It is another Monday morning. Today has an overcast sky and it is cool. We have had mornings like this for the last week. It is very similar to weather that you see at the coast with a morning overcast that burns off by noon. Our sky has been clearing by about 9:30 and we have temperatures that are unseasonably cool with highs only reaching into the mid-eighties. It is tremendous weather.

Darla and I took advantage of the fine weather and took a trip up to Nevada City after church yesterday. The boys surprised their Mom and were at church when we arrived yesterday. We saw David's Mustang parked in my spot at church and Darla got excited. She feels tremendously blessed when the boys show that their relationship with Jesus is not something that is an obligation of being part of our family, but something that is a part of them. David decided to go to church and Daniel was right there with him. Daniel left even more of an impression on his Mom as his name tag from church was plastered on her back when we went to breakfast in Auburn. The cook at the restaurant asked Darla if she taught Sunday school. She looked at him funny and he said that she had a name tag of "Daniel" on her back.

We drove up Highway 89 after church and decided to go visit the Empire Mine, a state historic site in Grass Valley. The mine was the largest solid rock gold mine in California and was bought out by the Newmont Mining Corporation in 1925 from the owner, William Bourn. Bourn was the son of an industrialist from New York who moved to San Francisco in 1870 following the California Gold rush. Although Bourn did not come to California to prospect Gold and came simply to provide all of the necessities of the prospectors, clothes, supplies, etc., eventually he bought the Empire Mine as part of his holdings. He lived in a mansion in San Francisco. He died in 1878 and his 17 year-old son was forced to take over the mine and run his father's various businesses. In 1895 he built a 4600 square foot cottage on the grounds for his use when he was visiting from San Francisco. He sent one of his spinster maids to the Empire site to live in the cottage and run the household.

The mine itself closed two months before I was born after producing almost 6 million ounces of gold, which would be worth over $2.5 billion at today's prices. The most amazing thing is that geologists have determined that the mine stripped only about 20% of the total gold out of the mine and 80% of the gold remains. Most of the mine shafts are now flooded and all of them are closed.

The grounds are tremendous with restored gardens, clubhouse, pools, ponds and the mine itself. Darla and I walked down into the main mine shaft about two stories into the ground and I leaned over and asked Darla what would happen if we had an earthquake right then. She gave me a look. The tightness of the mine shaft was so narrow that the miners could not stand up, but had to lay down to move down the shaft.

My back decided to lock up again last week and I'm still stiff and sore. The pain was so bad on Thursday that I had to leave work and seek solace in some pain medication and a chiropractic ice bag. The problem was that I had a huge account that was due to close that afternoon. It is a brokerage account meaning that the company underwrites the account and I act as broker on the file. I tried to stick in there, but was getting physically ill from the pain in my back. I couldn't stand up straight and it hurt to breathe. Three months ago I would have been sunk if I left, but now with Anthony as my assistant, I was able to turn the account over to him and he was able to work with the underwriter and the retailer to get them a quote. Long story short, we closed the account on Friday when I was back to work and we sold a $156,000 account. My average month has been about $250,000 in premium, so you can see how this will affect my August. I am starting the month with almost $200,000 in premium already booked and close to $12,000 in income to the company. My old assistant would have wet her pants and gone home with a migraine. One of the reasons that I'm willing to share my bonus with Anthony.

Well, I managed to do a good impression of Heinrich Himmler this weekend as I instituted death for most of my goldfish by adding too much PH decreaser (another word for acid) to the pond. Several of the fish immediately began to float sideways and bite the big one. I reread the instructions on the bottle and it said not to change the chemistry of the water by more than two points or it would cause stress to the fish. I dropped it about 12 points in a fell swoop. I lost about fifteen of the sixty fish yesterday. Darla called this morning to say that the top of the water looks like a fish graveyard with some thirty fish floating on the top of the pond. We have had too many fish for too long, but I had not planned to commit goldfish genocide. I'll see how many fish (if any) remain. A pond of our size should hold no more than about 25 fish. The problem is the little buggers use the pond as their own little sex lair and the fish population continues to expand.

I talked to both Darryl and Randy last night. We all have free nights and weekends on our cell phones, yet rarely do we talk to one another. It was nice getting caught up with both of them. Randy has bought some property at a country club about an hour outside of Euless, Texas. He took a week last week and vacationed at a condo on the country club. He played golf several days and it strikes me that I am the golfer in the family and now Dad, Darryl and Randy are all country club members and I'm not. Something seems off in this equation.

Well, I have to get to work. We have an audit starting this week with two people in from home office. Ciao.