Family Letter April 26, 2009

Happy Birthday Mom Z! You almost look as old as me. I am very excited this week after a very short time Devin has caved to my transportation wants. My new bike is a chain drive system with front and rear disk breaks. I convinced Devin of my need on Sunday night and not wanting to give Devin to much time to reconsider I ordered it on Monday and picked it up Wednesday. Lucky for me I only work a few blocks from the shop so Devin dropped me off at work and I picked it up on my way home. There is nothing like having the wind blow through your hair as you go down the street. I was a little sad the weather has not been great over the past few days because I would really enjoy going on a long ride. Well I can actually think of something better. The ride could be better if there was a motor attached to my bike. The peddles just do not provide the same kind of power. Even though it is not a motorcycle it only has 2 wheels so I am going down the right track. I only work 5 miles from home so my travel time went from 15 minutes in the car to 25 minutes on a bike. I hope this will help in my goal to get a motorcycle next year. Here is the story of how I got a new bike. I was fixing up my old bike to start riding it but there where a few problems. The back hub slips when you put pressure on it. That meant that I needed to get a new rear hub. My bike is 12 years old and I could not find a new rear hub to fit my back gears so that had to be replaced as well. The rear derailer needs to match the rear gears so that part needed replaced as well. The new derailer would not work with my current shifters so the shifters needed to be replaced as well. Since a front derailer only cost $15 that should be replaced as well. You get the idea the bike is totally old and most of the parts needed replacing. Devin and I agreed that a new bike was a better option and I now have a bike that shifts gears properly and is not frustrating to ride. I am happy and look forward to riding more as the weather heats up. Saturday I rode 15 miles to have lunch with Devin. When I got there it started to rain so I put the bike in the car and drove home. By the way has any one seen Devin lately?

Devin claims to be wrapping up school. I do not think that is an accurate description of what she is doing. Devin frequently ignores me for hours by putting on headphones and shutting out the world around her. She claims to be listening to lectures and writing notes but to me what she has written is gibberish. It says things like “prn” and other types of stuff. Devin does not use English or any other language that is discernible. I think that Devin thinks that if she fills the page with enough letters they will magically get her the grades she needs. It seems to be working well for her right now we just hope she gets through the next 2 weeks unscathed. Pray for her as she finishes the semester. I will pray for any one else who needs help with school just email me back.

Some of you who have not skipped the previous paragraph know that Devin has shut the world around her out in order to get “STUDYING” done. This does not always sit well with bored people in the house. Ok, it is me that gets bored waiting for Devin to finish what ever it is she does and earlier this week I was having trouble getting attention when an opportunity fell into my lap. Well it did not fall into my lap it fell from the freezer door to the kitchen floor. It was a bag of chocolate chips. They where milk chocolate not that disgusting semi-sweet type. The bag split many chips around the kitchen. I bent down put the bag back in the freezer. I then sat down and started eating the rest of the chips off of the floor. Devin keeps a very clean house so I had a strong sense that they where safe. I kept sitting there eating the chips until I got what I wanted, Devin's attention. When she first turned around she had a look of confusion. When she realized what was going on she started to laugh. I offered her some chocolate chips but for some strange reason Devin declined. She even took a few pictures. I think it looks like I am eating rat poop but I promise it is chocolate chips. We hope you all have a great week We know that we will.