It is a dreary, overcast day and my thoughts are already turning to Spring. It has been a mild winter in Northern California and while the rest of the country remains in a frozen state, we have yet to see the temperature dip below freezing this winter. We had 27 days in the 20's and 30's at this time last year and only five so far this year and none below 35 degrees. I have nothing to complain about and it is sixty degrees today as the sun struggles to part the haze and improve the mood of the community.

Super Bowl has come and gone and I was happy to see Tampa Bay put a whoopin' on the Raiders. I was sad to see Gannon have a record setting poor performance in the Super Bowl with his five interceptions (three returned for touchdowns). He is a class act and gives hope to all of us old guys. Darla and I spent the Super Bowl at a party in Rocklin. The host is a friend of a friend, who I play golf with once a month. He is sixty years-old and retired from UAL. (He got out and sold his airline stock when it was $85 a share). He moved here from the Bay Area and sold his little track home for $740,000 and bought a small mansion in Rocklin. His home is five bedrooms and 4400 square feet. He said he bought the nicest house he could find to take the sting out of moving out of the Bay Area. That hurts us locals as we wouldn't dream of moving into the congestion and smog of the Bay Area. He plans on installing a putting green in his back yard, so I may become better friends with him yet. I just got him to join our golf club. He and his wife put on a spectacular party and it was fun to watch the Super Bowl on HDTV. Darla and I won the third quarter of the pool that he had and took home $25...that, of course, was after buying 22 squares at a buck a piece.

My friend, Mark Konrad, who is the webmaster at our golf club had a lung collapse last week. He is 38 years-old and apparently the affliction affects tall, slender white males. I was concerned for myself until Darla pointed out that I'm neither tall nor slender. Nice to have a wife who will tell it like it is. It's like being married to Howard Cosell. Well,..... not really. Mark had a buildup of air in his chest cavity and had been complaining of having pulled a muscle in his side. Finally, when he had trouble breathing, his wife, Pamela, took him to Emergency and they had to install a stent in his chest. He was at the party, but was not doing well. I saw him drink a Buckhalter, which is a non-alcoholic beer. He was partying in his own way. Mark was supposed to have the stent removed yesterday.

We had our Super Bowl golf tournament on Saturday and had over 100 golfers. I played like a hack and shot 43-45=88 and finished out of the money. I went to the course this morning and entered all of the scores from the tournament and transmitted them to the NCGA. Today is the cutoff for scores for the February indexes. I also played Turkey Creek, a tough course in Lincoln, yesterday and shot 87. I played with two guys who shot 106 and 107 respectively, so my 87 was pretty good considering the fact that I spent a lot of time looking for their lost balls and waiting while they duffed their way around the course. Nice guys, but try bowling..or a lesson. Jeesh.

I will be off to Monterey and Phoenix next week as I finally get over to Monterey to close out the storage unit. They wanted me to do this a couple of weeks ago, but couldn't get out of their own way. I need to meet with my boss to go over some planning issues for 2003 as well as let him do an annual review on my performance, so I'll wrap it all into one trip. I leave on Monday and will fly home from Phoenix on Friday. It will be an exhausting trip, but I am hiring a worker to help me load the truck in Monterey and will take my time driving to Phoenix. It is a good 14-hour drive from Monterey and I will break it up into two days. I will see Dad and Shirley while I'm there, but will miss Jennifer. I had hoped to stay the weekend, but I have a qualifier golf tournament on the 8th and 15th of February and have a partner, so I have to fly home. Oy.

Jennifer will visit with Dad in Phoenix this weekend. I'm happy for both of them, but wish that I could be there.

Well, that's it for this epistle. Keep your head up.....unless your playing golf. Ciao.