The week started off with me attending my grief support group; it seems that every 10 weeks they do a pot luck lunch.  I brought one of the pies I had frozen a couple of weeks ago. We have good times. This session they posed a few questions that I had not considered; is that because I am a man of few thoughts and only action? One was: what are you doing to begin a new life?  I just get up each day and move forward; that is what my 'to do' list is for. We had a new lady join us. Her husband passed away two years ago and it has been difficult for her; all she wants to do is stay in the house and not do anything. Grief affects us all so differently.

I spent the better part of the week working at the rent house in town. Steve graciously came out three days and assisted me. The 36 foot by 8 foot dining room, kitchen, laundry room are now tiled. We installed hardi board and used over 850 screws to secure it and then mortared the tile on top. I got one bath floor (it is 5 foot by 5 foot plus the tub) upgraded with new vinyl planking and both bath toilets replaced (previous ones had cracks or broken lids).

A before and after picture with the new floor (note: the doors are only 24 inches wide):

I spent some time Saturday morning cleaning up my mess and getting things ready for me to grout the floor on Monday. The plan is to be done before the week is over - let's hope!

Here is the floor before grouting:

Steve and Kathy arrived Saturday afternoon on their way home from a conference in Texas. They will spend a few days before heading home. Sue and Steve are set to depart for their home tomorrow. It is fun having family here. On Wednesday the three of us went to the family history center and did some research. That is a deceptive term for what we really accomplished. There is a blank in one of my dad's lines back in the early to mid 1800s. We discovered why: there is a lack of information. And it doesn't help when you find entries like this:  ...was found dead in his wagon shop in Illinois. He left his family in Missouri because he was $3000 short as the county treasurer. He told his wife he was changing his name to Samuel Bodkins and left her with seven children. The things our ancestors teach us!

Yesterday was pi day. In celebration I baked a chocolate cherry cake to celebrate, a few days early, Steve S's birthday. If we can't have pie, at least we had chocolate!

This week has seen a flurry of activity via email and the internet in reference to the Church's response to the corona virus. No doubt in my mind that God is in control; now if we could just acknowledge that! We held our first in-home Sunday meetings today; was nice that there were five of us to participate. It was especially nice that Sue plays the piano so we could have accompaniment with our singing. Our sacrament portion of the meeting was short, but spiritually powerful. Then we spent some time discussing this week's  Come Follow Me' lesson from Jacob 1-4.

This week I was able to scan letters that Sandy sent me during the fall of 1969 up until May 1970. It was an interesting transition from just being friends and getting berated for not being there when she needed a friend to console her (she was in Davis and I in San Jose) to becoming engaged in January and having her world revolve around me. It was fun to relive those moments, such as  occasionally driving the Model A 200 miles round trip for a weekend visit, to trying to keep our engagement a secret from parents in LA until we could tell them face to face, to the challenges of finishing up classes and maintaining grades. Ah, those times seem so much simpler than today! It was great to be young and in love.

And it was 48 years ago today that Sandy and I were sealed in the Los Angeles Temple for time and eternity!