A great weekend is in the books and it is back to work and the process of earning a living. Our new underwriter starts today and she was here bright and early at 7:30 this morning. It was a good sign as generally I'm the only underwriter in attendance until about 8:45. Our core hours are 8:30 - 5:00, but anyone in production knows that those are the staff hours. Our true hours are whatever it takes to get the job done. Gwen told us during interviews that she likes to get to work early, so we will have another body to make the first pot of coffee in the morning, a critical element to the success of any organization.

Darla and I went to the Placer County Fair on Saturday night. We strolled the grounds looking at the pies and clothing, photography, cookware booths, food booths and wondered what we'd paid $7 a head to see. We both enjoyed the hypnotist, a highlight of which was watching as she hypnotized an obviously inebriated Charlie Manson look-alike in the crowd. He was not part of the show, but what part of his alcohol-warped brain was still working was open to the power of suggestion and he dropped prone on the ground in the middle of the crowd. A small dog climbed on his face and was licking him for all his worth. Finally, when one of the volunteers woke up out of the hypnotic phase, she invited Charlie onto the stage and he became part of the show. It was hilarious.

I had a Sunday golf game, so Darla and I went to church Saturday night before the fair. It is definitely a different crowd on Saturday night at church. Darla was concerned about wearing shorts to church, which (by the way) I do every Sunday. She needn't have worried as most of the churchgoers were in shorts and sandals at 5:00 p.m. on a hot Saturday afternoon.

I did play golf at the break of dawn on Sunday. We teed off at 6:04 and I woke up about 7:00 a.m. I started my round 6 (double-bogey)-6 (double-bogey)- 8 (triple-bogey). I'm an 11 handicap and I was 7 over after three holes!! I was able to wake up and completely turn around my game with birdie-par-par-bogey-birdie-par to finish the front nine at 42, six-over par after being seven over after three holes. I shot 41 on the back side for 83, 11-over par. I was proud of my comeback in the round and even happier to collect the $42 in skins and stroke bet money from my playing partners. I think they all thought early on that this was a day that they would fleece me royally.

I was off the course by 10:15 and Darla and I packed up and headed to the beach. We were on the beach by noon as we stopped for sandwiches on the way. The crowd at the beach was thinner than usual, although the temperatures climbed into the middle-nineties. Two people got their cars stuck in the sand and one guy in an older Ford Bronco pulled both of them out. I told him that he should charge for the service and he said that the first guy gave him $20 and that made up for the second girl whose Honda Civic was hopelessly sunk into the sand. He pulled her out after she continued to spin her wheels until her front bumper (she had front wheel drive) was covered by sand. He hooked up to her rear bumper and yanked her out. She simply waved her thanks and drove away. I've learned to stick with the hard packed sand of the roadway and stay out of any soft sand.

It is amazing to me the collection of stuff people bring to the beach. The array of screen rooms, canopies, umbrellas, barbecues, rafts, tents, boats, wave runners, air mattresses, dogs, kids, fatties, skinnies, hard bodies and albinos on the beach is almost overwhelming. Darla and I spend hours people-watching on the beach, which is fine until one of the string bikinied hardbodies walks by. Then I usually catch an elbow in the ribs. Some things are timeless I guess. This week, Darla was particularly annoyed with the dog people as the aroma near our blanket was a bit over-whelming. Most dog walkers in the neighborhood carry a bag and a scoop of some kind and pick up after their dog. The beach dog people are famous for simply covering the offending fecal matter with sand. The problem is the beach ends up looking like a field of brown-sugared sausages. We hunted for the offending cigar, but couldn't find it. The wind blowing in off the lake carried the scent to us without fail. It was kind of a "crappy" day at the beach.

Jennifer will make her triumphant return home this week. She flies in on Thursday night and will be here until July 15th. We plan to take her up to Lake Almanor to water ski and jet ski over the 4th and then Darla and I will take her up to Lake Tahoe and Reno on the 11th-12th. She will get together with the boys and go to the local water park at some point. Her Mom has plans with her and she has plans with her friends, so it will be a whirlwind visit. Jennifer is in Pittsburgh as I write this with Ryan, a friend of hers, staying with his parents. They are having a blast visiting the sights in Pittsburgh (what steel mills and factories?). She got there last Thursday and will fly home this Thursday. I really look forward to seeing her. She really is my hero for her bravery and her dedication to defending our country. She will go back to Augusta and then fly home for a week before leaving for her 14-month tour in Kuwait City.

Well that's it for another week. Be well. I'll add to this after Independence day.

A glance at the calendar tells me that Summer begins today. I suppose in some parts of the country you need to look at a calendar to tell the changing of the seasons. Sacramento is one of those areas with very distinct weather in different seasons. It's just that the climate doesn't pay attention to the calendar. It's been in the nineties for the better part of a month here, although we just had our first official day over 100 degrees last week. I talked to Dad last night to pay homage to Father's Day and recognize the fact that without his involvement, I wouldn't be living this life today. He said that the Surrey area had about 94 degrees yesterday and he and Shirley spent the day at a car show locally. The official high temperature for Vancouver was 82 degrees, but like San Francisco, when the city temperature climbs over 80 degrees, you can usually add 10-15 degrees to the cities in the suburbs. That is HOT for the Vancouver area, especially this time of year. I called him at about nine p.m. and talked briefly to Al, as they had their phone on call forwarding, and they were just putting the meat on the barbecue for dinner. I guess appetizers and refreshments ran a bit long at the Nowakowski household.

The boys made it off yesterday morning for their football camp in Oregon. The camp is being held at Southern Oregon University and the boys had to catch their bus yesterday morning at six a.m. David packed up his Mustang and off they went at about five-thirty Sunday morning. At least that's the word according to Darla. I was fast asleep. We picked up David's Mustang later that morning and brought it back to the house. Darla and I will drop it back off at Woodcreek on Thursday morning as they will be returning then. David rightfully didn't want to leave his car at the school for five days. They called last night and made it to camp by shortly after noon and had already been in full pads and done some weight training. They will be doing three-a-days during camp and are thankful for the cooler weather of Oregon.

David will turn around on Friday and Darla will drive him to camp at Stanford. The Oregon camp is a Woodcreek camp with all of the coaching staff there and this is a chance to put their offense and defensive game plans together. David received his wristband of plays in a special meeting with the head coach on Saturday night. They are serious about having David compete for the starting quarterback position for Varsity, although David has told them in no uncertain terms that if he has to choose between quarterback and free safety, that he chooses defense. Apparently, they are okay with him playing both ways this year. We'll see. The Stanford camp is a specialty camp for quarterbacks and receivers and they will work with the Stanford coaching staff on drills and techniques. That camp is four days and cost $440. He will have the opportunity to spend some time with a quality Division I college coaching staff and it should be invaluable in his growth as a football player.

David has already received about a dozen letters from smaller schools in the country about having him play for them. The coaches put several names out for scholarship consideration and David scored well on his SATs and carries close to a 4.0 average, so he is a good catch for a smaller school. David wants to pursue a career as a CAD architect (Computer Assisted Drawing) and will only consider schools that have an Engineering and Architecture curriculum. If he had his choice, he would go to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which is one of the premiere Architecture schools on the West Coast. In fact he and his Dad visited Cal Poly on their vacation and David made a few contacts while he was there and brought back a scad of information. Our friend, Rob McKone, who played college basketball transferred to Cal Poly from Weber State and still has some contacts at the school, so we hope to interest them in David's athletic prowess. David has two things going for him...he is an excellent student and he plays two sports, football and basketball. The smaller schools have less scholarships and prefer their atheletes to play more than one sport. Keep your fingers crossed. A scholarship would save us a bundle.

Golf. Of course I played this weekend. We were supposed to have a tournament at Ancil Hoffman Golf Course, but the course cancelled our tee times when we didn't hit our guaranteed number of players. Several of our golfers dropped out to play in the Buick Scramble qualifier. I snuck out and played on Diamond Oaks early on Saturday and shot a 41+42=83 and finally snuffed the poor start/good finish problem, although I started double bogey-bogey-bogey and then ran off five straight pars. Perhaps I'm refining the poor start pattern even further and continuing the trend in a microcostic manner. I enjoyed the round and hit crisp, straight drives and rolled in some good putts, even chipping in for birdie from off the green on the back side.

The US Open was a delight this weekend. I taped the final round as Darla and I were at the beach on Sunday. I was a bit amused at the infighting between Tiger Woods and his former coach, Butch Harmon. He was critical of Tiger's play and how he is practicing and said that Tiger is in denial on the state of his game. Tiger was not pleased. Butch Harmon comes from a long line of golfers. His brother, Bill, once blew up in a junior tournament and threw his entire set of clubs into the pond. When he got home, he told his father, Claude, what he had done and told him that he was quitting golf and joining the Army. His father thought about that and then asked him why he didn't join the Navy, then at least he could get his clubs back. A great story.

Jennifer has been out on manuevers the last week. She showed up to work on Tuesday and they sent her unit into the field and they had to stay out in tents and set up camp. She expects to stay in the field until she leaves on her vacation June 24th. She got twelve hours off on Saturday to get some rest at her bunk. She called to wish me a Happy Father's Day, but we were at the beach. She said she'd try to call one night this week. I told her to call me at the office.

I kidded last week about Dad's obsession with his lawn, but then mowed my lawn on Thursday night and then again last night. It's growing so fast, I may have to cancel our vacation. J/K.

Hope all are well. God Bless and have a great week.

Back to the blog. I'm a day late, but I did it for the kids. Our golf club sponsors an annual junior golf tournament and being one of the leaders of the association, I had to take the day and help run the tournament. We had about 85 golfers from age 7 -17 and there was some pretty stellar golf to watch and enjoy from these kids. The winning score for the boys was 71, shot by both a 17 year-old and a 15 year-old. The playoff only lasted one hole with the 15 year-old scoring birdie to the 17 year-old's bogey. The girl's winner shot a 76, which included a one-under 36 on the front side. I really enjoyed myself, which is good given the fact that I'll have to run the tournament next year. We provided each of the players a bucket of balls, a divot tool and ball marker combo with the tournament logo on it and a lunch of two hot dogs, chips and soda. We also had plenty of snacks, water and volunteers. I was impressed with the spirit of sportsmanship displayed by the kids. They were respectful of each other and especially respectful and appreciative of the volunteers that helped put on the tournament. I helped to hand out the trophies and had at least twenty-five kids approach me, shake my hand and thank me for putting on the tournament.

For all of the bad in society and the disrespect and the unhappiness displayed by the younger generation, the athletes and participants in sports tend to be a more positive and well disciplined group of kids. It is encouraging to see that the best of our future can often be found on the ballfields and basketball courts, gyms and golf courses in this country.

David and Daniel leave Sunday for their Summer football camp in Oregon. They will return on Thursday and David will turn around and leave for his quarterback camp at Stanford in Palo Alto. The boys are excited to get on with their football lives this Summer.

The windows were put in last week and we are thrilled with the results. Darla took the opportunity to paint David's room while we had his bed apart and furniture moved. David was a little hesitant to have us paint...I'm sure it was a privacy thing...but he greeted his Mom with a big hug yesterday and thanked us both for fixing up his room. We put in a new stereo stand and got rid of some extra junk he had laying around. Darla wants to tackle Daniel's room next. He said he only wants white paint and we are trying to talk him into some sort of pigment in the paint.

Darla and I went out to the beach on Sunday. We've discovered a small beach at the rear of Folsom lake, called Oak Beach. It is not a large beach and the only way to get to it is driving down onto the sand and parking just yards away from the shore. We drove down and had some bozo in front of us who decided to stop in heavy sand and back up. He had 4-wheel drive and we didn't. I had a few choice words for him as we sunk into the sand and our wheels spun without traction. I was able to rock us back to moving by going from reverse to drive and back again. The next SUV I buy will have 4-wheel drive. We were able to watch one yahoo from the beach who backed his truck up and over an outcropping of rock and then watched as his truck dug the left rear into the sand and he sunk like a stone. His car ended up canted to the left and he was hopelessly stuck in the sand. The park ranger came and completely ignored his pleas for help. Finally, about eight big bruisers helped him jack up the truck, fill the hole in the sand with rocks and dirt and help him back out and around his predicament. He drove past the park ranger and told him he was a %#*%^$$#.

Dad and Shirley are off for a few days to the Okanogan in Canada for some sun and relaxation. Dad sent us an e-mail to let us know that he'd be gone for a few days and said that they can't be gone long, because he needs to mow his lawn every three days. I just wonder where I got this obsessive-compulsive streak? Does anyone have any ideas? I'm open to discussion on this item.

My golf game this weekend was a mosh pit of inaccuracy, inconsistency and ineptitude. I shot 43-42=85 and went from poor start-good finish to vanilla pudding. I had two double bogeys, two triple-bogeys and two birdies amongst a host of pars and bogeys. I lost both bets that I had with the gamblers in the club, but I won $28 in skin money for the two birdies. I played the four par-threes in 2 under par. If I'd been playing a pitch and putt, I would have won the tournament.

Well, work has piled up in my absence. Funny, how nobody seems to step up and do your work when you are in absentia. I need to roll up my sleeves and get to work. Tough duty as I'm wearing a short sleeve polo shirt, but I'll do my best. Ciao.

It is once again a new day and a new week. I have a short day today as I will be playing in the Sacramento Insurance Agents Association Golf Day. It is that time of year when each of the area insurance agent's associations sponsor a golf day. It is a good excuse to get out of the office and enjoy the sunshine while justifying the time, the expense and the smile on your face as an exercise in Marketing. I enjoyed the tournament last week although the weather in Eureka was overcast and cool. I guess it was a respite from the relentless sunshine and perfect weather that we suffer here in the Sacramento area. Eureka is located on the coast of northwestern California and has a good deal of overcast caused by the marine layer that hangs over the coast. I specifically enjoyed the golf tournament as they played both a scramble format (where each member of the foursome tees off and you chooose the best ball and all hit from there) and a stroke format (where you get to play your own ball). Three guesses as to which format I played. I shot 47-39=86, again perpetuating the poor start-strong finish routine that I am mired in currently. Today's tournament will be a scramble and I'm playing with three other strong golfers. The drive up to Eureka via Interstate 5 and Highway 299 along the Trinity River was awesome. The Mustang was fun to drive on the winding roads and I had Creedence and The Fabulous Thunderbirds turned up on the CD player as I made my way on the 5 1/2 hour drive. I drove back down Highway 101 to Highway 20 through Clearlake. It was not as scenic a drive, but proved a bit faster.

I talked in detail about my chiropractic nightmare last week. I'm doing great and the magic of chiropractic medicine is still in my good graces. However, I almost undid all of the good last Tuesday night. I mentioned that I had re-stained the spa and steps. Darla and I stayed out of the spa on Sunday and entered the spa from behind on Monday in order to allow the steps to dry. Tuesday night we christened the steps and entered the spa in the traditional way. As I got out, my feet went right out from under me on the newly slick surface and I landed on the small of my back and on my right elbow. One moment I was talking to Darla, who was still in the spa, and the next I was in a heap laying across the steps. Luckily, my elbow broke my fall and I didn't cause myself any further damage. Darla and I are being a bit careful entering and exiting the spa these days. Darla and I, even when the weather is warm, go in the spa nearly every night. We both enjoy a good soak, but it is also a chance for us to visit together after a busy day and it is both something that we can look forward to and count on. I also think the spa has done wonders for my back. I often get into the spa when I get off the golf course and my back loosens up amazingly.

The boys are off to Southern California for a week of vacation with their Dad. This is the first vacation that I can remember the boys taking with their Dad in years. Most of their vacations have been trips to Montana or Oklahoma to visit family. This trip is to go to the beach and also for David to visit Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. David wants to take Computer Assisted Drawing (CAD) and Architecture courses and Cal Poly is one of the best technical schools in California for the craft. Now he just needs to work on getting a scholarship and all will be right in his world.

Both David and Daniel will be off to football camp in Oregon next month. David will return and immediately leave for quarterback camp at Stanford in Palo Alto. The coaching staff has decided that they need a true field general this year at quarterback and are giving David every opportunity to earn the starting position. Last year, the Defensive Coordinator convinced the Head Coach that David was more valuable on defense than offense. With the influx of the players from the Junior Varsity, the Head Coach sees David's defensive position being filled by a Junior and David playing quarterback. We've decided that if they are going to give him a chance that David's Dad and Darla and I will pay for a quarterback camp and we'll give him every opportunity to win the position.

In the meantime, both David and Daniel are playing Summer basketball with the Woodcreek High School teams and will both be doing summer workouts with the football teams prior to camp. Both David and Daniel earned their way to football camp by earning $375 in their lift-a-thon at school. They both walked the neighborhood and got pledges from our neighbors to earn the money for camp. About half of the players have their parents pay their way, but we believe that if they have to work for it, they will appreciate it that much more. Sort of the same reason that David and Jennifer had to BUY their cars from me.

I talked to Jennifer last night and she is doing nothing short of fabulously. I asked how her little guy, Ryan, was doing. She said, "Dad, he's young, not little. He's six-foot one and buff." The young man is about my size, eh? Give or take 3 or 4 inches and maybe thirty pounds. Oh, well. Jennifer is looking forward to coming home and we talked about maybe going water skiing up at Lake Almanor and maybe taking a trip to Lake Tahoe when she is home. We will also take Jennifer and the boys to the local Water Park where Jen and the boys can blow off some steam together. Darla and her work all pitched in and put together a huge package for Jennifer of snacks and goodies and sent it to Baghdad. Jennifer left before it arrived and three weeks later it was returned to sender. Darla repackaged it and sent it to Jennifer in Georgia and the package has now made it all over the world and cost about $70 in postage. Hopefully there is something left inside that is actually edible.

Darla and I will have our windows installed this Wednesday at the house. These are the replacement windows that we ordered early last month. We are having the entire front of the house redone with new lifetime windows from Sears. I look forward to getting rid of the water spotted mess that we have now and benefitting from the insulated dual pane windows as far as energy is concerned. David should enjoy it especially as his room is the hottest and coldest in the house because of a broken seal on his window.

Well, that's it for another week. I can place a check mark next to my obsessive-compulsive streak regarding the blog. Be well.

It is a magnificent day with a high blue sky and a promise of warm temperatures, although the many trees that surround our office building are gently swaying to a light breeze that filters through the leaves. I realize often the hours that I put in when the same sprinklers that were working as I arrive at work are on when I leave the building at night. The parking lot right now is a trail of rivulets and water from the sprinklers as they dry in the early morning sun.

This is a short work week for me in more ways than just the Memorial Day holiday. I leave tomorrow afternoon for Arcata up in Humboldt County for an insurance golf day being put on by the local agents association. I have several agents that use Burns and Wilcox to write their Rodeo and special events coverage in the area and I have yet to meet those agents, so here is my chance. The timing isn't ideal as Marci's last day was last Friday and we are now one underwriter short. The office had five commercial underwriters when I joined and we now have just two, Gail and myself. We are interviewing a candidate at lunch today. Bill, our office manager, has already met with her twice and wants Gail and I to do a chemistry test with her over lunch. I will have her lick a piece of litmus paper and see if it turns purple.

I have been suffering with a strained back for over a week now. I filled a 5-gallon tank of propane for the barbecue last Monday and lifted it wrong and knocked my spine out of alignment. In spite of the fact that I have a chiropractor, it took three visits until he could pop my spine back into alignment. In the meantime, I was a figure "S" as the pain and swelling in the right side of my back forced my posture to tilt to the left. My back was so swollen that Dr Elsea could not "crack" my back the first two visits. He had me on ice and walking. The problem was, he had me ice it for ten minutes and walk the hallways for five minutes. I kept banging off the wall because I was turning left. My doctor was excellent and met with me one night at eight o'clock and then again yesterday on Memorial Day at eight in the morning. He finally was able to crack my back on Friday morning and by Friday night I was feeling fine.

That left me with a dilemma in that I had a golf tournament on Saturday morning. I had e-mailed the tournament director, Steve, on Thursday night and cancelled due to my bad back. Steve said to see how I was feeling and if I could make it, he'd fit me in. I talked to Darla on Friday night and was secretly hoping that she would forbid me from playing, but she said it was up to me. She also said that it wouldn't be smart, but it was my decision. Now adult decisions (buying houses, cars, loans, child discipline, etc.) are easy decisions to make, but when it involves golf, I'm like a little kid. All of my buddies were playing and I'd missed the last tournament when we went to Monterey. I finally decided NOT to play, but the decision was simply based on FEAR. IF I played and hurt myself further, Darla would KILL me. It's tough being an adult, but thankfully we can still rely on emotions like Fear and concerns like Consequences to make our decisions for us.

I ended up laying sod in the back yard, re-staining the spa and steps, and cutting the kick plate and then rehanging the front door instead of golf. All three of those activities were probably tougher on my back than golf. I survived, although I still have a little residual soreness. I ended up staining a park bench that we have in the front alcove of the house just off the front door. It was a little weather beaten and it is amazing how nice it looks after I stained it. I also re-stained the air conditioner enclosure and the lattice work on both gates in the back yard. Funny, when you have an open can of stain and a brush what you can find to stain. The stain is Flood's UV resistant redwood stain and it is the best product that I've found to put on wood in California. Dad suggested it as he used it on his deck in Texas and the product is amazing. It really does resist fading and is a water repellant as well. Excellent for use around a spa.

Darla and I went out to dinner on Saturday night at a new Italian restaurant in Lincoln. Lincoln is the little town next to Roseville and Rocklin that is going through a huge building boom. There is a new senior community in Lincoln, a new Indian casino, and some affordable housing. The Sacramento area has grown to the point that anything under $300,000 is considered affordable and Lincoln has homes starting in the mid-$200,000 range. The restaurant is located in an old historical building in Lincoln. Lincoln was known for it's foundry, where they forged clay and terrazo pots in the early 1900's. The downtown area is still a maze of old buildings and restaurants are popping up as the town grows. The food was excellent and we will return.

Darla and I also were able to sneak off for a day at the beach on Sunday. We went out to Folsom Lake and drove the Explorer right out onto the beach on the back side of the lake. We spent a relaxing day reading and relaxing in the sun and under our umbrella. We tried to return yesterday afternoon after I finished staining the spa, but the park was full and we had to turn around and drive back home. I ended up dozing in the back yard.

The only problem with this weekend is that we missed church on Sunday. Darla and I both slept through the alarm after staying up late on Saturday night to watch a movie called "Deliver Us From Eva", which is a remake of "Taming of the Shrew". Our weekend just seems incomplete when we miss church.

Darla's sister, Alicia, travelled up to Lake Almanor to spend the weekend with her parents. Earl continues to take radiation treatments for his prostate cancer and has been amazingly resilient after the four-times-a-week treatments. They have their 5th wheel up at Lake Almanor again this year and will travel up weekends until his treatment is finished. We all Praise God for the prognosis and health that he has blessed Earl with.

I talked to Jennifer on Sunday and she is doing great. She is looking forward to her trip to Pennsylvania and then back home later this month. She will be in California July 1st through the 15th and then will again fly home for about ten days before she leaves for Kuwait in September. Well that's it for this week's epistle. I hope you all are well and keeping your faith in the One who sustains us in everything we do. God bless.