We're still working on our inventory list. Wow, that's time consuming.

The good news is that the fence on the south side of our yard has been replaced, making that neighbor a little happier with us. The neighbor on the east side had their gutter damage repaired and yesterday they replaced that fence.

So, other than the siding on the south side neighbor's house, they should all be just about done.

We got our Toyota Highlander back yesterday, which is very nice. We've been driving a Kia Sportage as a replacement and although it isn't really a bad vehicle, it is a long way from our Highlander. It only seats 5 instead of 7 and has what I think is the worst AM radio engine noise that I've ever heard. It adds really odd tones rendering AM radio almost unusable unless you're stopped. The static pop every time you step on the brake is probably the most interesting.

Anyway, things are still moving along.

A couple people had asked for new pictures of the garage, so here is one that I took today.

As you can see, thanks to our friends, the missionaries and the young men from our Church, we have a nice, clean, empty concrete slab now. All we need now is a new garage.

I saw this yesterday in Clearlake Oaks, California while I was driving to Sacramento. I couldn't believe my eyes. Most of the other stations were at $3.89 or $3.93/gal. This gas must be really good.

Any bets on how soon this is the average price?

Here are some pictures I took of the aftermath of our garage fire.

In our efforts to look on the bright side, Grace and I both came to the same conclusion. After we get the garage rebuilt, we probably won't need the storage shed any more since we don't have anything to put in it anyway.

One thing I didn't mention last night is how thankful I am for our friends. I've already mentioned all the things that the neighbors did for us, but while the firemen were still putting out the fire, we had a bunch of our friends come by to make sure we were OK and offer their assistance. Our friend Craig Carter dog sat by allowing Storm to spend the night in his backyard. We had Kathy Norris, the Glavichs, multiple Richardsons, the Steinmans and our Bishop all stopping by before the flames were even out to check on us and our needs. There were probably more that I can't even remember. We've had a bunch of phone calls today from other friends checking on us.

We're so blessed to have such good friends.

Storm is back at the house now. We set up an area at the other end of our house for him to live until the garage is rebuilt. He doesn't look any worse for wear and he definitely seemed happy to be home.

On Monday, we'll order a construction dumpster so that we can begin the process of getting rid of the ash and burnt wood.

My mom and grandfather came by today to check out our handiwork. They seemed impressed.

We've been amazed at the number of people driving slowly by our house, or who put on the brakes once they see our garage is gone. If we could only figure out a way to charge for that, we'd be able to rebuild the garage.

Well, we've had an interesting evening. I was at a wedding reception for Nathan Richardson and as I arrived home, I saw a multitude of fire trucks parked in front of my house and thick black smoke rising into the sky. I quickly parked my truck and ran down the street toward my house. As the house came into view, I quickly realized that my house was OK, but my garage and storage shed were fully involved.

The good news is that everyone got out safely. Our neighbors were great. They rescued our dog, assisted my mother-in-law in getting out of the house and sprayed water on our car sitting in the driveway to protect it. The bad news is that the garage and storage shed are a complete loss. In looking at tomorrow's Ukiah Daily Journal, it looks like we made the front page. Here's what the story looked like, complete with picture.

Our dog is spending the night at a neighbor's house. Since he was living next to the garage, tomorrow we'll have to move him to the side of the house instead. We'll also need to go through the rubble to see if there is anything that can be saved. I'm not very hopeful given the heat of the blaze.

There was some damage to adjacent houses and a neighbor's car, but fortunately, thanks to the quick efforts of the Ukiah Fire Department, none of that damage was significant.

As I said, everyone is safe. We have insurance. Most of the stuff in the garage was just junk anyway. I'm sure there will be more on this as the story progresses.

I just realized this evening that I had comments in the approval queue that I hadn't approved for posting to the site. I've had some problems with Comment Spam, so I set the site so that comments require moderator approval before they get posted. That was fine, except that I forgot that I did it. So, there were about 10 comments sitting in the queue waiting for me and I neglected to look at them. Sorry about that!

For those who posted comments, I really appreciate your comments and I'm sorry it took so long to get them posted. I just approved them all and I'll set up a process for reviewing them in a more timely fashion in the future.

So, my son Alex is living with us right now. Along with Alex and his son Andre', came his ball python. Unfortunately, tonight, Alex had the snake out on the living room table and he got distracted with the board game he was playing. The next thing he noticed, the snake was not where he left it. We've searched for about 30 minutes and so far, no snake.

So, needless to say, I'm not thrilled about the idea of the ball python loose in the house. The good news is that he isn't likely to eat me, but he might try to choke my foot or something. So, we're all on the lookout for the loose snake. Gosh, what fun.

I went to the Doctor today and my urine test was clear. At this point, since the kidney stones have passed, there apparently isn't much point in a CT scan now. Since this is the first time I've ever had kidney stones, supposedly I shouldn't overly worry about them returning. So, hopefully, that's it regarding the kidney stone situation.

I'm feeling fine. I've cut diet soda out of my diet and I'm drinking a lot more water than I did before, so in the long run, this is probably going to lead to an improvement in my health.

If you've been following the saga of my effort to get a CT scan, it gets better.

Yesterday afternoon about 4:30pm, the Doctor's office told me that they weren't going to do the paperwork and that the hospital should do it.

This morning, the hospital called me and told me that they can't do it and that the only way the Doctor's office will do it is if they see me about the condition first. Fortunately, I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow already, so I'll take it up with the office when I'm there.

So, it is now Wednesday and I'm basically no closer to a CT scan than I was on Sunday. Hopefully the Doctor's office won't come up with other hoops to jump through that they forget to tell me about for days. Geesh! I think it is time to find a new general practitioner.