Beautiful fall day in eastern Ky. Blue sky nice breeze and high around 60. I love having real seasons. The trees are changing colors and the frost has helped my head. Seasons are good seasonal alergeries are not.

Gman is home from school running a fever. Beth took him to the doctors. Negative on the flu and strep so just a cold. Hopefully the fever will stay gone and he does not miss much school.

E gets to ride the bus to Boys and Girls club by hiself. I can't remember if this is the first time or not. Beth has not said anything and does not seem worried. Maybe because Gman is sick and she has not thought about it. Or it's not the first time and so she is ok with it. Man they are growing up so fast.

Been thinking of Mama Jo lately, or at least once a day still. She would be getting ready for her toy drive at church right now. She would have been getting toys all year long. Buying them at yard sells and storing them up. Start of November was when the toys would get brought out, sorted, and cleaned. She would go down her list from last year and checking on everyone. Her helpers would be called and confermined for this year. She really loved Christmas, even if Granddad could not have cared less if we had 1 present in the house.

Boys Computer

Got to love when a plan comes together.  Installed the new DVD player and the ram I had saved.  The boys new computer posted the first time I booted it.   Installed the old XP I had and it is up and running.  It was very easy and I am glad I have finished for them.  Now to figure out the best way to get in on the home network.  I am either going with a an Linksys adapter.   I am not sure if I want to use a  pci card one or a USB key one.  I will have to look at them a little more before deciding. 

This means the boys, Beth helping a lot, will have to get their desk cleaned off so they will have room for their new computer.  Is it over kill to give an 8 and 5 year old a hand built computer?  I spent a little more than I had planned but it was still under $130 for the new parts and reused a lot of the parts I had laying around.   I am now very sure I will build my next one from the ground up. 

I loaded Windows 7 this week on my computer this week.  I followed a suggestion from Maxiimum PC and put in a new internal hard drive.  So I now have a Tri-boot PC with XP  and Ubuntu on one hard drive and W7 on the new one.  Now to get all my bookmarks and emails moved over to W7.  I am having trouble getting a couple of games to play on W7 but I think its the 64-32 bit issue and just waiting on patches for them for the 64 bit Os.   

Just a quick post.  Finally started rebuilding the old computer for the boys room.  I have been able to reuse only the motherboard, hard drive, ram and power supply that I had been saving.  The CD rom has the wrong connector to be used with the motherboard.  The case had a medal bar in the middle that could not be removed.  I have decided not to put in the floppy disc so I will need to get a media reader.  I should be able to use the fans and the monitor.  The hard drive and motherboard are the ones I took out of my Alienware case so I should be able to reuse the Windows XP that came with that box without crossing any lines with Microsoft.  I also need the boys to clean up their desk area so I can use the monitor I have in the garage.  After I get this done I think I will start to look at a completely new build for myself.  Oh and does anyone need left over parts from an HP running Windows ME and a PII Gateway ?

Thursday at work. It is a slow day and I am kind of day dreaming. I had my second call for jury duty. Sat around for 4 hours just to have us all dismissed because a settlement was reached. We did not even find out anything about the case. I passed my Federal SAFE test and now will start on the State of Kentucky information. I am not sure if it is worth all the studing. My company has announced it will be closing another 250 branches before the end of the year. Why are they pushing us if we still not writing any mortgages.

Found out another friend's spouse has cancer. Kidney cancer and they are going to have to have surgery. So please keep all the people you know in your thoughts and prayers.

Mom and Lynn are in Nashville for her birthday this week. I hope they have a great time.

The boy's baseball is finished. They both had fun. I think Graydon learned more and will be ready for spring. I plann to keep working with them both as well. I need to throw with E more. Graydon needs to work on his hitting. Basketball starts next month.

Kern Classic

Had a great time yesterday at the Shaun Kern Classic basketball tournament.  I could barely play with this head cold but it was still a great time.

Shaun Kern is a friend from church who has a non operable form of brain cancer.  He and his family have been through 1 round of Kemo and radiation and got some great news this week.  The tumor has shrunk about 40% from when he was diagnosed in the spring.

I met Shaun playing pick up basketball on Monday nights at the Roc.  While playing we both found out we went to Murray State at the same time but were not sure if we had met there.  He played football there and at Morehead.  He has a wife and 2 small boys at home and girl on the way this fall.  Please keep them all in your prayers.

Bradley Stevenson  set up the tournament and did a great job.  We had 4 teams playing in a double elimination and it was a great day.  I played on Bradley's team and we finished 2nd.  Not bad for a bunch of old guys who usually only play half court.  Kyle Macy and Shaun were the coaches in the final game.  Kyle was  so great with everyone even when he got a call from Dick Vitale during the game.  I heard him tell Dick he was at a charity ballgame and asked him why he was not there.  Some one needs to give this guy another coaching job.

The highlight for me was after the game.  Bradley had got a couple of high school certified refs to do the last game.  I went over at the end to say thanks to them and feel bad that I did not get their names.  While talking to them I got to tell them about Shaun.  One of the them is a cancer survivor and said it was great what we were doing.  He said actions like yesterday did more for people with cancer than any words or just donations ever could. 

So I ask everyone to get out and do something for someone else this week.  It does not have to be anything big or for someone with cancer.  Just do something for someone else because you can do it and they need it done.

PS

Sharlena Ralph

Max Conyers and David Pugh were the referees. Max coaches Upward Basketball.  

 

Thanks Shar 

I have been studying for a week now for the new mortgage loan test for the SAFE act.  I now think I know more about mortgages than I ever wanted to know.  We will find out tomorrow.   The industry really does need to have a level of professionalism returned to it.  I am not sure what the real justification was to exclude loan officers who work a FDIC insured banks but I think it was a bad idea.  Most large banks do not sell their mortgages as securities but the majority of small regional banks do.  Those who use Federal insurance programs need to have the same training and certification as any mortgage broker.   I do believe that the regulations need to be brought together under 1 agency and regulations.  The idea that the HUD could not take over the running of the VA housing, USDA lending, Fannie and Freddy is very strange.  All the programs do similar but not identical functions but the overlap is huge.  Some are overseen by the FTC some by the FDC.  Others by the VA and HMDA.  All do a good function but they can all be stream lined to remove waste.  Fannie and Freddie where the 2 odd balls but now the Federal Reserve has controlling interest in both.  Take all of the protections from the oversight agencies and all the insurance provisions from the the regulators and move them to the cabinet that was made to oversee Housing and Urban Development.  Limit the Urban expansion but adding in the farm protection from the USDA and move the VA lending in to allow the VA to concentrate on the health and well being of Vets.  This is something I really need to spend some time thinking about.  Put together a list of each program and what they do and how they overlap.  Wow I am really spending too much time on this.  Hopefully it will pass with me passing the test. 

Good morning all.  I hope everyone had a good weekend.  The family is back after a good MSU homecoming trip.  I wish I would have went but the sinus cold really was a bad one.  The two days of class last week were very long but I am now much more prepared to take the SAFE test this week.  So far no jury duty since the first trial.   

Nothing big this week so far.  Hope everyone has a good week.