November 10 - Every fall, john and joyce take pictures of their grand-nieces. Here are a couple of pictures taken on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City:

November 13 - Although this was not a Friday the 13th, it didn't go well for joyce today. Someone backed into the side of her car. He had to back 50 feet to achieve that feat! The other car was parked in the next aisle from joyce's. The aisles are 45 feet apart! Since Kansas is a "no fault" state and the van that hit joyce's car was not damaged, he will probably will have no expense at all! It will take $1700 to replace the driver's door on joyce's car. Of course, insurance will cover all but $200, but it still takes a lot of work to get the paperwork and finally the car repaired.

November 29 - This has been an unusual November for the Overland Park area. The temperature was often in the seventies and Fall stretched into November, which is quite unusual. Normally, the trees have their maximum colors the third week of October. This year their maximum colors appeared more like the third week of November. As a result, not much was recorded in this journal for November as john was still outside getting ready for winter.

The evening of November 21, the television said that Overland Park would be getting some rain turning into snow and accumulating about 1 inch of snow. john got up just before 2 A.M. and looked out to find at least 8 inches of snow covering everything! Then just after 2 A.M. john and joyce lost power. john got up and started a fire in the fireplace (just hit the switch). The house stablized at 63 degrees in the great space and 53 degrees in the bedrooms. Power did not come back on until 2 P.M. the following day. It stayed on for two hours and then went back off. It came on again for about 15 minutes and then back off. Finally power was restored by about 8 P.M.

During the night, john kept hearing sounds like the roof was going to fall in. It wasn't the house at all, but turned out to be major limbs from the three Bradford Pears near the small waterfall. None fell into the small pond, but did fall everywhere else! Come morning the backyard looked like a war zone! john and joyce will have a lot of sunlight this summer! It will take a major effort to clean up the damage. Bradford Pears shouldn't be sold in this area. If john replaces them, the new ones will be Chanticlear or Arstrocrat Pears, but not Bradfords.

For Thanksgiving, john and joyce visited family in St. Louis. Their newphew, Nick, is getting married in December, so john and his dad, Ken, went with "the guys" to the Anheiser-Bursh brewery. What an awesome, huge place! john liked Amber Bock beer the best in their tasting room. Then everyone went to Dave & Busters for dinner. Afterwards, john and Ken came home, but the younger set rented a small bus and "hit the town" (interpretation: strip clubs).

john and joyce are working hard to give a birthday party for their best friend jerry this weekend. Family and friends are gathering from "afar" to attend.