Hey there Pop,

I was driving home yesterday and saw the new TL - it sure looks a lot more like a bat-mobile than the last one! The new one is way too swoopy, Mom would hate it, way to much chrome too. Oh well, it's not like she needs a new car anytime soon.

Of course I thought of you when I saw it, sure it's a lot less pretty then the other one, but every time I see one I always think that you should have gotten that car. I know Mom loves the Infinity, but I really do think that it was the better car.

But it gets me thinking, what are we going to do when it's time to get a new car? What's going to happen, who's going to pick out a car for Mom? I guess that maybe John can help us - he really knows a lot about performance cars.

Though I do have a bone to pick with you on your last car choice - no heated seats in the Mazda? I realize that you weren't really planning for me to have the car, or for it to have to go through Michigan winters - but heated seats would have been nice!

I guess that's enough babbling about cars for now, but I'm sure we'll talk more about it at some point, Mom's going to need a new car at some point :-)

Talk to you later Pop, I love you.

Hey there Pop,

So what did you think? Pretty great stuff today - that's for sure. I've got to say, I like saying President Obama, it makes me happy. It seems like everyone was really feeling pretty great today, I really hope that we can all continue to feel that way.

I thought that President Obama's speech was inspiring and yet approachable - but then, I've always felt that he is an amazing orator. And I'm pleased that the country finally has an eloquent and educated person in charge - I think good things are going to happen.

I really loved the piece that Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Pearlman did, "Air and Simple Gifts". It was really well done, but then what would you expect. I thought of you a lot during that part, wondering what you'd think of today.

You're missing some serious history here Pop. It makes me sad, but I know you're still keeping track so that makes it a little less sad.

Talk to you later Pop, I love you.

Hey there Pop,

I was listening to the radio today, and they were interviewing this guy that drove his truck off the road into freezing water, swam to shore and then walked, wet and frozen, for hours looking for someone to help him - and he survived. Then he talked about how he kept telling God that he didn't want to die, that he had a wife and grandchildren - he wanted to live for them. He said he kept asking God to live, and he did.

So I was wondering, did you ask? Did you tell God that you didn't want to go, that there were still people that needed you here? Did you have time to ask? Would you have asked if you had time? Or did you give up, were you ready? Because we weren't.

You know how I feel about God, that I've always had doubts. Sometimes I wish I could believe, but it's just too hard to. Because what if you asked Pop, what if you asked to stay - and God said no. How can I believe in someone who would do that?

I guess I can't.

Talk to you later Pop, I love you.

Hey there Pop,

I know it's been a while, but we've been dealing with a bunch of crap lately. We got back from California in good order, really one of the best flights back we've ever had - the flight was on time, we weren't rushed, the baggage wasn't too heavy, the flight attendants were nice and we even got exit row seats. Until we got back into Detroit it was pretty great, but then the inevitable waiting for baggage - that and the fact that it was past midnight by then.

I forgot to tell you that they got the new terminal done, now there's no more ghetto terminal. We first flew out of the new terminal in September, as we rolled the bags in I thought "I should call Dad and tell him" - of course I couldn't, so I'm telling you now. The funny thing is that there was still a bunch of construction and three months later it's still not done. Sounds like a typical project, all the little stuff left to the end and then never done.

Speaking of done, Brett got the rest of the porch finished. It's all painted and looks pretty good. Mom's mad because she said the painter didn't prime it - then he came back and did a crap job of power washing something and got the windows dirty. She was less than pleased, but then when isn't she.

But anyway, back to me :-). A couple days after we got home, the river flooded! It was amazing, in a bad way. The back basement got about a foot of water in it - every thing seems fine, the plants were all high up. The only real problem is that the small lawn mower may need a bit of work, drying out the engine, etc. The main basement ended up with about an inch of water - you should have seen all the sandbags we had - inside and out! We were up all night dealing with it, Jacob came over to help us most of the night, plus we had the Fire Department over a couple times (setting sandbags and helping with the pump).

Actually the fire inspector was over today to look at the damage so that they could work on a better plan for the next time. That's a phrase that scares the crap out of me "next time".

Here's what it looked like when it was still "pretty", it was close, but not too bad yet...


By the next morning (when I could take more pictures) the water was within a foot of the top of the fence - which is what, three maybe three and a half feet? The water was pretty damn high.

The only real loss in the main basement is the carpet. We were able to move, lift or some how deal with everything else. There's a bit of damage on the back of the big bookcases, but I think it's because of condensation on that back wall (the damage looks old). So now were in the process of putting in new carpet, and Scott's going to set some tile near the door all the way over to the laundry area, so that we won't track mud on the carpet any more. And he's going to put a wall in next to the cabinet you guys built. It should make it nicer down there.

So that's what's new around here.

Talk to you later Pop, I love you.