Today has dawned bright and sunny and all is right with the world. Well, I still don't have a job and to compound my life further I got into an accident last week and smashed the front end of the Maxima. Aside from those minor concerns, all is bliss in my life.

The job hunt is bearing some fruit. I have an interview tomorrow with Lin Lan of UCA and I hate to pack all of my eggs into one basket, but IF we can find some common ground and work out a deal for me to work the Sacramento territory for her, the transition from eight years at RWIC to UCA would be almost seamless. I would continue to work out of my house, would simply substitute UCA's equipment for that of RWIC and would change phone lines. I would transfer my PO Box into the UCA name, transfer my 401K to my IRA and be up and running in less than a week.

I had initially talked to Lin on Monday, April 21st and we had left it that she would meet with me on or about May 5th. I waited for her to call me back to confirm and as the days passed, began to rethink our conversation to see if perhaps I read more into it than was really there. She seemed particularly interested in me and needed help in Sac, but was I reading more into it because of my position as a soon to be unemployed insurance manager? I prayed about it and decided to wait, rather than call her and seem too anxious. Finally, Lin called me last Friday. Her words were basically that she would be in Sacramento on Tuesday (tomorrow) and she wants to meet with me to see what I need, what she wants and if we can come to a consensus. Praise GOD.

Now, about that fender bender. Wednesday, I finally took the Maxima in to have the rear window repaired. I have power windows in the car and this is the third regulator that has gone out. The car has 169,000 miles on it and is beginning to run down in many areas. The passenger side rear window fell about four months ago and I wedged it shut with a piece of wood shim. It recently began to slip again. The motor is fine, but the regulator is what holds the window in place and it finally broke. Darla has been driving the car and we will soon be replacing it as David has agreed to buy it from us. The blue book on the car is $5,000 and we are selling it to him for $1,000. I did the same thing with Jennifer when she bought my Acura Integra for $500 when it was worth $2500. I believe that kids will be more invested in a vehicle if they are ACTUALLY invested in the car. Well...after picking up the car that afternoon, I drove into downtown Roseville to get my mail and while looking at the marquee of the theater to see what play was in production, the SUV in front of me slammed on it's brakes to miss an errant bike rider and I bought the rear end of her vehicle. She had an oversized tow bar and ball on the rear and, in braking, my car slid right under her rear end and I did $2500 worth of damage. I also twisted her tow hitch out of place and my license plate and plate frame ended up wrapped around her hitch.

She stopped near the post office and we took a look at the damage. She looked at my damage and said "Ouch!". She looked at her damage and said, "Look, my car is a piece of crap and I don't have insurance. I'm outta here." With that she jumped into her truck and sped off. Luckily, I'd removed my license plate from her hitch before she bolted. I wrote down her license number before I got out of the car. I drove to the police station and reported the accident, gave them her license number, which was from Nebraska, and drove home. The force of the collision caused damage to my air conditioner condenser and knocked my radiator off of its support. The front end is badly damaged, but, surprisingly, the car still runs. I'll take it in this Wednesday to get the repairs done. I was concerned that the insurance company might total the car because of it's age and damage. David would have been devastated as he is looking forward to getting his new car. The Maxima has a lot of mileage on it, but it has a premium sound system, power windows, power seats, a power sunroof, and has been babied by me since I bought it, with oil changes and new tires, new struts, new battery, all new belts and hoses, etc. David knows he's getting a deal. The adjuster was amazed at how well the frame held up in the accident and said that 9 out of 10 cars would have had major engine damage in an accident like this and the only damage was to a $106 air conditioning compressor and to the radiator support. At least Darla and I know that David will be driving a safe car.

It rained most of the weekend and Darla and I relaxed at home. We went to a Cinco De Mayo party on Saturday afternoon and were glad to get home afterward. We picked up several movies and sat and watched those over the course of the weekend. I played NO GOLF, but did play in the first night of my twilight league last Thursday. I shot a 39, my partner shot 37 and we won the match on the ninth hole with a seven foot par putt. I'm really enjoying golf right now and my game is coming around nicely.

I am looking out over the koi pond and see a bright blue sky and a warm day awaiting me. I'll enjoy this Spring weather even more if Lin and I can work out a deal tomorrow. I'll let you know. I had an interview last week with the insurance wholesaler and after two hours the manager told me that if it was six months later, he'd jump over the desk to hire me. Hopefully, God's timing is in sync with Lin tomorrow. We'll see.