me an IM that she is just leaving to go to SM and the courier place. I am going to take a shower and then go to bed… Nora must still be in town or maybe at the SM mall. Well it’s almost 10 PM and I have not heard anything further from Nora so I’m going to go to bed, and I left her a message to go ahead and text me when she got home.

Saturday morning, the weekend is here now !!!

This morning I woke up to the sound of an incoming instant message on YM. I looked at the clock and it was approximately 5:45 AM and of course the message was from Nora. I called her and we chatted for a little bit and then pretty soon she said that she was going to go to bed and I should go down to McDonald’s and have my morning coffee. By about 6:10 AM I was on my way to McDonald’s and stayed down there until about 8 o’clock and then came home, took my medication and now I’m updating this journal. It is a beautiful morning there are a few clouds in the sky but no rain is forecast so it should be a nice day. I don’t have anything in particular that I need to do today, with the possible exception of rearranging some things in the garage. I may have to go to town and try to locate some boxes. Lollie and Gareth should be either on Maui or on their way there for their last few days in Hawaii. Then they will be heading back home to Sacramento. I believe they have had a good vacation and really enjoyed this time on the islands. Perhaps someday Nora and I will be able to travel there, I don’t know yet. There is a tractor pull scheduled for about 11 AM today across highway 20 from the hospital, a few people that I know are going to go to it, it is a free event, but I doubt that I will go. Just got a letter (email) from Melissa with her work email and other contact information. We emailed back and forth a few times, I got her latest address and contact info so that was a good thing. I banged my shin earlier today and I think that maybe I broke a blood vessel or something cause it raised a little lump the size of a dime but it hurts even now… if it still is hurting on Monday I might have the Doctor look at it… Been watching some videos by a photographer named Mark Johnson and some of the techniques he uses to enhance and change photos are nothing short of amazing. Had a double batch of Oatmeal for dinner, a little brow sugar and a dash of milk and I was good to go. Chatted a bit with Nora after she woke up, she is planning on staying home today, except she will probably go to church or maybe not. They have races out at the track today or rather tonight… I don’t go cause it cost’s too much.

Friday and the end of the first week of August...

Today is Friday, 5 August in the year of 2011. When the alarm went off this morning at 5:58 AM, I awoke and called Nora to chat with her for a few moments before I got ready to go to coffee at McDonald’s. I washed my face and got dressed and then arrived at McDonald’s at about 6:15 AM or 6:20 AM this morning. About 7:15 AM Myron came in and we chatted for a bit and he told me that he wants to come over to mom’s house Monday about 9:30 AM and do the trimming of the hedges for me as a return of the favor of my buying his plane tickets for him. This morning, at about 10 AM I will take the loveseat in my pickup over to Wayne and Maria’s house and from there we will go to Albany to Melba’s apartment and deliver the loveseat to her. I don’t mind giving it to her. It doesn’t fit in with my furniture and I really don’t need it. I sent pictures to Joyce and also to Kenneth showing them what their beds look like and their bedrooms. It is cloudy today and somewhat cooler, it may rain but I don’t know for sure what the forecast is. Nora is so funny she wanted me to write UPS an e-mail asking them to deliver the documents today, I don’t have that kind of control, and I’m certain that there were thousands and thousands of packages delivered to the Philippines by UPS and ours is certainly not going to take a priority. They said they would deliver it by the close of business on Monday and I told her that’s fine that’s good enough. Wayne and Maria came by to pick me up and then we drove to Albany over to Melba’s apartment and carried the loveseat up a flight of stairs and put it in her apartment. She was very happy to get it and actually fed us some noodles and ham for lunch which was nice of her. She seems happy living there by herself and that is a good thing. After that we went to Home Depot and Wayne bought some cedar lumber 6 foot long 1 x 6 boards to complete his fence. I just got home a few minutes ago and it is 5:46 PM. The day turned out to be very beautiful blue skies and moderate temperatures.

Thursday, Myron has tickets and shrubs may get trimmed...

Well good morning to everyone! It is a grand day, let me start this entry by telling you that my wife went to the NBI office in Manila yesterday morning accompanied by her uncle. She was able to contact a relative who works at the NBI and happens to be an officer. I won’t bore you with all The steps that she had to go through but, suffice it to say, by 2 PM she had her clearance in hand and was on the way back home. Had she not had a relative working there, it would’ve taken 30 days or more to get this clearance. So when she called me at about 8 AM this morning, although she had up splitting headache she was very happy and so was I. It is a nice day out today. I went to coffee at about 7:30 AM this morning and Myron came in and was telling me that he had problems getting his ticket to go back to China. I offered to help him and so he came over to the house and I was able to go online and buy him a one-way ticket to Hong Kong for just a hair over $700. Not a bad buy. He is going to have a friend of his, named James, come over and look at the shrubs in front of mom’s house and tell me how much you will charge to cut them back and shape them so they are more presentable. I decided on a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast which is easy to cook in the microwave a minute and 30 seconds and it’s done to perfection a little dusting of brown sugar and a little dash of milk and I was good to go. Right now I am enjoying a cup of hot chocolate. I have no particular plans for today, I am thinking that early this afternoon a nap may be in order. I will continue today’s Journal if anything happens of interest outside of the laundry that I am currently doing. Take care, and enjoy the day. I just emailed some photos of Joyce’s room to her, I hope she enjoys them as much as Kenneth enjoyed seeing his. I just called Barb Alley’s company, I want to talk to her about managing the rental/lease of Mom’s home. Barbara is guy come out and look at mom’s house on Tuesday at about 10 AM. I went over to visit with Wayne and Maria, and stayed there for about an hour and a half and then I came home. One load of laundry in the dryer and the last load is washing now. The guy from Comcast cable was out and buried a new cable from the street to the house. That should take care of the signal loss that the other technician noted. I moved the loveseat out into the garage, and put the organ back where it originally was… house looks more normal now. Clothes are all clean and put away for now… another week done I guess. I just checked the deliver time for the documents I sent to Nora and it is now: Scheduled Delivery Updated To: Monday, 08/08/2011, By End of Day Last Location: Manila, Philippines, Friday, 08/05/2011 That is OK, but I would like to have had it delivered on Saturday as they said… but Monday is still good.

Yet another trip to Manila NBI... hopefully it will be successful.

Today is Wednesday and the people from Allied waste should be here to pick up the dumpster today. Nora sent me a text message this morning about 5:30 AM, she was going to bed. Tomorrow morning she and her uncle will go into Manila to NBI and talk to the relative that said he could help her get her background check completed in about 8 days. I wished her well, then I got up and got dressed and went down to McDonald’s for coffee. As I was sitting there, just before I left, I was talking to Pete, a friend of mine. He was telling me how much he enjoys reading this journal and told me I should become a writer… maybe I already am I don’t know. If people enjoy reading what I write then I’m happy. To me the journal is just a daily recount of my activities and the situations I find myself in. Some of them are interesting some are challenging and others would bring tears to your eyes. All just part of life and they all help shape us into the individual that we are we are in essence a summation of our experiences. I came home, then realized that I needed to go back down to the barbershop and get a haircut. I got it cut pretty short which is okay because it will grow out again but it will be more comfortable in The hotter part of the summer. Back home again now, and just fixed a couple pieces of toast for breakfast and starting out today’s Journal entry. I am finding that Dragon Dictate for Mac is still not up to the par of the full-fledged version that is used in the PC community. But I believe it is better than MacSpeech Dictate was. To each of you who read this I pray you have a good day and that at least some of your dreams come true… always remember we look backwards to gain knowledge from those experiences which put us where we are today. I went to see Laura at Heritage, but she no longer works there so I went to her new place on Airway road. She is coming out this afternoon about 2pm to look at Mom’s house and give me a market appraisal. After I saw her, I went to Wal★mart and got a bed covering set for Kenneth’s room. Looks much better for now. I just sent Ralph an e-mail with 4 pictures of my Harley and a specification sheet showing the improvements that I have made to it. I returned Gareth’s call and while talking to him, Laura called and was waiting for me at 2644 so I walked down there to let her in… she thinks the house is nice and recommended a couple things I could do and will email me a market analysis in the next day of two... Boy, had a corona and I tell you what, first thing up was a nap… dangit if that stuff don’t make a man tired sometimes… About 5:30 I went down to Papa Murphy’s and bought a chicken bacon salad and brought home for dinner. After eating that, Lollie called me and we chatted for awhile and then I talked to Gareth… They are headed over to Eric and Debbie’s condo for dinner tonight.

Tuesday and the documents are on the way...

I woke up this morning at about 4:30 AM and tried to call Nora a couple of times and then sent her a instant message letting her know that I was trying to call her. A few moments later I got a call from her and we chatted for a little bit. I told her I would take care of everything that she needed me to do here and send it off to her today. After we hung up, I attempted to go back to sleep but could not so ended up getting up earlier than I wanted to. I went to coffee at 6 AM Del came in about 6:45 AM and I approached him about going with me to take a couple of pictures of me in various places to satisfy the requirements of the Embassy interviewer. I then went to Walmart and had the pictures printed out, a total of 6 8 x 10 pictures. I then went to the UPS store and had copies made of the utilities bills that I would be sending to Nora. Then I asked him how much it would be to send the package of bills and photos to the Philippines, altogether it cost me $65 at the UPS store and $15 at Walmart. The good thing about this is that she will receive the package by Saturday which should make are quite happy. I then came home and decided to see if I could set up my HP printer. I got it set up as a wireless printer and was able to print from my computer to it and now I’m trying to figure out how to make it scan. I haven’t quite got that one figured out yet. I did go to the HP site and set it up as an E printer which allows me to send anything to the printer’s e-mail address and then it will be printed as long as the prayer is online and my wireless network is online. I will call heritage property management today and also Barbara Allee and see about listing moms house either for rent or lease. I will probably contract with AAA cleaners to have them re-stretched the carpeting and professionally clean it. Chatting with Nora, sent her an email of the photos that I sent to her today using UPS. Nora went to Marilao to get the NBI clearance using her former married name as per the request of the consular at the US Embassy, but was told that it would take 30 days to get it because the NBI computers had been down for a month… She told me that she has a relative that works for NBI in Manila and that he said he might be able to get her the clearance in about 8 days so she and Uncle will go to Manila NBI tomorrow to talk to him. I went down to have dinner and decided to stop at Taco Bell, I had their double cheese Gordita and it also had a soft taco and a beef burrito. That along with the 20 ounce drink was under $6. Not bad, but I cannot afford to do things like that all the time. The rest of the evening was spent basically watching a little TV and relaxing, I told nor I was in a go to bed and that I would not be calling her before she went to sleep.

1st day of August here and Visa day in Manila...

Today is Monday, and I woke up at about 3:30 AM this morning and text with Nora little bit and then she called me about 5:15am or so. She was going through her paperwork that she will take to the US Embassy tomorrow morning. She asked that I call her to wake her up at 3:15 AM Tuesday morning which will be about 12:15 PM today my time. I am apprehensive, hopeful, excited and nervous. This is essentially the last major step to getting her and the children over here. Providing that her visa application is approved at the interview, she will probably take the children Wednesday and go to the CFO seminar so they can have their visas stamped. After that it's just a matter of her going to the travel agency and buying the plane tickets to come here to America. Sometime this evening I expect to hear from her... I’m not sure how soon she will have the interview although I believe it will be sometime Tuesday morning between about 7:30 AM and probably noon. I was talking to some folks at McDonald’s this morning and I started this whole process back in May of 2009 it’s taken a lot longer than I thought it would, but looking back the only things that really slowed the process down was her having to go to DOT treatment for a year and then me not having filed my 2010 taxes. Other than that everything really went pretty well and I’m hoping that it will go well for her at the interview also. In a little while I’m going to go downtown to what used to be floor crafters carpeting and see if they will give me an estimate to have the carpet at mom’s house re-stretched. I hope it won’t be too expensive. It is another beautiful day outside blue sky and nice temperature. I just finished breakfast, I had a bowl of oatmeal with some brown sugar on it and a little dab of milk. It’s supposed to be heart healthy, and that’s the main reason I needed although I truly do like the taste. Well I suppose I had better get going and get my day started there’s a number of things I have to do including going to Walmart and getting some sheets and a comforter and pillows and pillow cases for Kenneth’s bed. I went down to the credit union and gave the reports to Karen and she will give them to the lady who was helping see if they can straighten out my credit report. I’m sure I will hear from them sometime later in the week. From there I went to the floor crafter place to get an idea of what time they can come out and give me an estimate on stretching the carpet at mom’s house. After that I stop by the high school to see what would be required in getting Joyce registered for school. They told me to go to the main office and ask for a packet which I will probably do tomorrow. I got home at about 9:30 AM and called Dawn from AAA cleaning and he is going to call me back and tell me when he can come and look at the carpet at mom’s house for possible cleaning and re-stretching. They should be here around 4pm tomorrow… The guy from AAA cleaning will be here maybe this afternoon, at least he said he would call me this afternoon... Just called Kurt, the plumber that Brian recommended to run the gas line under the house and over to the kitchen for the potential gas stove... I met the carpet guy at about 3 PM.at mom’s house, he looked around and ended up giving me a bid to clean the carpet is $175 for the entire house and into stretch all the carpet in the house and reattach it is $300 for a total of $475. That would put us into the house just shy of $1000 to put it into leasable/rentable condition again. I’ll see what Lollie wants to do about that. It’s another $250 dollars out of my pocket so we would both be out about $500.