Ruminations and Lamentations

The weekend has come and gone and we are on to a new week. Darla spent the weekend at a women's retreat with the church and left her men behind to fend for themselves. We ordered pizza on Friday night and then I decided to cook on Saturday night and made a couple of frozen pizzas for dinner. You could say it was a GUY weekend.

They told a story at church this weekend that I was not aware of. If my grandfather on my Dad's side was still alive, he would have known it. They told it in the context of Faith and Hope. Eddie Richenbacher was the ace of World War I. He had more kills than most pilots and won many medals for his bravery and his markmanship. Eddie volunteered to fly special missions in WWII specifically for the Pentagon and it was on one of these missions in 1942 when his plane lost all radio control and Richenbacher became totally lost in the Pacific. He finally ran out of fuel and had to ditch his plane in the ocean. His crew of 8 climbed into an 8 foot raft and spent the next eight days hoping and waiting for rescue. On the eighth day, the crew, near starvation prayed together and prepared to die. A seagull landed on Eddie's head and slowly he reached up and grabbed the legs of the bird. They were able to fashion the intestines into fishing line and were able to catch fish and survived for another 15 days when they were finally rescued. After Eddie retired and moved to Florida, he would go to the ocean every Friday and feed shrimp to the seagulls, his way of thanking the seagull for saving his life. He did this faithfully until he died in 1979. Do you think that God intervened in Eddie's life? I do.

I've been invited to a special marketing meeting in Philadelphia in mid May. It is being hosted by USLI, one of Warren Buffet's insurance companies. We will be in Philly from May 18th-20th. I look forward to the trip and lament that I will not be able to do any sightseeing while I'm there. Most of the Branch Managers will be there from Burns and Wilcox and several of the Vice Presidents will also be in attendance. Our President and CEO will be there and I hope to have an opportunity to talk to him about the future of this office.

I played golf twice this past week, once on Thursday and then in a tournament on Saturday. Thursday was a beautiful day in the 80's and I shot 38+40=78, my best round of the year. I played against three agents and won $28.50 out of a pool of $31 in skin money. Did I feel bad? Uh...no. I didn't think it was going to be a good round, especially after the first hole. It is a 300 yard par 4, but you can attempt to cut the corner of the driving range and the green is about 265 yards from the tee. I took the corner and landed on the green about thirty feet from an eagle. I proceeded to three putt the green for a par. I then played in a 2 man best ball tournament on Saturday at Diamond Oaks in a driving rain. Most of the players really struggled with wet grips and wet conditions, but I managed a 40+43=83, which given the conditions, I'm even more proud of. My partner struggled and we finished tied for fourth with a 65. I play in the Roseville City Championship this coming weekend and look forward to it. My game is finally starting to round into shape and my index of 11.5 is at it's highest since July of last year. In other words, I'm playing better than my handicap right now and have a chance to do some damage.

David is still struggling with his decision on college. He was accepted by Cal Poly Pomona as a Construction Management student. David wants to take an Architectural degree and be a Computer Assisted design engineer. He is toying with going to Sierra College in Rocklin for two years and then seeing if he can transfer to Cal Poly SLO, his first and only choice for college. He did not get in, but Darla has a friend who knows a Dean at Cal Poly SLO and they are trying to work out something. (The old "it's not what you know, but who you know"). Hopefully they can work it out. David is so focused. IF he goes to Sierra, he can continue to work at the engineering firm where he interns and they will hold a position for him. I'll keep you informed.

The office continues to do very well and we are following up our biggest month in a year with another solid month. I may be buying the staff lunch again in May, which would be GREAT. Our turnaround is turning heads in Home Office. The President is not convinced that I am the right candidate for the job as Branch Manager, which is frustrating for me, but all that I can do is continue to run the office, make money and have a staff that is engaged in their jobs and growing our book of business. I think perhaps I have some of the stink of my predecessor on me as I weas hired by him. The bottom line is what matters and they won't make a change while things are doing well. The only fly in the ointment is that I will not continue to be an "acting" Branch Manager indefinitely. They will have to fish or cut bait soon. I've given them until the Branch Manager meeting in October to make up their minds.

My old underwriter at Republic Western, Pete Morrison, continues to call me. He turned down my job offer and went to work for a competitor. I think eventually he will end up working for me over here. I've heard through the grapevine that he is struggling over at Crouse. Their corporate culture is one of large accounts and moving paper, whereas our culture is defined by developing relationships with agents and is more of a marketing oriented workflow. We, frankly, fit Pete's strengths much better. We have the pen with four carriers, which allows us to respond on the smaller accounts quickly and efficiently. At Crouse, they are 100% brokerage and have to send everything out for quote. There, they are at the whim of a company underwriter. Here, about 60% of our business is contract business where we are the underwriter. The only thing holding us back is ourselves.

Speaking of that, I need to get on with my day. I hope you are all engaged in the sport of life and follwing the true King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Ciao.