Bad review, birthday, business travel, Mama’s frustrations

Victoria and I watched – or rather tried to watch – a Jurassic Park movie last night. The newest one. It was so awful from the very beginning that I lost complete interest less than half way through. I am not a critic, but I do know what catches my attention and what does not. What I did manage to watch was a complete waste of time. I think Victoria saw it through to the conclusion. I could not endure the affront to my general sense of intellectual acumen. If it was billed as a comedy, it would have been more endurable. That was not the case. Lately, the movies available have fallen into the same grouping of poorly written and poorly produced content relying on cinematography and computer generated images to carry the interest versus taking time to write a . Fortunately, we do not try to watch a movie that often. Unfortunately, that was a sad fail as entertainment. The upside was that there was very little bad language and no nudity – or suggestive situations. At least to the point that I watched. Still, it was not time well spent.

Nate, Cori and the kids sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish yesterday. The kids did so with gusto. Cori told me later that there is a customary second part to the chorus, but they did not know the words well enough to sing it to me. They are going to learn that part so when Mama’s birthday comes up in a few days they will be able to sing it for Mama. That should be fun. I heard from everyone but Joshua. He is distracted by the potential work coming his way as an insurance adjuster – heading to North Carolina – and a new family unit to integrate into. Brittany sent me a cute picture of the girls propped on the couch with a Happy Birthday Papi sign in front of them. Sophia (at least I think it is Sophia) looks unimpressed with the activity. But the effort produced a funny picture.

Today, Mama had physical therapy again. She is worried that over the weekend she will lose the gains she and the therapist fought for over the past two or three days. I believe that as the swelling in her knee and leg goes down over the weekend we will see steady improvement in her range of motion. Victoria and I will work with Mama to keep what she has gained – if she will allow. Victoria went with Mama to her physical therapy session today, so she could see what needed to be done and how to do the exercises we need to keep up. The only caveat is the time Mama and I will be on the road traveling to and from Lawton as well as the time we will be in town searching out properties.

Mama spent the time and money yesterday to get new tires put on the Sequoia. We waited about as long as we possibly could to replace the tires. From her report to me last night, she is not thrilled with the purchase. We went with a lower priced set of tires to get us by for a couple years. She said they ride pretty roughly so we may not have made the right decision. Time will tell. I will get good chance to evaluate them tomorrow as we drive to and from Lawton. It is only a two-hour trip to Lawton and we have just ten houses to evaluate. We should be able to get that done in about six hours total. I need to get the research done and get home as soon as possible to finish preparing to teach Sunday School Sunday morning. It is supposed to rain all night and all day, so the timing of the research trip is really good. The proof will come on Monday morning as we attend the auction.

Pray for us to have wisdom as we pray and prepare ourselves for that auction. The first step is often the most difficult one to take.