Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

5:30 am, and Alexa came alive with sounds not heard since prehistoric times. We begged her to cease and desist, but she refused. Finally, I begged her, and she stopped. The alarm worked, and we were out of bed and moving.
I ran across an OLD, fuzzy, and faded picture of my son Joseph, and with the magic of “AI”, it was restored to how it once looked.

Hansome devil he is; looks just like his Dad, me!
Then, I found an old picture of Colleen and did some magic on it!

We hit the freeway at 7:00 am, heading for Long Beach for additional cancer removal surgery. We pulled into the parking lot, took the lift to the third floor just as they called us. Within 90 minutes, I was treated by an excellent surgical team. Mary thought she might help and brought an icepick, a potato peeler, and a rusty hacksaw, but they were not needed!
On the way to the Elks, I thought about how Joe was brought up, and it apparently worked, as he is a man’s man! Works hard, cares for this family, and is someone we are very, very proud of!

After the surgical procedure, we headed to Santa Ana to pick up the Grey Ghost, a.k.a. the Honda Odyssey, which is in the car hospital, having its front arms fixed and its brakes worked on. The first time the brakes needed servicing was at 106,000 miles!
On the way into the Elks, we picked up the latest brochure and started a party, much like last year! Invites will go out tomorrow morning, and the venue will fill up quickly!

Sydney joined us for lunch at the Elks today, and we caught up on all her adventures. She and Mary have been friends for over a quarter-century, and, as you may remember, she was the real estate whiz who handled all the house-and-rental property swapping back in 2021 to get us together in Casa Valencia.

Long-time friends!
After the Elks, we headed home in the two cars and decided Mary was about to come down with a cold, so we took a nap.
Robin was due over around 4:30 pm so we could have a movie night! Mary and Robin went to the computer to change the reservations for our New Hampshire adventure coming up in September, while I went to One-Hung-Low’s Restaurant and picked up plenty of dinner.

We enjoyed our post-dinner movies.
At 10:30 pm, we declared victory and crashed. Robbin is going to her sister’s place in the morning, and I am going to nurse Mary back to health.
