Back to the Blog after a week of alternating between vacation and training for my insurance license. I started the training on Thursday of last week and then Darla and I drove back up to Lake Tahoe on Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. The condo was great and we mostly ate and played at the Lakeside Casino. Tahoe has gotten really snooty in the last couple of years with Harrahs and Harvey's now under common ownership and the addition of several brand new and expensive condos now sitting next to Harrah's on the strip, the big casinos have forced the small gambler out. $10 minimum tables and 25 cent slots as the lowest denomination are now common. The $1 and $5 slot machines are the fastest growing machines in Tahoe. The Lakeside has excellent food with $2.99 breakfast specials, $4.99 lunch specials and the best prime rib in Tahoe at $7.99. We ate most of our meals there, although we ate one breakfast in the restaurant at the condo. I had a barbecued pork sandwich on Sunday lunch that was some of the best barbecue I'd had in a while. We ate and gambled (we both like nickle video poker) and spent some time in the sun and just generally enjoyed ourselves. It was a great getaway and in spite of technically being still unemployed, I enjoyed the weekend. I hit another royal flush on Saturday night (spades), but I only had five nickles in. A 25 cent bet to win $200 is still pretty nice.

Commuting to this class, which is a whopping 19 miles from my home, has made me realize how incredibly spoiled I am. I've been working out of my house for the better part of eight years and I've really grown to appreciate the serenity and the lack of pressure that I had in my life. Now commuting the half-hour in rush hour traffic, I know what I've been missing. The time that I'm negotiating traffic at 7:30 used to be spent with a cup of coffee in the back yard feeding the fish. I find myself tiring early in the afternoon as the instructor drones on about insuring clauses and conditions, etc. Several times I've had to resort to the technique of using my hand to shield my eyes as I sit back in class and close my eyes. I feel like I'm back in high school. We get a ten-minute break once an hour and I need it. Just this small amount of commuting has convinced me to forego the safe salary at Burns and Wilcox and give Richter Robb 100% of my commitment and work on growing my business here in my home. The 100% commission aspect has still got me a little spooked, but it will be a giant motivator going forward.

I talked to Dad over the weekend and wished him a Happy Father's Day. I also talked to Jennifer and she in turn wished me good tidings. I heard that My Uncle Ed passed away on Saturday night. He has been ill with prostate cancer and was given only a few months to live last year. He died with his family around him and I simply ask you to send a prayer to his family, his wife Martha and his two children, Steve and Jane, my cousins. I trust that the Lord will hold them in his arms during this time of sadness and mourning. Ed was a man's man with a barrel chest and a heart of gold. He was very much like his father, Jack (Pop) who passed away so many years ago. Both of them had a solid exterior and a soft inner core. I can't think of a better combination for a man. My cousin Wayne is very similar in makeup to Ed and Pop and to some extent, so is my brother Randy. All of them would give you pause if there was trouble to be had just looking at them, but any of them would give you the shirt off their backs and a strong shoulder to lean on when times are tough. Solid men who I'm proud to be related to.

The temperatures in Roseville have returned to the upper nineties and near 100 as I slog about moving sprinklers and working on a couple of brown spots that have popped up in the lawn in the last week. Why is it that when you take a vacation, things like that happen? I'd replaced some of the sod in the back yard and I'm having to pour water on the replaced sod in order to keep it alive and to help it nit to the grass that is already there.

I've developed a horrendous bachache that was exacerbated by my golfing last weekend. I've had some tweaking in my back before and
it has always corrected itself over time. This has been with me for two weeks now and I can barely bend over to put on my socks. I agonized through my golf game last week and I've got a game Thursday night as well as the Net Amateur championship for the city of Roseville this weekend. I will try to get into a chiropractor one day next week and see if they can make an adjustment, but it won't help me much in my next two games.

Well, that is the news for now. Darla is at Daniel's ballgame right now. It's about 100 degrees and I couldn't get up the moxey to join her in the heat to watch kids play baseball. It's just too hot. Be good all and I'll add to this again soon.