The Sun returns to warm the hearts of those in Sacramento

It's true, the Sun is back in all it's glory and the fog has moved back to Siberia or wherever it came from and all is bliss in the land of Northern California. We had a marvelous weekend after enduring rain and fog most of all of last week. In fact the rain lasted right up until Friday night. I had a 9:09 tee time on Saturday morning and we were sweating the rain right up until the last minute.

There are a few clouds in the sky this morning and it is COLD, but the sky is blue and the grass is green and my car is washed and waxed and stands gleaming in the parking lot with shiny chrome wheels and dressed tires. It is depressing to drive a rain-streaked car and so nice to travel in a freshly washed and shiny car. My Dad ruined me with his obsessiveness about his cars.

Speaking of Dad..and Shirley, I called them last night in Hawaii and we visited for about a half hour. I told him that I knew he was trying to hide on vacation, but his mistake was in giving us his itinerary and phone numbers. I have Verizon cell phone service and Verizon is the largest phone company in Hawaii. My plan includes free long distance and free nights and weekends and includes both Hawaii and Alaska in my calling plan. It costs money to call Vancouver, but not Hawaii. Go figure. They are having a great vacation, but true to form ran into another housing crisis. The second hotel that they booked through Expedia was a complete dump and Shirley was very unhappy. So much so that they checked out after one night and moved to another resort. Dad didn't really get into specifics, but it couldn't have been as bad as the time they had a mouse infestation at the hotel in Hawaii and woke up to mouse droppings in their bed. They do manage to have quite a time on their Hawaii vacations. Dad said the weather has been great and they had several meals at Turtle Bay where the Senior Golf tournament was being held this weekend. Dad sounded relaxed.

I played golf this weekend with Boyd, Mel and one of Daniel's friends, Wes Sandroni. We had a foursome with Greg Wanee, but he called me Friday night to say he had to work. By the time I got back from David's basketball game it was too late to call anyone as a replacement. I had Dan call Wes to see if either he or his Dad wanted to join us. Wesley is about an 8 handicap and will be on the Woodcreek golf team this year. He is an accomplished golfer and has been playing the game for about five years. He used to be a neighbor on our court and I used to chase him off my lawn where he was hitting plastic balls from one yard to the other and taking big divots as he did. He always had a golf club in his hand and it has paid dividends. He handled himself well with the adults and shot a 41+41=82 in wet conditions on a course he hasn't played much. I showed up at 8:30 to pick him up Saturday morning and when his Dad answered the door I asked him if Wesley could come out and play. I shot 40+43=83 on the day, but hit the ball really well. I had an eagle putt on the 488 yard par five 15th, after hitting a driver off the deck from 235 yards that landed on the green on the fly and left me a forty foot eagle putt. I missed the putt, but made the birdie. Boyd shot 78 and Mel shot 90 and paid each of us $2 for his efforts. It was a good day and gives me confidence going into the Super Bowl tournament next Saturday.

David's team played Rocklin on Friday after having a bye early in the week. Rocklin is a great defensive team and they have something of a genetic Science experiment at center with a 6'8" albino black kid. He has red hair and white skin with black features. He is a second generation albino as his father is also an albino black man with red hair. Ike once again left the team in the lurch when he showed up for the game 45 minutes late (the team has to be there an hour early) and was benched for the first quarter. David has been moved to the starting lineup and the guy he replaced moved over to take the center spot. We scored the first basket and then went through a painful stretch where we turned the ball over and missed shots to the tune of a 14-2 deficit after the first quarter. Ike started the second quarter and we closed the gap, moving to within 4 points before having Rocklin go on a tear late in the second to take a 10 point halftime lead. They led by eight after three and by the same 8 with four minutes to play. Woodcreek finally turned up the defensive pressure and we scored the next ten points to take a two point lead with 23 seconds left. They worked the ball well and hit a banked three pointer with 14 seconds left. Our point guard got loose and hit a driving tear drop floater in the lane with 4 seconds left and our fans exploded. They had one chance left and tried a three pointer that bounced out, but was put back by the Science project for an apparent win. The officials waved off the basket as coming after the horn and ran off the court to the safety of the locker room as both sides cheered in the confusion. The scoreboard operator had put up the winning basket for Rocklin and their fans were celebrating, but we saw the officials wave off the basket and our team was jumping and high fiving each other. It was a great come from behind win and we are solidly in second now with a 5-2 conference record. This is the second time that we've beat Rocklin, who was a ranked team early in the season. We may finally get some play as a ranked team in Sacramento now. Awesome stuff.

Darla and I started our Life Group last week. Our church is going through Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life", "40 Days of Purpose". We met with the group as an ice breaker to get to know the group and to socialize before we start. We'll meet again tonight to go over ground rules and set up our reading for the week and start the study next week. One of the couples in the group I know because the husband, Gary, is in my Men's group. I will take a leave of absence from the Men's group during the next seven weeks as I can't afford the time for two groups a week on top of the fifty hours I put in at work. The sermons will kick off on Sunday with Dave Dravecky speaking to the group on his calling after he lost his pitching arm to cancer in 1989.

Work is good and getting better. We will finish at least $100,000 over budget this month and I may add a new underwriter sooner rather than later. I received a call on Monday last from Pete Morrison, the underwriter that I hired to replace me at Republic Western when I was promoted to Underwriting Manager. Pete had left the insurance industry and was working as a mortgage banker the last two years. He made a lot of money, but got severely burned out on the 70 hour weeks he was putting in. He called me to ask about a competitor that he was slated to interview with. I said, "Whoa, if you're available, I may be able to create a position for you here". I called the Regional VP and he told me to interview him and then he'll arrange to come out this week and interview him as well. Pete is willing to take less salary than he's been getting because of the bonus plan. Pete was a new business machine for me at RWIC and I need that kind of production to get this office rolling.

Well, folks, be kind to one another. Remember I live in Sacramento and "Sacramento" is a Spanish word for the "body of Christ". I'd rather live no where else but in the body of Christ. Ciao.