Next week we will be in Paradise!!

I'm referring to Hawaii and not the new home of Darla's parents. The hits keep on coming at work. I'm trying to hire a new underwriter and the CEO of the company has been brought in and is nickle and diming my candidate. We could lose this deal and I'd be back at square one. Hopefully, we can pull this together this week and get him hired. Now, my accounting person has given me her resignation and I'm trying to hire someone there as well. The CFO of the company has called me and told me that he wants final say on any candidate. Nothing like full autonomy to get the job done.

The weather has finally turned to Summer and the constant rain of the last two months is past. It was weird weather in that we would get the rain and wind and then it would be 90 degrees for two days and then another storm would roll in. Our blood was thinning and thickening and finally matasticizing into a gel-like state.

I am back to work after taking the last half of last week at an Insurance event in Eureka (Humboldt County). Darla was able to join me and it made the trip so much nicer. To begin with, the drive is 5 1/2 hours. We drove up through Redding and then took Highway 299 through the mountains and over to the coast. It is a nice drive, but pretty windy through the mountain pass. The drive was much nicer with my Mustang last year than with the Explorer this year. Darla was getting a little testy on the latter part of the drive as the curves were turning her stomach and she thought I was driving a little fast. Maybe I was. We had a cocktail reception on Wednesday evening at the Ingomar house in Eureka. The Ingomar was a private residence built by one of the lumber barons at the turn of the century (1900, not 2000). It is now a private club owned by about 350 of the movers and shakers of Eureka. The home is a palatial three-story, 5000 square foot home with magnificent views of the bay and a small turret on the fourth floor of the home (the attic) where Mrs. ingomar set up a telescope and would watch for her husband to return from the sea as he made trips to sell his lumber.

Thursday was the golf tournament. Darla spent the day shopping in Eureka and Arcata, two towns lost in the sixties. Darla said that she saw more dreadlocks and hippies in those towns than she's seen in years. The golf tournament is played at Baywood, a private course in the foothills outside of Eureka. I was able to play my own ball and struggled to a 44+44=88. The problem wasn't the conditions or the course, but the alcohol and partying. Each hole was set up with a different theme. They had the Mardi Gras hole with Jagermeister and jello shots, the Manhattan hole, the Margarita hole, the wine and cheese hole, and the barbecued oyster hole which featured Coronitas, the little eight ounce Coronas. There were five groups backed up on the hole and they were dancing and listening to Jimmy Buffett. Groups were waving others through and it was a nightmare. The rythmn of golf was not present. Darla met me for dinner and they had a nice prime rib and chicken picata. We enjoyed the festivities and I left with a new golf jacket, won in the raffle.

We stayed over Thursday night and I drove home after a late breakfast. We drove back up Highway 101 and I took a detour to drive throught the Valley of the Giants in the Redwood National Park. I wanted to drive through the famous "drive-thru tree". We took in the beauty of the forest and drove through dense trees and tunnels of foliage, but no drive-thru tree. We finally drove into a little town and saw the sign "Drive-thru tree 200 feet". We drove right past the little town and saw no tree. I turned around and saw the gift shop and novelty store and saw an admission entrance for the "drive-thru tree". It was $1.50 per person to walk or drive thru the tree. There was no one at the admission booth, so we drove on and there sat a tree about 12 foot in diameter in which the owner had carved a 7'x7' crude tunnel through the tree. I was about to drive thru when Darla stopped me. The carving was sideways and rough at best and she was afraid we'd get stuck. I backed up and drove out. There was an older woman standing near the admission booth with her hands on her hips staring me down as I drove out of the little "rip off" den and got back on the highway. Darla and I were howling with laughter. That tree was a sad state of affairs and we wonder how many SUVs have been wedged into that tree over the years. We drove on and saw the turn off to the actual drive-thru tree about eight miles later, but drove past having had enough fun for one day.

We drove back through Highway 20 and past Clear Lake on our way home. It was a nice drive punctuated by the soft snores of Darla as I drove on and she slept on.

We came back late Friday afternoon and had a graduation party for David scheduled for Saturday night. I answered my e-mail to find an invitation to play golf on Saturday morning. I so wanted to rid myself of the Eureka golf experience and Darla was gracious enough to allow me to play. We teed off at nine and I was back home by 2:00 PM. I played with Boyd and Mel and shot a stellar 37+40=77, much better and more to my standards. It was nice to wash myself clean of the drunken party that stood in for a golf tournament earlier in the week.

David's party went well. We had about thirty people, including Destanie's parents. Her Dad is Justin and a longer haired musician type with a soul patch and bleach blonde hair. A great Christian man on fire for the Lord. He thinks David is great and told us stories of David asking him to date Destanie. Earl and Justin hit it off as both worked as Construction Foremen and had similar experiences with the trades. Steve's wife, Kirsten, mistook Justin for one of David's friends, thrilling him to no end. David made a nice haul with his graduation gifts which were over $1,500 at the last count. Daniel wanted to have a party to celebrate graduating from the tenth grade after watching David's party. I told him "Fat chance."

Well, work awaits. The blog will be on vacation along with us for the next two weeks. I hope you are all well, happy and one with the Lord. Be kind to each other. Sorry that Dad and Shirley, Jennifer, and Earl and Frances couldn't join us in Kauai, but we will have plenty of good times in your stead. Ciao.