Good morning. Coffee is in hand and the soundtrack of the film “O Brother where art thou” playing in the background. The music is pure country and a bit mellow, assisting my mood – especially the cut “I’ll Fly Away”. Reason? I am about to donate and have fly away the old Lancia Zagato to Goodwill. I have held off for the past two years hoping against hope that the time, will, and money would be there for a complete restoration. It just ain’t gonna work. Italian cars are great on design and killer on maintenance. You know that the real meaning of the Italian car brand “Fiat” stands for “Fix-It-Again-Tony”. As LA Dodgers coach Rod Devereaux once said, “only two good things ever came out of Italy and Sophia Loren has both of them.”

In talks with the kids they are all gaining. Kirstin is gaining in weight, Jason and Cathy in hosting duties (as her family joins them for Thanksgiving in Asheville), and Adrianne in knowledge. Expectant moms are doing well and Adrianne is powering through a wonderful internship. Vince suffered the only loss – a wisdom tooth.

Marcia lost the airfilter on the little pushmower. Now the “queen of the Fall-leaf cleanup detail” was completely stymied. Unable to find a replacement bolt for the filter I got 12 inches of all-thread. It worked. Now the plan is to not cut the remaining 8 inches, but find a 6” pennant. This way it’ll be the most patriotic mower in town and the additional benefit is that it can act as a rudimentary speedometer. See, if it hangs limp she will be going too slow, and flapping in the wind is good.

Other than that, Marcia is a bit manic and on a complete roll in the home painting department. Every night I come home a new room is being tackled. The “queen of the paintbrush” views the paintbrush as a natural extension of her hand. And yes, as always, the smaller the brush the happier she gets. Currently there are 4 rooms in progress. Can any of you beat that?

Have a great week, as you get ready for Thanksgiving.

Cheers,

Dirk