It is Tuesday afternoon after five o'clock. Funny, but I don't have time to update my blog during the workday anymore. Now that I'm a commission freak, every minute counts.

Well, I'm easy. I went to Manteca this morning for a meeting with the underwriters. It starts at seven a.m. at Chubby's in Manteca and I had to crawl out of my bed at five a.m. to shower and get on the road. I saw a wonderful sunrise over the Sierra's at 5:52 a.m. with pinks and golds and purple in the soft clouds over the mountains. The meeting went well and I was able to tour the new office that Richter Robb is moving into next month. On my way home, I stopped at the In-n-Out Burger in Roseville and as I was sitting in line, a guy yelled at me from the parking lot. I thought I had a flat tire or something as he was pointing at the car. I said, "Whazzup?" He asked if I had considered having the dent in the front left fender repaired. I said I had, but it was my son's car. He said he'd pull it out for $180. I told him I'd had an offer for $80 and he said he'd do it for $75. I hadn't had an offer for $80 and it likely would have been $150 to have Dent Magic pull it out. I said sure. He hooked up his dent puller and popped the dent out. It left a very small crease where the 2-foot dent was before.

He followed me to the bank where I was going to pull out $80 to pay him. He looked the car over when I parked and said that he'd fix ALL of the dents for $380. (I don't frankly know what his deal was with the number 80, but whatever.) I said that there was no way he could pull out the dents, they were deep and grooved. He said that he would pop them out as far as he could and then bondo the car and leave it ready for paint. I told him $200 was as high as I'd go and he agreed. I pulled the cash out of the bank and he followed me home. I finally ate my burger as he slaved in the 106 degree heat with his bondo and dent puller and sander/polisher (which he hooked up to the battery on the car to operate). He did a stellar job and the $1100 job at a body shop was done for $200. Now I need to get it painted and his uncle will spot paint it at his body shop for $150. All of this is off the books (cash on delivery) of course, but I'm thrilled with the look. The prior owner knocked $1500 off the price of the car because of the dents and we'll have it looking as good as new for $350. David was supposed to pay for the repairs, but like I said, I'm a soft touch.

Our trip to Reno was a hoot. The Richter Robb group is eclectic at best with many of the people down home country folk and some even farther out than that. They told jokes and we watched three movies on the trip. The office manager, Lucille, played emcee and took the microphone around the bus and interviewed everyone. They brought sandwiches and sodas, water and lots of beer. We stayed at the Fitzgerald, which is a real blue collar casino in Reno. It has an Irish theme, but definitely caters to a drinking and smoking crowd. Richter Robb has a cadre of smokers and I was so glad to get out of Reno, where smoking is a right and back to California where it is properly considered a vice at best and a filthy habit at worst.

We stopped for a food/smoke break both on the way up and back in Auburn and on the way home Darla and I dallied too long at McDonalds picking out our flavor of McFlurry and Lucille decided to have the bus driver pull the bus away as we were walking back. I told them it was funny as heck. Oh, to be the new guy. This was the first and last trip that I'll ever take to Reno that starts with me driving ninety-minutes in the wrong direction to get on a bus and then drive ninety-minutes past my house and then another two hours to Reno. That was painful.

I think Darla had a good time. There was a street fair going on and she was able to find some beads or rocks or something for her current hobby, which is jewelry-making. She has a whole kit and has some forty sets of earrings and necklaces made and she sells them to friends and coworkers. She is even taking orders from her friends for custom-made pieces. She is on E-Bay and sells to whomever is interested. The ladies at Richter Robb told Darla that she has to come back and show her wares in the office. Everyone was too broke after Reno to buy anything, but all of them were interested.

I played two games of golf last week (both nine-holes after work) and my new and improved back is in prime shape. I shot 39 on Wednesday and took $9 from Jerry Tuel and then followed that up with a 38 on Thursday night in my twilight league. My partner, Steve and I, are in first place. We only have one loss, three ties and eight victories so far. We are a good team. Steve is a three and I'm a five in nine-hole play and we complement each other well. He shot a 36 last Thursday and we smoked the competition. That's the only kind of smoking that I can get excited about.

We are off to Lake Almanor this weekend. Darla and the boys will be there all week and I'll go up just for the weekend as I need to make some money. We are still set for our trip to Hawaii in November and I need to plan toward that. I enjoy Almanor, the peace and solitude, but I get a little bored after more than a few days. It is a small area on a mountain lake up near Chester, California. The weather is usually nice and the lake is cold. it's not great for swimming, but the boys enjoy boarding and skiing. I'll hold out for the sun and sand in Hawaii in a five star vacation resort. Now that's living. I'll drive up separately on Saturday and come back home late Sunday. Darla and the boys will be home the following weekend late on Saturday.

Well, that it for this epistle. Remember...." If you want to get a belly laugh out of God, just tell him your plans." James Patterson in Four Blind Mice.