places . . . and . . . things . . . .

some of you have wondered and asked me, 'are you still walking'; the short answer is yes, daily!  i have my pedometer with virgin health, and in june, i completed their national employee wellness challenge in which nearly 75 companies participated with over 63,106 people participating.  i placed 6,436, with an average of just over 15,000 steps a day!  i get up on most days at 5:30 am to complete most of my daily walking ... my goal is to walk as many steps during the day as i do in the morning....

during my vacation, i stayed around town, spending the majority of time attending to a close friend whose brother died suddenly; i led the memorial service....

on my way home, i stopped at the sunol water temple ... it reminded me of the water temple in golden gate park in san francisco, that i remember visiting when i was younger.  this is the location where three bodies of water come together before heading off to the bay area's water supply.  when you are on highway 84 outside of fremont/hayward, stop and have a look-see!

after attending to my 98 cabrio, i decided to completely paint the extra bedroom at the parsonage -- and this is how it turned out!  i am not a painter, and would never claim to know what i was doing, but, i felt accomplished.  so, there you have it.

i can now walk down my hallway and glance through that room into the backyard ... and it gives me a feeling of calm and renewal.  there is something empowering when one can walk into their home and have a sense of welcome; a room that can say, in a sense, come in; relax; be renewed.  now the parsonage really feels like home!

there is this wonderful restaurant called silver spur not too far from the parsonage that has wonderful food; one never feels rushed there; folks are friendly -- in fact, it is so popular that linda, the owner, created a community table that is round; when you feel like eating alone, or want to be in conversation with people you do not know, this is the table for you!

on this particular day, i was waiting for a seat -- in summer, it is popular and crowded, but no one seems to mind -- i was reading outside on this beautiful morning (the second in a series of mysteries by nicci french entitled 'tuesday's gone' -- do start with 'blue monday'; you'll be ever-so-glad you did!) when one of the servers came walking out with this bird and a carrot!  so, silver spur also provides entertainment!  this particular day, the food was well worth the wait!

if you haven't had an opportunity to see 'begin again', take the chance!  there are some great movies out there at the moment; a group of us from the congregation are going to see 'third person' on sunday ... we'd be glad to have you come along!  ah summer!  the places you go and the things you see!  come to santa cruz; catch a wave!