Home again home again, jiggity jog.

Well, Grandpa's funeral was successful -- not sure what that means exactly other than that Grandpa obliged us by staying dead. I got a lot of positive feedback from the service and my sermon -- which I only had about two hours to write when my dad and uncle decided that they couldn't possibly handle getting up to say anything (of course I understood completely).

I got to visit with a long lost cousin who I hope will be coming to visit us sometime in the near future, what a great guy! He's another hippie, long white hair and a beard -- he's the only person in my family over six feet tall (he's closer to seven feet really... wow). I didn't recognize him at first, it had been so long since I'd seen him (since I was about ten or twelve). At the time he was head veterinarian for the Calgary Zoo in Canada. He still lives in Calgary, but now he's a luthier -- he makes guitars and mandolins. I should note that he doesn't just make guitars and mandolins, but rather that he makes some of the best guitars and mandolins in the world today -- they sell for about $40,000.00 each to people like Jann Arden ("Insensitive"). He said when I come up to visit I should bring my Gibson and we'd upgrade it (stoked... worth the trip just for that alone!!).

When I got back, I drove from SFO (after finding a woman's bag by the bus stop and waiting for an hour for her to come and get it after she called her cell phone which I answered after she tried about four different times -- she was happy and gave me $10 =o) to New Hogan Lake near Lodi, where Fuego was camping with Some-of-the-time-girlfriend and his family. I managed to have a weekend in a matter of about four hours... it was awesome! I got to meet some of Some-of-the-time-girlfriend's family, got to go tubing behind a jet-boat (it had a 455 cubic inch V8 in it... that's more engine than a Corvette for a boat that probably weighs less than 400 lbs!), got to go water skiing, got to go cliff diving (more cliff jumping really... I couldn't bring myself to dive), got to drink beer while riding in the jet-boat watching other people ski, got to play with Ginger in the lake (she's quite the swimmer when she gets past the boxer instinct to stay away from the water... poor thing, thankfully the lab side wins out once she's actually in the water -- so confusing for her ;o), then got to sit in the shade on Fuego's lap and drink more beer until it was time for dinner. All told I was up from 4am until 12am by the time we got home and unpacked and settled down enough to fall asleep. Needless to say, I fell asleep pretty early the following evening.

On to the next adventure!! (Planning the mayhem that is the "Disneyland Run" -- more on that later.)