Left for St. Helena last Sunday to visit with Ethel Ramos for a few days.  Her youngest son, Jeff, and I had some great talks.  We disagreed at times, but I’d say we agree on more than we disagree on.  Our greatest agreement was on the teachings of Jesus.  He’s one of the few men I’ve found that sees Jesus’ teaching the same as I do.  Summed up, it’s what Jesus said “The law and the prophets can be summed up in love God and love your neighbor.”  Formal religion just loves to complicate the simplicity of Jesus’ teaching because it’s convenient and brings them money and power.

Jesus said, “by their deeds you shall know them. (false prophets)”  It’s a simple way to decide.  If a person, persons, or organization does not do things which show they love God and their neighbor, then they are false prophets and should not be followed.   We sure have a lot of them in this world and I’d say most are in the Republican Party.

Jeff and I had a lot of disagreement over the downing of Flight 93, which went down in Pennsylvania on 911.  I couldn’t believe how hard it is to find the truth.  We searched the Internet for a long time and found many more conspiracy sites than non conspiracy sites.   Makes you wonder.  We finally came upon a site that listed the number of bodies found, the weight of what they found, the voice recording before the plane went down, and a few other things.

Ethel kept giving me a bad time about working on the puzzle that’s always on the table because I didn’t get one piece to fit into another.

 

Got to Santa Cruz on Wednesday and just tried to unwind.  On Thursday, we went over Jennifer and Pat’s to watch the Washington Stanford game.  Talked a lot during the movie about Stephen’s accident with the surfboard.  It may take time, but I think he’ll eventually relax over it.

Washington beat number 8, Stanford. Washington looked shaky at times, throwing an interception that led to a Stanford touchdown which put Stanford ahead.  Washington made a big drive to go ahead and stay ahead.  I’m wondering what that will do with their ranking.

 

Friday night I took Jennifer to the Crow Nest for her birthday and I have to tell you, she brightens my spirits with her beautiful smile and new self-confidence.  We talk so easy and she’s so honest with me and I love it. She does occasionally tell me I’m giving her too much information, but hey, that’s me I suppose.  We ate downstairs and talked for a couple hours.  It was an enjoyable evening.

I wasn’t too excited about going to Stockton after all the travel I’d already done because it meant going down on Saturday and coming back on Sunday.  But the day was well worth it.

I went to watch the North Stockton Bengals play in Lathrop.  Stayed for two and a half games and it brought back a lot of memories from when I coached.  They have 4 levels that play on Saturday so I watched three of them.  I couldn’t believe the number of kids playing ball.  It made me wonder whatever happened to all the competition from soccer.

Derrick Martin is the head of the Bengal organization.  I coached him in track and football and I’m like a father to him.  Stan Ellis told me to come.  I also coached him and he calls me regularly.  He is the official photographer.

What was great, was that they had a couple chairs with an umbrella right on the edge of the field and I was able to sit there and watch the game and talk to Stan and Derrick.  Morris Harper, who I also coached in football, is coaching the oldest Bengal boys.  We took a picture together.  Strange seeing this 70 year old white dude with these three black adults.  Made me feel good inside to know that I made a difference in their lives and we still have contact.  It was a wonderful afternoon.

Went to Marilyn’s around 5:30, talked for a time, took a nap, and then headed to the Klocke’s for our gourmet dinner.  We were eating Southern food so had fried chicken and sweet potato fries and grits.  I didn’t eat the grits.  There were a couple of other items, but I can’t remember the name.  The evening was topped of with lemon pie.

 

They were celebrating grandparents and children so had pictures of all us as as children and we had to guess who was who.  We also had to do that with the children of gourmet.  It was a challenge and I really sucked at it.  It was good to be with old friends who were really happy to see me.  It was a wonderful evening.  As usual, Marilyn and I talked about many things.

I slept in til 9:20 at Marilyn’s.  It was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time.  I had a couple glasses of milk for breakfast and drove directly to Stephen and Wendy’s to visit with my Layla and Lucca for a short time since I hadn’t seen them yet.  Lucca was asleep, so I went in the backyard and played with Layla for an hour or so.  She made me spaghetti and meatballs, walked on the balance beam Stephen put up in their yard, swung on her two swings and was just a joy to spend time with.  I hated to run off after an hour, but was very tired and unfortunately do not have a picture of our playing together.

 

The last thing is I went swimming in the ocean that afternoon after taking a nap.  It was the first time I’d been in the ocean in 30 years.  I’ve walked it in, but haven’t put my whole body in.  It wasn’t near as cold as I’d expected.  The waves were too big though.  I tried to boogie board, but it was too much for me. The next day I went down to the beach and into the ocean after having my defibrillator go off just as I was getting to the beach.  I’ve discovered it doesn’t do any good to worry about it.

 

My heart went into a vetricular fibrillation and I got dizzy so sat down on the 4th step from the bottom.  A lady stopped to help me and then called for help.  A guy came down and offered me water.  I drank his whole canteen full.  He was very worried and I assured him that I was fine.

The lady did have to free my backpack from the railing.  I’m not sure how I would have gotten up if she hadn’t.  I felt a little weak, but felt much better after I was up.  She followed me out to the beach and was shocked that I was going to go out in the ocean.  I went in three times while she was there and just before she left she came over and kissed me twice on the forehead, tapped me a couple times on my chest, and then faked choking me.  I was flattered she wanted to put her hands all over me.  Then she asked for my phone number.  I was hesitant, but since she stopped to help me, I gave it to her.  She never did call.  She works at Safeway and I suppose I should look her up and thank her again.

Lastly, after my day at the beach and a nap, Jennifer and Pat came by to go to the beach and then we went to the Crow’s Nest for dinner.  It made me think how wonderful my life is.

Anyway, it was a wonderful week.