Back at the blog, albeit a little late. I was out of the office on marketing calls on Friday and came back to the requisite paperwork and oddball things that come up when you are in absentia. I spent the day on Friday up in Chico, California visiting agents and simply recharging my batteries. I have been hard at this job since starting in November and a day out doing marketing calls was just what the doctor ordered. I brought back seven applications, so it was a very fruitful day out.

The job is going great, in fact, I am leading the charge here in the office as far as written premium. My bonus program, which is at the heart of my income, is on track for a great first year. I blew through my quota for January and I'm on track for the production goals for February, but my income numbers are well ahead of the goals developed. Unfortunately, the office as a whole is not producing as it should and my boss is on the hot seat. He is actually going to take on some brokerage responsibilities, which he has not done in the past. I don't think that it is his choice to go into production, but a dictate from home office. Our personal lines is very low and the other underwriters in the office don't put in enough hours to write enough business.

I talked to Jennifer last night. They had another attack on her base last night (her Sunday night...she talked to me on her Monday morning). It is pretty tense and the sound of explosions and the smell of the explosions in the air are omnipresent. She doesn't know if there were any casualties or injuries, but the explosions were loud and scary. The insurgents are really increasing their opposition bombings and attacks mostly on civilian population in Iraq. Our military may need to step up counter attacks and begin to once again go door to door and weed out the trouble makers. In the meantime, Jennifer continues her mission at the palace and is working daily pulling fibre optics cable and wiring.

Jennifer had some discussions with her General Manager at Fort Gordon. There is scuttlebutt (and we've already discussed how accurate that can be) that Jennifer's PDS (Permanent Duty Station) will be changed in September and that she will be deployed to Korea. She has volunteered to work at Camp Doha in Kuwait City. She enjoyed her brief visit there and her thinking is that she would spend too much money in Korea. Clothes are cheap and perfume, jewelry, etc., not to mention the nightlife and bars, etc in the cities. In Kuwait, the soldiers are confined to base only and cannot leave. Her thinking is that she would be able to bank most of her paycheck for the last year of service and get out with a significant nest egg when she transitions back into civilian life. Even that discussion with Jennifer shows how much she has grown and matured in the Army. She no longer looks at the future as next weekend, but longer term. I'm not thrilled about seeing her spend a year in Kuwait, but it is in a large city and she would be relatively safe on base.

I've talked to several of you and know that some are planning to send care packages to Jennifer. For those of you in Canada, the address must include USA as the package will go to Iraq via military transport out of the United States. For those in the states, just fill out the address as shown in an earlier post and the zip code will get the package or letter to a military base for shipment. I appreciate everyone who is supporting Jennifer through cards and letters. It is a HUGE deal to actually get something at mail call for a soldier in the field.

I played golf yesterday in an on again/off again rainstorm. The course was muddy and the wind was blowing. I had a good round at Mather Golf Course. It is a former Air Force Golf course and plays long, but has wide, inviting fairways. I drove the ball well and was crisp all day. Unfortuantely I had one BAD hole, a 9 on a par 5. It was the ninth hole and I was two over par going into the hole. I drove the ball well, but put my second shot in the water hazard and then played trees all the way in. I threw a little sand trap play in for good measure. And how did I manage a nine? I one-putted. I shot 42-42= 84 and had to post the score as an 82 due to the equitable score control procedure. I was very encouraged by my day on the links and the new clubs are beginning to show their value on the score card. I'm hitting some great drives and some really pin point iron shots. Golf is getting exciting again.

Darla is off to another crafts show on the weekend and will once again share a booth and sell her jewelry. I am in charge of the boys this weekend and pray both for me and for them if they fail to behave. I hope all is well in your little neck of the woods. Be well and keep Jennifer in your thoughts and prayers.

Ciao.

It is President's Day here in the states of America. We are hard at work again on a day when most of the surrounding population is sleeping late and relaxing on a national holiday that has passed us by at Burns and Wilcox. It seems to me that I pick companies to work for that abhor time off and crack the whip on their employees. It is a quiet day with many chances to get caught up on business without the phone ringing and company insurance personnel actually working and sending faxes and making phone calls. It is a blessing to be working while the bulk of Americans rest and relax. Also on the bright side, it is pouring rain today and I couldn't golf if I wanted to.

We have heard from Jennifer several times this last week. The one unsettling coversation regarded an attack on her camp last week with rocket propelled grenades. Three soldiers were injured and two vehicles destroyed in the nightime attack. One or more Iraqi insurgents lobbed RPGs onto the base camp from several hundred meters away and Jennifer said one of the grenades landed close enough to her that her entire trailer shook on it's foundation. It is war and I can't stress enough the dangers that Jennifer faces every day and night.

I sent a copy of an e-mail to some of you that I received from Jennifer that described one of the sand storms that blew through Baghdad. She said that day turned into night and the sky was a brownish black. In those situations, you simply cover your nose and mouth and wait it out. Jennifer has been able to get some computer access and you can reach her at lyon80@msn.com.

Our weekend was relaxing. I tended the yard on Saturday and put some crabgrass control on the lawn. Saturday night David had his first official date and he did it right, inviting one of the cheerleaders to dinner and then to the dance at school. He went with two of the seniors and their dates and they had a great time. He had to go out after one of his basketball games last week and meet the girl's mother. She wouldn't let her daughter go out with David unless she met him first. Sounds like she's from a good family. I asked how that meeting went and David said, "she bought me a chocolate sundae". The kid is full of details. It is another big step in his life and I'm proud of him. David always handles things with aplomb.

Sunday I cleaned out the pond. The aquatic plants had really taken off and covered about two thirds of the pond surface. Darla was complaining that she couldn't see the fish and that the plants which were mostly dormant looked terrible. I thinned out the plants and tossed about half of the hyacinth and the pond is back to being a serene and more attractive highlight to our back yard.

Darla's Dad, Earl, had surgery on Wednesday for prostate cancer. They removed the growth and he is expected to have a complete recovery. Darla and Alicia are taking their day off today and visiting with him. They wanted to go yesterday with the kids, but he is sleeping most of the day and recovering from invasive surgery. We ended up NOT going and I think it is best for Earl. The last thing he needs right now is to entertain a large group of people. I know Dad went through the same surgery and like Earl, neither of them have ever spent any significant time in the hospital and recuperating is hard on them. Shirley had to sit on Dad to get him to relax and Frances will have to do the same with Earl. Their heater went out just before he went into the hospital and he will be itching to get up and get to Home Depot to buy a new one and get it installed.

Finally, Mel Gibson's new movie, The Passion of the Christ, is due out next week. I urge each of you to not only see it, but to invite one of your non-Christian friends to the movie and use it as an evangelistic tool. The movie is changing lives and really affecting Christians and non-Christians alike. Darla and I will line up to see the movie and look forward to buying it on DVD when it is available.

Our pastor had a good joke on Sunday. A young boy was failing at Math. No matter what the parents tried, tutors, after school counseling, internet classes, etc, would help. Finally, they enrolled him in a Catholic school. He came home every day and studied hard, doing all of his homework and extra credit assignments. He barely watched television and constantly had his math text with him. Finally, when the grades came out, he had an A+. His parents asked him what was the difference, was it the school or the teachers or his fellow students? He said, "No. I realized that this school was really serious about math when I walked in the first day and saw the guy hung up on the plus sign over the chalk board."

It is another Monday. The sun is streaming into my office and I had to manipulate the blinds to get the glare off of my computer screen this morning. We are in the midst of some of the best weather we've seen in a while with bright blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the sixties. Not bad for February.

Jennifer has called us from Baghdad. She has arrived at Camp Victory in Baghdad. It is on the grounds of one of Sadaam Hussein's former palaces. Jennifer is lucky enough to be housed in a trailer on the grounds, rather than in tents. The trailer will better protect them from the frequent dust storms that blow through the area and coat everything with a thin film of sand and dust. The trailers sleep four to six people, but Jennifer is one of three female soldiers in her unit, so the gals have a trailer built for four and there are only three of them. Oh, the luxuries of the military. Jennifer has frequent phone usage and can call anytime she wants. I spoke to her two nights in a row. The first was on Saturday night (Sunday morning for her) when she called to let us know she made it to Iraq. They flew in a C130 from Camp Doha into Baghdad airport and then hopped in two Ford F150s and a Toyota van and caravaned to the Camp. It was late at night and dark when they arrived. Jennifer said that the main freeway into and out of the airport has three checkpoints that cars have to pass through to get onto or off of the highway. Camp Victory is very secure with complete insulation from the Iraqi people. The palace was built with security in mind, in fact there is a lake that surrounds the palace and only one bridge over the lake into the palace grounds. Jennifer also called last night to give me her address. Again, it was Monday morning Iraq time and she and her unit were leaving on foot patrol to go and tour the palace grounds and get briefed on their mission.

Her unit will be installing fibre optics and phone lines, video conferencing lines and other communications infrastructure in the palace. The palace is now one of the main coalition military headquarters in Iraq and it is being repaired from the heavy bombing that it sustained during the early stages of Operation Iraqi freedom.

Jennifer's address is as follows:

Army Specialist Lyon, Jennifer
ITT-TAC-SWA
Building #7
APO AE 09342

I'll update as I hear more from our soldier.

This weekend was a Guy weekend. I hosted poker on Friday night and made a few bucks, $20 or $30. Saturday and Sunday were both golf days as I played in a two day qualifier for Spyglass. My partner, Don, and I played great golf on the front side shooting 32 and 30, but we fell apart on the back shooting 38 and 37 both days and it cost us the tournament. The qualifing teams shot 64-63 and 64-65. We shot 70 and 67. I enjoyed the golf. The weather was great.

I hope all of you are well. Keep praying and life will fall into place for you.

I just got off the phone with Jennifer. She was calling from an Army installation at Camp Doha in Kuwait. Her plane, a Continental 777 flew into Kuwait City yesterday and she drove the 30 minutes to Camp Doha. She said that Kuwait City is just like any other large city in the world, except for the Arabic writing on all of the signs.

She will fly by military plane, probably a C-5 into Baghdad on Friday and will be assigned to one of the former military palaces of Saddam Hussein. Her unit will be installing a communications network for a miltary commander who will occupy the palace. She will be allowed to take pictures sitting on Saddam's throne and will be working in a secure area that is heavily fortified and well armed.

She will call as soon as she gets to Baghdad and is situated, hopefully by the weekend. I will get her address and she will be able to call home pretty routinely. Her MOS in communications has some perks that the ground units don't and having telephone rights is one of them. She had to call the Sacramento Army National Guard and then have them give her an outside line. She sounds in great spirits. Kuwait is 11 hours ahead of us, so she was getting ready to go to bed. She arrived yesterday morning in Kuwait City. I will update the blog as soon as I hear anything more.

It is a dreary, windy and altogether blustery Monday morning as a Pacific storm wends its way through the Sacramento terrain, leaving slick roads and downed trees in its wake.

Darla and I were awakened at 5 a.m. this morning with a call from Jennifer. She was turning in her linens and thought that would be a good time to call and say her goodbyes. She is on bag duty this morning, charged with collecting and loading the baggage of the troops being deployed. I guess they looked around and saw a 5 foot, 120 pound soldier and said, "there's the perfect candidate to bust these heavy bags up and onto the plane".

Her unit was moved Sunday into a huge 120-person tent on the outskirts of Fort Bliss. The tent had double bunks and was close to the airport. She was up early this morning and was ready to load the bags into several vans leaving for the airport. Once there, it is her duty to get the bags loaded on the airplane and they are then leaving at ten-thirty for Kuwait. It is about a twenty-two-hour flight to Kuwait and with the time change they willl arrive early Wednesday morning. They will then convoy into Iraq and arrive in about two days. The convoys are large and slow as they include ground forces, air support and minesweepers. Jennifer has her flak jacket and M-16, but also the prayers of hundreds of friends and family and the armor of our Lord and Saviour as her shield. I am tremendously proud of her courage and commitment to the cause of our nation's protection. She and others like her are true American heroes.

Darla had one of her coworkers spouting off about America sticking it's nose in other people's business and how this is a war without a cause. Darla resonded that the families who lost loved ones in the tragedy of 9-11 would know what this war is about. I simply would have slapped the woman and walked away. Ignorance is not a pretty sight and Darla sees a lot of it in her chosen profession, social work, which is a calling for many bleeding heart liberals. She is a conservative Republican Christian in the midst of a liberal, Atheistic democracy. Free speech is a right, but so is self-respect.

Andy Rooney about got himself kicked off "60 minutes" for his recent diatribe about the human condition. He said that the most racist groups he knows are the NAACP, BET and the United Negro College Fund. He said that there would be an uproar in this country if someone were to found the NAAWP, WET or the United White Peoples College Fund. He also correctly pointed out that if a community is 70% Black and 70% of the people in jail are Black, that that is the law of probability and not racial profiling.

I talked to Dad and Shirley over the weekend and we have the Lyon Family Reunion on track for the weekend of March 19th in Las Vegas. Darla and I went ahead and booked our flights. We are arriving Thursday night and will stay over until Monday morning. I look forward to seeing everyone. When I told Jennifer, she said that she will have to pass, that she has something else going on that weekend. She, of course, will be in Iraq doing communications infrastructure work and defending our freedom and right to spend a weekend in Las Vegas.

Jennifer said that she should be in contact with us by Thursday and she will give me her address in Iraq. I will post that on the blog and send a letter to all of my family and friends. A letter, package, or an encouraging word would, I'm sure, be welcome.

Stay well and say a prayer for Jennifer and all of the brave soldiers defending our freedoms. Ciao.

P.S. I had a call from Jennifer at 1:45 this PM. She was in Newark, NJ where they were changing crew on th flight and will be non-stop to Kuwait from there. Jen told me that she had volunteered for the bag duty and as a result she was sitting in First Class of the Boeing 777. Anyone who has flown overseas in coach knows the painful process involved. Apparently there is some grumbling among the troops that are stuck in coach. Sometimes it pays to raise your hand. I can just imagine her little five-foot petite body curled up in one of those leather club chairs while some 220-pound soldier is stuck in a middle seat in coach. He should have offered to help with the bags, eh? She is in great spirits and looking forward to her duty.