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.