I forgot my glasses at home today. Fortunately I keep a Wal Mart pair of reading glasses here for just such an eventuality. Of course, the "readers" are not perfect and I am just a workday away from a throbbing headache as I will squint and frown my way through a backed up desk. I had our VP, Harvey, in on Friday and we went through the budget for the Sacramento Office in 2005. I'm thrilled to say that Harvey bought in to all of the changes that I proposed in 2005, including the promotion of my assistant, Anthony, to a Junior Underwriter position. We also built in another underwriter position for mid-year. The good thing about that is that we were either going to add another underwriter position OR a Branch Manager position. I will continue to run the office and we will add four new staff in 2005.

Funny how when you are out of work and looking, you can't get a company to return a phone call, but when things are going good and your run at your current job is nothing but positive, that's when the offers come. I got a call last week from Magna Carta, a New York based insurer with a growing West Coast presence. They want to expand into Northern California. They currently have agent representation in NorCal, but the business is written and serviced out of a Los Angeles office. They are looking for a seasoned Manager to handle business out of his or her home in Northern California. The business that they write is principally restaurants, apartments motels and lessors risk only...the same business that I wrote at Republic Western. I talked briefly with the West Coast Regional Vice President and he was simply gauging my interest in the position as they are also working on budgets for 2005. I told him that I'd be open to meeting with him to discuss the possibility of becoming the Northern California Regional Manager, but that I was very happy where I am now. We'll touch base in the New Year.

Football. Amazing how things change in a week. David, who has not had a sniff at the quarterback position in four weeks, ended up starting and playing the whole game on Friday night. The reason is nothing short of classic. It was the last game of the season and the tradition at Woodcreek is that the red shirt is lifted from the quarterback in practice and the guys are allowed to go "live" on the qb. It's all in fun, but Adam has been a world class wimp all year about any kind of contact. That came to a head in the last game when Adam was forced to scramble and found himself wide open and lumbering untouched. He had twenty yards open in front of him and he stumbled along until a linebacker was gaining on him and Adam threw himself down when the linebacker got within ten yards of him. It was truly one of the all time gutless moves on a football field. There was a groan that went up in the stands and more than a few disgusted looks from his teamates. The fact that it was open season on Adam was embraced wholeheartedly by the defense and Adam went under a barrage of hits and shoves where the offensive linemen were telling the defense, "I'll go left, you go right". Finally, there was an all out rush by our middle linebacker where he lifted Adam up and pile drove him into the ground. Adam got up and ran to the coaches and started yelling at them. Apparently, Adam had been muttering a few things under his breath and the defense was incensed. The head coach made the middle linebacker run "down ups" for the vicious hit and the defense complained. The coach then made the whole team run the drill, except Adam who had a boo-boo. He sat on the bench basically crying while the team ran the drill. The captains, including David, had the team yell out "We love football" on every down up and drove the coach nuts.

The upside to all of this is that Adam went home and complained to his Mommy and Daddy that he was being hurt in practice. They ended up sending a strongly worded e-mail to the coach, the principal, the vice-principal and the Athletic Director. The e-mail basically threatened the coaches with reprisals for the hits in practice, that it was considered harassment by them and that they were concerned that Adam may have suffered a head injury. The intent was to get the team to back off. The reality is that the principal benched Adam for the game due to a perceived liability against the school. David was given the starting nod and he played his best game of the year.

Our opponent was Placer, a team lead by twin 6-4" running back/ tight ends. The boys have been written up in the Bee as players to watch in Division I colleges next year. David was assigned as a spy on defense against the running back. David went wherever he went on the field. David and the defense held this 1200 yard runner to 48 yards, a season low. Placer was 6-3 coming in and third in league. David played even better on offense in our 14-6 win. David scored a touchdown on a naked bootleg from 26 yards where he had to juke two defenders. He turned the corner and sprinted to the end zone. I tell you, my throat was raw by the end of the game. We had three runners who all had excellent games, one went for 114 yards, one for 77 yards and the other for 66 yards. David had 44 yards rushing and was 3 of 5 passing for another 60 yards. It was Senior night and Darla got to escort her son onto the field before the game and he presented her with a rose and we took pictures. I also took my digital camera down on the field after the game and got some pictures which I will send to some of you this week. It was a perfect ending to a decent season. We ended the year 5-5 (2-4 in league), David was 3-2 as our starter and better things are on tap for this team in the future.

Golf. Naturally, I played this weekend. We had a Turkey Shoot, which is basically a medal tournament with turkey certificates for prizes (actually supermarket gift cards). I continue to play my best golf of the year and shot a 38-40=78. Unlike last week, that score was good enough for first place and a $45 gift card. Ever since Harry did his Bowen magic on my back, I have been feeling so good and really driving the ball well. I'm routinely hitting 280 yard drives and my irons have all increased by 15 yards. I now hit my pitching wedge about 115 yards, my nine iron 120-130 yards, my 8 iron 135-145 yards, my 7 iron 150-160 yards and so on. The one club I want to add is a 19 degree hybrid iron. That is next on my buy list and certainly on my Christmas list. I had three birdies on Sunday and I am playing with confidence. I play in another Turkey shoot on Saturday and will play with Boyd Robertson as my partner. Boyd shot a 74 yesterday.

The leaves continue to cling to the trees, but about 75% of the foliage is now on the ground. Hopefully the park workers will come and clean them up across the street from our house before the next storm. I have moved all of the leaves on my side of the street to the side street in neat piles to await the city workers who bring in a bobcat with a modified spade claw on the front and they load them into a truck and haul them to the city composting yard. Hopefully they come today or tomorrow as a storm is expected this week.

Daniel has decided to take a break from sports and will not play basketball. He's decided that his sports are baseball and football. David tried out and made the Varsity team this weekend and is expected to start at small forward. So football is over, long live basketball. Daniel's Dad has threatened to disown him because of his decision vis a vis basketball. Steve needs to back off and let the kid make these decisions himself. The problem is that Steve's entire social life is tied up with the kid's sports and this decision puts a crimp in his life. Too bad.

Well that is all the news that's fit to print. for now anyway. Take care of each other Ciao.