August 24

The air is fresh and quite cool this am. It gives the hint of fall, just around the corner. R & A & I went to the airport yesterday to pick up our AFS teacher for the year. Her name is "Apple" an Americanized, clipped version of her real name that I won't even try to pronounce. She comes to us from Thailand where she has been a teacher for 5 years. I know she is going to work out just fine here, she loves cooking, spicy food, being out in the country, little kids; in other words she speaks Rhonda and Kim's language.

Took the youngest son's tools up to Alexandria on Friday, he starts his 2nd. year of diesel mechanics on Monday. I'll probably go to Andy's house this afternoon to work on his plumbing. He has been making progress on his house with Christine's help. I want to try and get his toilet hooked up soon. Then he can finish his walls and install new shower etc.

Busy week for Kim, I'm going to eastern Iowa with my boss and one of the salesmen from North Dakota. He has started a sales relationship with a company up in the "oil sands" area of ND and the parent company is located in my territory.

The heater for the pool burned out last week so I'm working on getting the best price for a replacement. The Internet has made it easy to shop for something normally bought from the original purveyor. Even with shipping, I found the exact replacement in California for about $500. less than local. In a way it's sad, the trend is to buy where you get the best price, not always where it came from. This is true in my business also, I just sold a big order for parts to a firm in Ohio. Word of mouth helped on that one but they just couldn't get the help they needed from any one in that area.

Hopefully the economy has started to turn around a bit. Diesel fuel has dropped below $4.00/gal. in southern MN. this past week. I think it's a good sign!

Later.....

Life is good!