Boxing Day for Americans

A couple of wild and crazy guys.

The holidays have come and we are in the dead week between Christmas and New Years. I was supposed to be at work today plugging along like the mass of Americans, but alas, my back decided to go the way of Clinton's presidency and completely give out on me. I have an appointment with a Bowen practitioner at 3:15 today (Harry is on vacation until January 8th) and should be fine thereafter. I actually played golf on Saturday, shooting 39+43=82 on a cold and bright Winter day. I returned home about 2 PM and decided to fill in a portion of the trench that continues to exist next to the pool. The dirt that was pulled out is piled up and is nothing short of a mud bog when it rains. Well, the heavy dirt clods did their trick on my back and I felt the muscle pull about twenty minutes into the job.

I did quite a number on myself and I'm hunched over like Quasimodo as I make my way from one chair to another. I woke up Sunday morning and tried to go to the bathroom, but my back spasmed as I limped into the bathroom and I went down on the floor like a heap. Everytime I so much as moved, my back would sieze up and I'd go through about fifteen seconds of painful cramping. Darla heard me (it was about 6:00 AM) and came in to see if I was okay. She stepped over me and used the toilet as I lay in agony listening to the tinkle of what I desperately needed to do. Darla asked if she could help me and I told her to go back to bed. Shortly thereafter I heard the soft sounds of sleep emanating from the bedroom as I lay curled in the fetal position afraid to move. It took me the better part of two hours to drag myself from the bathroom back to the bed, inching ever closer like a seal on a beach. I couldn't lift myself to a kneeling position as the cramps hit hard and fast and left me with tears in my eyes. I managed to pull myself up on the bed and laid there for another hour before the call of nature forced me to get up and deal with the stabs of pain as I moved ever so slowly step by step into the bathroom. A shower seemed to help me and I lumbered from the bathroom out to our La-Z-Boy recliner where I stayed for the day. Darla brought me food on a tray and I ate reclining in the chair.

Monday (Christmas morning) brought another bout of back spasms as I attempted to get up from bed and it took me about an hour to slowly move from the middle of the bed to the side and then up and onto my feet. A shower helped me to loosen up a little and I made the trip out to the La-Z-Boy. The boys showed up about 11:30 and Jen and John followed about noon. We opened gifts and had a few laughs as the wrappings piled up around us. The boys bought me a Craftsman wrench and ratchet set with over 100 pieces. They know my Barbie tools are wholly inadequate and continued on the tool theme from 2005 when they got me a roller cabinet and a rechargeable drill/screwdriver from Craftsman. Jenn bought me a wireless speaker system for use out by the pool as well as slippers and a shirt. My office gave me two $100 American Express gift cards that I used toward a new 20" LCD TV for our bedroom. It is a Samsung HDTV and replaces an off brand 13" color tv that was inadequate for anything. Darla and I got Jennifer some workout clothes and a pizza kit with baking stone and serving plates, some other clothes, a picture frame with a photo of Jenn and John from Thanksgiving and a Smoothie Maker. The boys got matching shirts from Dad and Shirley in Canada (as seen in the photo above). It was a great Christmas.

On our family gift exchange, Randy got me something from Home Depot that is supposed to arrive today and Darryl (or Cheryl I forget) got Darla a new Brighton watch. Darla loves Brighton, so good choice. I got Darryl and Randy both rechargeable work lights and a dozen Nike golf balls. It is a fun tradition and one that Jennifer wants to get into next year.

The picture of Jennifer with the round item is from a game called "catch phrase" where you play in teams and have to guess words or phrases. The word calculator is also a timer that beeps and finally goes off with a buzzer. It's like hot potato and the team holding the calculator when it buzzes loses a point to the other team. It was alot of fun and a lot of laughs. Unfortunately you can pass on words or we would have had the fun of watching Darla's Dad act out "breastfeeding". Oh well.

With my bad back came a postponement of a meeting with an attorney on a lawsuit brought against my Modesto office employees by their former employer. We were supposed to meet at eleven today, but moved that to Thursday at eleven. The suit is claiming breach of contract on a non-compete agreement that they signed with Nancy Dean at Richter Robb. I worked briefly for Nancy out of my house between Republic Western and Burns and Wilcox. Non compete agreements are largely unenforceable in California as it is a "right to work" state and unless an employer compensates an employee to not compete during the term of the agreement (in this case two years after leaving her employ), then courts will throw them out. Our lawyers reviewed their non-compete agreements when we hired them and told them to stay away from her agents and renewals for a one year term and then all bets were off. Nancy's business has plummeted from a high of $38 million to about $16 million in 2006 and she blames us. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as she called Lorraine after having them served and told her that she would soon own her house. Our owner is an attorney and plays hard ball and I pity Miss Nancy Dean. I don't think she knows what Hell she is buying herself. My guess is we will own her agency when this is all over.

The fence job is finished in the back yard and the two-day job (their estimate) ended up taking them almost two weeks and they still have to remove all of the old fencing and boards from the yard. Their job was good, but far from perfect as there are small misteps along the way, including a gate that rubs the ground and a portion of the retaining wall that was built without posts cemented in the ground, but just wood blocked up against the fence behind. One or two of the posts are loose in the cement as they built onto them before the posts were completely set in the ground. The auto gate on the side of the house needs to have a wheel installed after I have the driveway poured for the jet ski. These guys are very new at doing this kind of work and both work for others and do this on the side. The cost at $3600 was about 40% cheaper than the fence contractors. The job looks really good, but I will have to tighten a few things up before I bring in topsoil. Daniel spent this morning removing another plant and some ground cover from the side of the house in anticipation of the fence guys being here today to build the trash enclosure on the side of the house. So far at 2 PM the guys haven't shown up. Not a surprise.

Well, that is it for another week as I must rest before my Bowen treatment in an hour. Happy New Year to all. Ciao.

Just a couple of things

I am really bad at empathy, so I turn to my family and friends. Darla's cat, Jake, has developed a distended stomach likely caused by some form of cancer.Darla had it into the vet the other day and it cost me $375 to have a "cat" scan and x-rays. Darla has been struggling with the news and is determined to keep the cat through the Christmas holiday. The cat, who has always been FAT, has developed a stomach that looks like he's swallowed a football. Again, Darla needs some comfort and consoling over her cat, so help me out. (I just want to go play catch with it in the front yard.)

My company has finally sent out a press bulletin on my promotion and our industry Insurance Journal publication picked it up today. Here is the link:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2006/12/20/75291.htm.

I hope all are well. Happy "Holy"Days and Merry "Christ"Mas. Ciao

Christmas is Coming

The picture was taken at the Burns and Wilcox Holiday Party perhaps by someone who really likes banisters and Christmas trees. We had a ball on Saturday night working our way through a case of water, a case of soda, a case of diet soda, 14 bottles of wine (including three 750 ML bottles), two cases of beer, three bottles of champagne, two bottle of apple cider, a 20 pound turkey, two hams, potatoes, stuffing, bread, four Marie Callender pies, M&Ms and plenty of laughs and good times to go around.

We had the party at Dinda's house in Carmichael (Dinda is Pete's Assistant Underwriter) and Dinda hired two Hispanic ladies to help out. I only mention ethnicity as Darla was rolling in laughter at the carving job that one of the ladies made on the turkey. She cut the dark sections into six inch slabs of meat with the bone and muscle still hanging on the meat. She then cut the white meat into six inch slabs of meat and put it on the table to be served. I grabbed the electric knife and carved the white meat slabs into slices of turkey that we are used to seeing here in America. Neither of us have ever seen someone butcher a turkey quite like this lady managed to do. It was hilarious, but the few guests who ate the dark meat were clearly puzzled by the presentation. Darla cooked the turkey and Cora cooked the hams. both of them made mashed potatoes and Cora also brought garlic bread and Darla made dressing. Because we handled the meal ourselves this year (last year I bought the food prepared by Boston Market), I was able to buy each of the employees a $20 gift card to the Elephant Bar restaurant and stay pretty close to my budget for the soiree of $35 per employee. As I said, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it is always nice to see my employees away from work and interacting with their families.

The pool hasn't had any new work done on it in the last week. We went through a period of rainy weather that slowed the progress and then the fence contractor finally agreed to come out and start the job. They showed up on Friday and demo'ed the old fence, opening up our yard to the neighbors to the side and to the rear. It sure opened up the size of the yard, but I have to admit, I do enjoy the privacy that a fence allows and I look forward to them finishing the job. The fence guys are two partners who are licensed, but work for others and do this on the side. They are doing 200 feet of linear fencing with three gates, including an auto gate on the side yard and 24' of retaining wall behind the raised waterfalls of the pool for $3,600. This price includes the tear down and haul off of the old fence. The price at $16 a linear foot for redwood (6" dog eared boards) is excellent. I had several fence contractors bid the job at $27.50 lf to $33.50 lf). Of course working with a team that also works elsewhere leaves me waiting for the job to be done. They were supposed to be out at early light on Saturday, but showed up at 2 PM and worked until 5:30 finishing in the dark. Again yesterday they showed up at 1 PM and worked until almost 6:30, finishing in the dark under construction lights. They are supposed to be there early today with the main contractor showing up after noon to handle the nailing of the boards. The other partner sets the posts and does the demo. They have finished one side of the yard and have yet to do the backside behind the pool and over to the side yard. All of the gates will be done last.

I paid Daniel $100 to remove the two eight foot high bushes on the side yard. He had to cut them down using a chain saw and then pull the roots. Darla's Dad, Earl, came down from Paradise to help Daniel and got more than he bargained for. The roots were so compacted in the ground and crisscrossed over one another that it took them about an hour to cut down the bushes and haul them to the dump and another four hours to pull the stumps. One of the stumps was estimated to weigh close to three hundred pounds with the dirt still attached to it. Earl was heard to say something to the extent of "Why couldn't Ken get a professional to do this?". Frankly I could have and if they had left the roots in place because it was too tough to remove, I would have had a tree service come out and grind up the roots. The real reason is that I'm trying to get Daniel up off his keester and earning some money. His father, in all of his earthly wisdom, doesn't want Daniel to have a job yet because he wants more time to spend with him. Does the word "Control Freak" mean anything to you? Unfortunately, Daniel gets off school at 2:30 and comes home and lays his 6'2" frame down on his bed and he lays there watching TV or playing on his computer for three hours until dinner and then gets up to eat and lays down after that exertion until it's time to go to bed. He is growing, perhaps not in terms of social interaction and in the art of being a productive member of society, but in the size of his pants. Daniel is a very social kid and he'd love having a job. Unfortunately, his father has never looked at the needs of his children. Enough about that.

I did manage a game of golf this weekend after two weeks of inactivity because of the rain. I shot 41+43=84 in a double bogey filled round of ineptitude. I finished with a net of 72, but was hitting the ball really crisply. My putting was horrible and my short game was on the verge of a complete meltdown. Other than that, it was a great day of golf.

Well, as occurs every other week, it is my day to approve payroll and I have to get that done first thing in the morning, so that paychecks can be tendered on Wednesday. I hope all are well. I will write again next Tuesday after Christmas. We will have Jennifer and John over for Christmas dinner (prime rib) as well as Darla's parents and sister. Be well and have joy in the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.

One wet and windy weekend in the books

Yep, the pool is slowly filling with water. Unfortunately, the plaster has not yet been done. We received about an inch and a half of rain from this storm, the first real rainfall of the season. The rain came in on Friday afternoon and evening and we had a real gully washer by about 10 PM on Friday. I awoke Saturday morning to a fence that was leaning precariously into my yard at the spot where the demolition crews knocked out one of the fence posts and significantly loosened two others. I made a run to Home Depot where I bought two eight foot 2x4's and three t-bar posts. I nailed one of the eight foot studs to the fence and then used two of the T bars to wedge the section of fencing back up. I used the other T Bar to strengthen the weakest of the two fence posts and the fence is back up and holding. The fence contractor will not be able to get out here until January so it will need to hold until then.

Our backyard is a muddy mess with all of the dirt from the trenches now piles of mud and water. Buddy can no longer use the backyard for his business as he has far too much fun slogging about in the mud. His paws dig in about six inches and he tracks the mud back into the house. Darla had an open house on Saturday and let Buddy out back to do his thing and then let him back in without checking his feet and he tracked mud all over our bedroom. I got home from making myself scarce during her party ( I was supposed to be golfing in the last tournament of the year, but it was postponed) and Darla handed me a rag and some carpet cleaner and set me to work cleaning up after the mutt. It finally came clean (after all it is only mud), but it was a chore. I have a new spot rug cleaner coming soon, so we will be able to clean these messes more readily.

I had won the golf tournament for the manager's meeting in Detroit, finishing in first place and also capturing a closest to the pin and the long drive. We have a new Rewards website for our agents and I was granted 5600 points on the website. I bought a new cart bag from Nike and a dinner certificate at Olive Garden with my points and also a small portable steam cleaner for the carpets. It is a steam cleaner that is meant to get out spots in the carpet and we can really use it now that the weather has turned for the worst. We are all pretty good at taking off our shoes in the house, but it is hard to get visitors to do the same and the dog has no sense of neatness and doesn't even wipe his feet before coming in the house. We try to do it for him, but he has so much energy, often it feels like wrestling an octopus.

Darla was out of town Friday night at a show in Monterey and I stole off to the Thunder Valley Casino for dinner and a shot at the nickle machines. I never made it to dinner as the machines quickly ate up my $40 and I was down to single bills. I put one in the machine and quickly hit four aces for a 2000 coin payout ($100). I got on a streak and hit four aces four times in the next two hours, once with a 2 for a 4000 coin payout. In all, I left the casino at 11 PM with $433 in my pocket. I called Darla, who was in Monterey with her best friend, Joni, for a Silpada party. They were already in bed and Darla was not too thrilled that I'd been out galavanting all night until she heard that I'd won close to $400. I slept in Saturday morning as it was pouring when I left the casino and I knew the golf tournament would be delayed. We have tee times set up for next Sunday as a rain makeup date and we wouldn't play on a sloppy course. I finally strolled out of bed at 8:30 to find Darla sitting in the living room putting an order into her lap top computer. She had arisen at 4:30 and drove the 3 1/2 hours home. Joni had a commitment at her church in Marin at 8 AM and Darla decided to drive home early as well.

Darla and I went to a Christmas party with her foster care agency Saturday night. The event was held in South Sacramento in some decrepid community center. Each of the foster families brought a dish and the agency provided some really awful pizza from a place called Fat Tony's. After trying the pizza, it is a good bet that Tony didn't get fat eating his own pizza. The agency administrator (Steve) is a New Yorker with little sense of propriety. He was the master of ceremonies and at one point was giving out DVDs to the families and said to one of the Dads not to open the movie at the table as it was X-rated. He also made a big point of acknowledging on microphone the people who showed up after 6:30 (the party started at 6:00 PM). One family showed up after 7 PM and the mother was showing Steve what she'd brought to share. He took one look under the tin foil and said, "That's nice. We've all eaten already. You can just wrap it back up and take it home." Nice guy. He also talked briefly to me and then said to one of the guys at the table: "Oh, that's Darla's husband. I didn't know who the hell that was!" What a peach. Darla has had several run ins with him over the years and had me listen to one of his voice mails to her. It was a voice mail yelling at her for not having her cellphone on when he needed to reach her. He said that she needed to be available 24-7 for when he needed to reach her. Understand that this is a part time position where Darla is a social worker for one foster child with the agency. I told her that if my boss talked to me that way, I'd punch him in the nose. During the evening he gave away a "Bullseye" award to the social worker that had more run ins with him during the year than any other. Half the room raised their hand when he asked who thought they'd won the award. Apparently, this schmuck revels in his pugnaciousness.

Well, Chris' football team finally met their match in the Texas High School football playoffs. They played again at Texas Stadium on Saturday and lost to Southlake Carroll 34-7. Their team gave up five turnovers and were outplayed and outcoached in the game. Southlake Carroll is a team from the same town and their stadium can be seen from Colleyville's stadium. Interesting that they each ended up in the round of eight in the Texas state championship game. Southlake Carroll is the defending state champions and a powerhouse team. Congratulations to Chris and his teamates for a great run in the playoffs. He will remember it and relive it his entire life.

We have our annual holiday party on Saturday. The company has allowed us $35 per employee this year and I have $665 to spend on the party. I should be able to buy dinner, booze and a gift for everyone with that kitty.

Well, work awaits on a dreary Monday morning. I have several salary reviews to do and a Manager's report as well as a slew of new business to quote. I hope all are well and busy keeping Christ in Christ-mas. Happy Holy Days and Saviour's Greetings to all.

Tile and Flagstone are done on the Pool

In truth I have asked the pool contractor to come back and extend the flagstone walkway to the existing stamped concrete deck at the deep end of the pool. It is a construction zone back there and you can't see it, but the stamped concrete is still there under all of the dirt in the foreground of the picture. You can see how the flagstone walkway connects with the deck in the shallow area. Unfortunately, the contractor was in Cancun when the gunite was poured and wasn't there to supervise the walkway extensions and they messed it up. He promised to get it fixed. I have to leave the trenches uncovered until the city inspects the lines, so the dirt stays for now. Darla and I are very happy with the color of the flagstone. It has reds and tans and grays and blues throughout the stone and the blue tile really brings out the blues and grays. Because we did not have any deck poured with the pool, the pool is essentially an island with the two walkways being the connecting points to the pool. I will have another stamped concrete deck poured behind the shallow area for a sun deck. We are certainly blessed with this project going on in our yard. Ciao.

The Holiday Spirit is in the air

One holiday party down, several still to come.

We had our annual Roseville Golf Club Christmas party on Saturday night at Sunrise Golf Club. As incoming Vice-President, I will be responsible for the soiree next year, so I was taking mental notes this time around. The party went off very well and the food, as usual, was spectacular with prime rib and chicken as the offerings.

The prime rib was excellent, but we did have a problem with one of the guests who cut too large of a piece of his meat and had his airway blocked. I looked up to see Neil, our incoming President, pounding on the back of Keith Erickson and then begin lifting him up. I quickly realized that Neil was trying to do the Heimlich on Keith. The problem is that Neil is about 160 pounds and Keith is about 225 pounds. Keith ended up passing out and Neil dropped him onto the ground where the offending piece of meat dislodged. There is a doctor in our group who was able to comfort Keith and help him reassimilate to actually breathing in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide. Keith remained on the floor in a sitting position for about ten minutes and finally stood up and took a bow. Luckily we were able to revive him as it would have put a damper on the party to lose a guest. Incidentally, the founder of Burns and Wilcox, Herb Kaufman died from a piece of meat that lodged in his airway in Denver during a visit with the Colorado Branch Manager. When Keith turned blue, it was a scary moment.

Bob Hand, who is in our party, jumped up and lead a helping "hand" to the proceedings (bad pun, I know). Bob is a social worker trained in the Heimlich and was quick to respond. Unfortunately, he was attempting the Heimlich after the meat was already out. This was pointed out to him and he quickly laid Keith back down on the ground.

Darla and I hosted two new couples to the Christmas party this year and also sat with Bob and Debbie and Mel and Cora, who were making their second tour of the Christmas party. We had a fun night, although we slept through church on Sunday morning. Darla ended up with sore feet and hips from her night of dancing.

I played golf on Friday in the annual pre-Christmas party outing and had a horrific round. I shot 45+48=93 at Timber Creek in Roseville. The round started good with a par and a birdie, but quickly went downhill. Luckily my birdie (net eagle) was good for a skin and $16 from the pot. I had a golf tournament on Saturday and was hoping that I saved all of my good shots for that round.

Saturday, we had a frost delay and finally got off on a a reverse shotgun at 9:45 AM. I managed a 41+40=81 and won the tournament, so I got the bad golf out of my system on Friday and came through on Saturday. I even managed to get on one of the par fives in two and had a 30 foot putt for eagle that rolled up to the left side of the cup but wouldn't drop. I had two birdies in my round and will happily spend the $100 first prize in the pro shop.

The boys managed to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic and put up the tree and string lights on the house on Saturday while I was golfing. We had our two couple friends meet us at the house on Saturday night before leaving for the party, so it was nice to have the decorations up.

The pool was gunited on Wednesday last week and I have been feverishly pouring water on it ever since to help it cure. The contractor suggested that I put a sprinkler in the bottom of the pool and run it for fifteen minutes three times a day. There were three problems with that suggestion. First, the sprinkler wouldn't reach the entire structure of the pool. Second, the sprinkler had to go in the middle of the pool and was quickly under water as our pool is a game pool with the deepest part of the pool in the center. Finally, the only way to get down into the pool was by use of the steps that were not yet completely set up and I broke off the edges of the third and fourth steps as I went down into the pool. They will have to repair that this week before the tile and flagstone is put on. The steps will have step tile along the edges of each step. The pool is coming right along and I will add pictures of the progress on my next posting.

Chris, Randy's son, has reached the round of eight in the Texas State high school football playoffs. His team has already beat the number four ranked team in the state and now take on the number four ranked team in the nation and the number two ranked team in the state (The number one seed has already been eliminated). They play Southlake Carroll on Saturday a team that already beat them earlier this year, but CHHS (Chris' team) lost their qb to a concussion early in that game. Southlake Carroll lost their qb in the last game to a concussion as well. Southlake Carroll played and beat Odessa Permian, the five time state champion and the team profiled in the movie Friday Night Lights with Billy Bob Thornton. Good luck, Chris, we are all pulling for you.

Well, that is it. I have to do payroll and I was out of the office on Friday, so I'm already behind the eight ball. Be well, relax and enjoy the Christ-mas season.

Post Holiday Menopausal Blues

Sure, make fun of the title. Four days of blissful relaxation and now a return to the mundane, a malaise of uncompleted work and deadlines. I have one of my senior underwriters still out on medical leave and the work is piling up on my desk. Next will be the phone calls, asking where that account is that they sent in way back on Wednesday of last week. The business is received and entered by my receptionist and I'll be lucky to have the application on my desk by the time the calls start coming in.

The holiday was very nice, though low key. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the family last week in Paradise, so the actual holiday was alot of football, some snacks and a dinner of lasagna. I talked to Randy, who was home alone with Chris as Cake had flown to visit Jenny for the holiday. Chris is in the high school football playoffs in Texas and they had won their first round match-up at Texas Stadium last week and had a showdown again at Texas Stadium on Friday after Thanksgiving with the number 5 ranked team in the state. This team sports an offensive lineman who is the number one recruit in the state of Texas, who has signed a letter of intent with the Texas Longhorns. I talked to Randy and to Chris and it was hard to figure who was the most excited with the game coming up. Chris had played the week before and was given DeMarcus Ware's locker to use in the Cowboy's locker room. Pretty heady stuff for a 16 year old. I talked to Chris and Randy again yesterday and Chris' team slaughtered the number 5 ranked team 36-16 and will play in the round of 16 on Friday night at Abilene Christian University in Abilene against a highly ranked team from Lubbock. Randy will take the day off and travel with the team to Abilene for their playoff game. They have to win four more games and they will be champions of the state of Texas. Chris is still a Junior and will be in the starting lineup next year. He plays defensive end and subs for the two defensive end starters, who are both seniors and the one who plays his natural position is all league and heading to Division I football next year. Chris plays special teams and is one of the first players off the bench.

I also talked to Darryl and heard about his Thanksgiving with the family. They had the boys and Janelle and Aaron over. I talked to Dad and Shirley last night and they are suffering through a blizzard that has left over a foot of snow on the ground and had knocked out power to their area. I called at quarter of seven and the power had gone out at 6:15 PM. Shirley got on the phone and had to feel her way up the stairs to the phone in the bedroom. Vancouver has been hit with some early Winter weather as they also had a power failure on Monday of last week that lasted 15 hours. It was 78 degrees and sunny in Texas (Darryl was in shorts putting up his Christmas lights) and it was 20 degrees and snowing in Vancouver. Talk about polar opposites.

We had a good weekend of weather, although I had to endure a two hour frost delay at the golf course on Friday. We had an eight o'clock tee time and were finally allowed on the course at 9:15 AM for a reverse shotgun. I shot 41+41=82 on Friday while Boyd shot 42+36=78. I also played on Saturday and we got off at our tee time of 8:27 AM and I shot 43+43=86. Darla says that I must be bored shooting the same scores day after day. That coming from an athlete who plays several sports and sees the same 7-5 score in softball again and again, but it is a different game every time. Same with golf.

Jennifer and John came over on Friday afternoon and we went out to the Thunder Valley casino in Lincoln. We were going to play some machines for awhile and then have dinner at Samarai Fats, but the restaurant had been closed. They were in the middle of remodel and changing the name to a different restaurant, some Chinese outfit out of San Francisco. John is from Las Vegas and doesn't get too excited about casinos. The one thing he does is plays the Megabucks machine for $20 every time he is in a casino. He played $9 and won a $150 jackpot and called it a night. We ended up going out to a local favorite Italian food restaurant close to the house for dinner. Jennifer and John had both run in the race to Feed the Hungry the day before in Sacramento and were tired. They called it an evening pretty early and left to stay at Diane's house.

Darla and I went to the movies on Saturday night and saw the new Denzel Washington picture "Deja Vu". It is very well acted and a good film, but you have to suspend your beliefs in reality in order to enjoy the film. I'm not much for science fiction films, (I've never seen any of the Star wars films or Star Trek, etc) but Denzel is such a good actor it was very enjoyable and I recommend it.

We sat and watched football yesterday and Darla made some homemade peanut brittle and then fixed a Chinese chicken salad for dinner. It was a very relaxing four days off and we are now back in the throes of a work week.

The pool is moving along slowly. They have the steel structure completed and the electrical and plumbing is in. We are waiting on the city to approve the construction to date so we can gunite later this week. Once the gunite is done, I can relax. The rain over yesterday and today has left the hole a mud hole and we are supposed to have sun the rest of the week. The sky is clearing as I write this and the storm is moving off to the mountains. We received about a 1/4 of an inch of rain out of this last storm, so the ground should dry out pretty quickly. As I've said before, I can't get to the fence until January anyhow, so I'm not too concerned with getting the pool done anytime soon.

I received a call from my old neighbor, Todd, in Galt and his tenants are moving out. We both own rentals side by side in Galt. The fence between our homes is shot (it is sixteen years old) and we have to replace it. He called me I think hoping that I'd take care of getting a contractor out there and tell him what he owes me, but I turned it over to him. He will get a couple of estimates and let me know what I owe. The joy of home ownership. If I didn't have a quarter million dollars in equity in that house, I'd be ticked.

Well, folks, that is another chronicle in the life of Lyon. Be well, enjoy your families and thank the Lord above for the many blessings in your life. Ciao.

Happy Thanksgiving

Another busyMonday gives rise to a Sunday post. I'm actually sitting in the living room posting this on the wireless internet using Darla's work lap top. I will be playing in one of my insurances agents' Turkey Week at Turkey Creek golf tournaments tomorrow. It will include some contractors, some insurance agency people and some insurance company personnel. In all, we have 23 players competing for a skin pot of $500. There will be side bets aplenty and so far the weather appears to be cooperating.

We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at Darla's parents house for our family Thanksgiving. The boys are with their Dad this year and Jennifer is running in a Thanksgiving Day run with her Mother. I think Diane is running the 10K race and Jen will run the 5K. We had a ball on Saturday. John brought up his gas propelled model car and we gave it a good run on the streets of Paradise. It will run up to 45 MPH and John had it really smoking. Jennifer ran it off the road and got it stuck under one of the neighbors' Porsches that was parked in the driveway. John had it going full bore and ran it full speed into a basketball pole and broke off one of the plastic headlights. The car is a model truck with a chassis that has shock absorbers and oversized rubber tires that can run over dirt, rocks and on the street. We ate turkey and ham and played Cranium and the Mexican Train game (dominoes) after dinner. We also were able to get a new family photo which you see above. You can click on any of the pictures above to see a full screen shot of the photo. Jennifer and John had thought about staying in Sacramento Saturday night, but they opted to make the drive home and have a full day at home before going back to work on Monday. I last talked to Jennifer about 11:30 on Saturday night and she and John were playing "twenty questions" somewhere outside of Dixon, California on the drive back to Walnut Creek.

I did play golf on Saturday, but I was wedged into the first foursome (to make a fivesome) so that I could make it to Paradise in time for dinner. As it turned out, the turkey was ready early and they had to start without me. I turned up in time for seconds and to hear the closing prayer by Grandpa Andy as is tradition. I think Jennifer and John enjoyed being up with family and certainly enjoyed the food. Jennifer brought bread and sodas and was a big part of the preparations. I shot an 89 in foggy, wet conditions and I'm just hoping that I saved my best golf for tomorrow.

Work continues to blow along at a good pace. One of my underwriting assistants quit to take a managerial position with a competitor and Gail, my most Senior Underwriter, has left on a medical leave, her second in two years. Hopefully, this surgery fixed her recurring problems and we can put it behind us. She was in the hospital until Friday and is now home on bed rest. I'm not sure when I'll get her back.

The pool continues construction at a torrid pace as the electrical, pre-plumbing and the rebar are just about done. They still need to form the steps and we are set for an inspection tomorrow. They hope to gunite by Wednesday as they are adding gunite near the steps and the deep end swimout for a flagstone walkway between the stamped concrete and the pool. Our designer, Kevin, wants to be here on the day of the gunite to direct the pouring of those two walkways. Hopefully the inspection goes well as Kevin leaves for a week in Cancun on Thanksgiving. The backyard is beginning to take shape and I look forward to the new redwood fence which will dress up the yard even more.

Darla is off work this week and will do some projects around the house, cleaning out the closet in the spare bedroom and using that to store her Silpada inventory and show cases. She continues to do well and has her eye on a trip to Maui next year (for two) paid for by Silpada. She has a fine start on that goal and (if I have to) I will go along with her on the trip and sit by the pool and perhaps even play a round of golf.

Well, this is even shorter than normal, but I have steaks on the grill and a hungry family waiting in the other room. Give thanks to the Lord for he is Good. I give thanks for all of the things and people that HE has blessed me with. Happy thanksgiving and Go Cowboys. Ciao.

Pool Pictures

Pool Construction is under way

I will add some pictures to the blog, but this is a free service and the picture feature decided to have a small fit and refuses to work. It was a hectic week with the demo which I added earlier and then the actual dig on Friday. They ended up knocking down about twenty feet of fence which I've jerry-rigged back together for the time being. They finished the demo on Thursday and I was at work and listening to Darla describe the devastation over the phone ("You better get here, they just knocked down another fence post..oh, and there goes the fence!") Very comforting as I'm sitting at my desk trying to get some actual work done. I told Darla that I'd relieve her in the afternoon, but that I had an agency lunch that I had to attend. She called me at lunch about 12:50 and said that she had to leave, but the fence had been moved to the side and she was concerned about the neighbor's dogs. She called Dwight behind us and he'd put the dogs away. Darla claims that I can't handle the mess of construction, but she sounded pretty stressed out herself.

I finally did get home and they finished up about 2:30 and were on their merry way. They pulled the tree stumps out which is what caused a portion of the fence to fall. I spent the balance of the afternoon putting the fence back together. It was a jigsaw puzzle of broken crossbeams and broken fence boards. There wasn't any one section long enough to close the gap in the fence, so I had to put two broken fence sections together as one longer piece and nail that on to the existing fence. It took me about an hour, but what's there should hold us over until the construction is done.

Darla and I have decided to have a fence contractor come in and redo all of our perimeter fencing. As part of that job, I will have him extend the fence onto the side yard behind the shed and will pour a driveway for the jet ski. The boys and I will have to take out two eight-foot high shrubs that sit along the fence line next to the shed and also border our next door neighbor behind us. Those areas will now be part of an expanded backyard where we will store the ski. Currently we have the ski at Alicia's house, which is nice as it is stored in a garage, but it doesn't lend itself to spontaneity. I will also build a shelter for the ski that will sit over it and keep it out of the sun and rain. The driveway will be 10'x 20' and will be able to accomodate a car if we ever buy an old truck or a toy to drive on weekends.

It is getting exciting as we can now see how the backyard will look with the pool. I will have the fence guy build a retaining wall of 18" in height behind the pool which will hold the dirt behind our raised waterfall and will be a focal point of our planting behind the pool. The spa is gone and we won't replace it for a few years (or until I get a sizable bonus)and I will put in a sundeck on the spot that the spa sat. I will likely follow the theme of stamped concrete, but I'm considering having a deck of pavers put in. I have to replace the sidewalk that Dad and I poured when we put in the shed as it is being beat up by the Bobcat, so I will extend the deck to the shed and up to the driveway that we will pour on the side of the house. The driveway will follow to the street and the fence will have a double RV gate that will swing open to allow us to pull in the ski. The fence has to sit back off of the sidewalk by 24", which is code in Roseville. That will allow us to keep the basketball goal that we have cemented in on the side yard. The boys don't use it much anymore, but the neighborhood kids do.

I had a contractor come out on Friday and give me a quote on the fencing and driveway and his sum total was $16,400. I just about swallowed my tongue when he came out with that. I am having a redwood fence put in for $20.25 a linear foot, or $4,232 for the 209 linear feet of perimeter fence I'm having done. I figure that I can get the driveway poured for about $1700 and the deck and sidewalk should run about $2500. Where this guy got $16,400 for his job I don't know. He was charging $11,500 for the fence, which is about $55 a linear foot. I got a quote of $15.25 a linear foot for cedar, but want to upgrade to pressure treated redwood and metal posts set in concrete. The driveway was going to cost another $5,000 with this doofus. He was shocked that I didn't jump at his proposal.

The dig on Friday was actually pretty easy. I stayed home and was there when they laid out the template for the pool and we made a few minor changes, moving the steps for the shallow end closer to the slider and moving one of the two pool lights so that it wouldn't get shadows from the steps. I was very impressed with the bobcat operator. He's been doing it for about 14 years and he can spin that on a dime. He had about six inches of room between him and both the shed and side of the house and he was able to maneuver it by at a fairly high rate of speed. He was also able to pick up dirt in the pool shell and spin the bobcat around and drive it straight up the ramp and through the gate opening without slowing. He narrowly missed breaking the benderboard as he shot up and down the ramp. The actual dig only took about two hours. They spent three hours leveling the backyard, setting the template and then starting the dig.

I have a stump from a tree I had taken out that needs to be removed and it is right in the access for the pool electrical and plumbing. I talked to my tree company and they scheduled the stump grinding for December 6th. I called her back and said that I need it done Monday or Tuesday. I have calls in to three different tree companies to see if someone can get out here this week to grind down that stump. We can't pull it as it is right next to the existing concrete stamped deck and right next to the fence.

With all of the excitement of the pool dig, I was still able to get out and play golf this weekend. It rained overnight Friday and was still sprinkling on Saturday, but Bob Pando and I braved the elements and were one of a small handful of golfers at the course on Saturday. Boyd bailed due to the rain (if you are retired and play every day, why play in the rain?) Karl, from our life group, also bailed and Bob and I played 18 holes in about 3 and-a-half hours. The course was wet and my grips were soaked by the time we finished. I struggled to a 44+42=86 and Bob shot a very nice 43+40=83 which included three straight "chip ins" on the back nine. Bob played high school golf in San Jose and is one of the best chippers I have ever seen. He has soft hands and the ball just seems to float out of its lie and land softly on the green. He was chipping beautifully when he shot 74 last weekend.

We will celebrate Thansgiving with Darla's parents next Saturday. I have a tournament in the morning and have asked for the first tee time and will join the family in Paradise for turkey and ham and some thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour. Jennifer and John will join us. Jennifer hasn't seen Earl and Frances since she got home and the extended family hasn't met John either. It should be a nice day.

Well, I have a Home Office visitor in again tomorrow and that usually takes me off my game in the office. If they aren't addressing the staff, they usually take up residence in my office and want to "chat". I suppose with the twelve or fifteen managers that don't produce business, it would be a welcome diversion. For me, it just places me squarely behind the eight ball which I have been lining up since the start of the pool project. That is the main reason I'm updating the blog from home. I need to start right in with my sleeves rolled up at 7 AM tomorrow morning.

I hope that you are all well and that you give some real thought to what you have to Thank the Lord for this holiday season. For one, I thank HIM for all of you. Ciao.

Pool Demo Underway

Wow..one day in and I already have to up my dosage of Prozac. Just kidding, but what a mess. As Darla knows, I don't handle disorder and clutter well and right now the backyard is one dog short of a junkyard. They got here at 11:00 AM this morning and will be back tomorrow. They have yet to cut out the raised deck concrete and remove the rocks and gunite from the pond. They still also have to cut out and haul away all of the bushes and cut the tree stumps back to the ground level. Pray for me. Ciao.

Beautiful Autumn Weather

75 degrees, a cloudless blue sky, not a puff of wind in the air. What do we call weather like this? Golf weather, of course. The dew is still clinging to the branches and limbs of the trees and the grass is still slick and there are footprints on the parking lot where employees have cut across the median on their way to their office. I see several people carrying steaming cups of coffee as they blindly make their way in to work on a Monday. There is caution tape and orange cones surrounding what is left of a tree that fell during last week's storm in the corner of the parking lot. There was a tree service out here last week cutting up the trunk of the tree and what is left is mostly branches and cut up portions of the trunk. I still don't know where the tree fell, but our complex is a block long and consists of nine buildings, so it could have come from anywhere and just been moved to the front of the complex.

The storm last week was the first rain that we've seen this year and although less than an inch fell, it was nice to see the change of seasons. The storm came with some heavy winds that left trees down around the area and storm drains clogged from the downed leaves and tree limbs. It took me over an hour to get home last Wednesday as the power was out on a main street near the office and the traffic was backed up all around us. I ended up taking a short cut around the congestion, only to find the street backed up in water. I was able to navigate my way through the water slowly only to have a guy in a pickup truck shoot through the water on the other side of the road and swamp my Mustang with a wall of water that shot over my drivers door and over the other side of the car. These California drivers don't know how to drive in weather of any kind. The number of accidents on that Wednesday was almost comical.

Daniel started his football game on Friday night and played most of the first series before being yanked by his offensive line coach. The reason was, according to the coach, that Daniel "stood up" in the middle of one runnning play rather than drive blocking. His replacement played most of the game, but what is odd is that Daniel was yanked after his team had driven the ball from the 20 to the other team's 14 yard line. His replacement immediately whiffed on a block and his man sacked the quarterback for a ten yard losss. We did not score on that possession and lost the game 48-7. Daniel knew that his days were numbered as the starter when he lead the quarterback sneak in the last game where the QB followed Daniel's block into the end zone from the three yard line. When the team came off the field, the O. Line coach high fived the qb, the center and the tackle next to Daniel and walked right by Dan. As I said, I don't know how he got sideways with his coach, but he did. One more game and my high school football watching days will be over, at least until my grandsons play or my grandaughter is a cheerleader.

It was a perfect weekend for golf and I played Saturday at Diamond Oaks with Boyd and Bob Pando. Bob is in my Monday night life group and just joined the club. He shot a 92 in the last tournament and was so upset. His wife had to kick him in the pants and get him over himself. It was his last tournament in the Peoria flight (the flight for golfers who don't have an established handicap). He ended up taking second in the flight (they throw out three holes and figure your score off of that) and won $35.00. I managed to win my flight and only won $48.00. Bob established a handicap for November and it came in at 9.9 (I have a 10.4). Bob had a spectacular round on Saturday and shot 37+37=74. Boyd shot 79 and I managed a 42+39=81. It was a great weekend for golf and we were off the course by noon.

I was able to get the lawn cleaned up and mowed and David raked the leaves over to the side of the house. Daniel had lost his wallet last week. He had cash in it as well as his drivers license, ATM card and pictures of a girl that he likes who is now in Africa on a religious retreat. As David was raking leaves he came across a heavy object that turned out to be Daniel's wallet laying in the street, wet and dirty. Daniel parks his truck on the side of the house when he is with us and must have dropped it Monday night when he was moving back to our house from his Dad's. It lay there obscured by the leaves all week and during the storm Tuesday and Wednesday.

I managed to get the spa disconnected from the electrical and the outlet and light in the yard disconnected. The demolition crew will be in tomorrow to take out the spa, steps, cut down the trees and take out the pond and raised concrete decking. I'm taking the day off to be there to make sure it all goes as planned. Hopefully the dig will commence either late this week or early next week. Darla and I went in and picked out the tile and flagstone for the pool. We picked out a "three rivers" flagstone which is tan and rust colors and a dolphin blue colored waterline tile that will go nicely with the Tahoe Blue dark bottom of the pool.

Darla was really pushing for a trip to Canada this Thanksgiving, but with the pool construction and the side yard being closed by a plastic fence, I really don't want to be gone. She wants to get back to Canada soon as we haven't visited with Dad and Shirley in years (we tend to meet them in Vegas which we will do in March) and she wants to see Glad and Jerry. I've committed to a week in Canada next year in addition to our vacation to Hawaii(??). It is Daniel's senior year and we are allowing him to have input into where we go. He is looking at Bermuda and Tahiti, but hopefuully we end up in Mexico or Hawaii. I'm putting out the offer to Dad and Shirley to join us again this year. This may be our last Family Vacation with both boys off to college next year. We'll keep you informed on where we are going and when.

Well, this is short, but the troops are arriving and I have a visitor from Home Office here again today and I have to do payroll as well. We had our best month ever in October and I will be taking the troops to lunch on Wednesday. We wrote over $1,400,000 in premium and brought in over $160,000 to the bottom line. It was a great month. Ciao.

Daylight Savings Time

Now, why in God's name do they call it Daylight Savings? They actually make the daylight end sooner, so the whole idea of having kids safer and saving electricity is ludicrous. I like Arizona's idea of just letting the seasons be and stop trying to control them. Our government wants to control everything and sometimes the movement of time will not be controlled (like all the time). It was nice to drive in this morning with my lights off and sunglasses on, but as the days shorten, even that luxury goes away and I end up driving into the office in the dark and leaving the office in the dark.

Jennifer and John were in town on Saturday and Sunday for a race that Jen's Mom was in on Sunday morning. Darla and I met them in Old Sacramento and we had appetizers and a drink in the Pilothouse Lounge of the Delta King, the floating hotel moored at the dock of the river in Old Sacramento. We went from there to dinner at California Fats on Front Street. California Fats is a Chinese Steakhouse with eclectic dishes like the California Pot which John and I had. It is a stir fry of chicken, rice and vegetables cooked in a pot and served in the same. Jennifer had orange chicken and Darla opted for Honey Walnut Prawns. We ate pot stickers and drank sake and enjoyed our visit immensely.

John and Jennifer were at the house when I got home from golf, but Darla had a party in Monterey on Friday night and wasn't due home until 4:00 o'clock so I sent Jennifer and John ahead of us to the tourist spot and said that we'd join them later. They parked in the street, but the parking there is only good for two hours, so they moved the car to the parking lot. Only John managed to find an open spot off of an alley that let him into the garage. The problem was you need a ticket to exit the garage. He was afraid that he'd have to pay the daily maximum, but I told him to leave out of the same entrance he got in. I hadn't heard what happened to them as we didn't talk yesterday. Perhaps she will update me in her blog.

Darla and her sister did go to Monterey on Friday night for a jewelry party and Darla made about $400 on the show. Her Silpada business is going great and she is doing some traveling which we will write off on our taxes, including her lodging and meals. Darla got home about 4:00 PM and we went and joined Jennifer and John in Old Sacramento for dinner.

Daniel actually started and played left guard on offense for his entire game Friday night. I was not planning on going to the game, but he called and told us he was starting, so I went. It was a good game, although poorly coached, and they lost 22-20 late in the game when they were intercepted in the end zone with 22 seconds to go. They obviously only needed a field goal to win, so why they were throwing into the end zone from midfield is beyond me. Unfortunately, the Woodcreek football team has never finished better than 5-5 in their history and that has more to do with a history of bad coaching than talent. It will end in 2 games as the 4-4 Timberwolves will have to win their last two games against the number 1 and number 2 teams in their league in order to finish 6-4. Sadly, 4-6 is a stronger reality. Daniel played very well, even leading a quarterback sneak for a touchdown in the game, when Daniel manhandled his position and pushed his man back five yards into the end zone and the quarterback followed on his heels for a touchdown. He was much happier during the game and certainly afterward. I don't know why his coaches had a change of heart, but it seemed ludicrous to me to leave a 6'3" 235 pound man child on the sidelines every game.

I played in a Monster tournament on Saturday. The pros at Woodcreek Golf Course set up the course with things like multiple flags on par three holes (only two had holes), a red white and blue hole with the blue hole with an oversized cup, a monster hole with a bucket-sized hole but the pin placed on the side of a mound on the green, and one hole with three flags placed side-by-side-by-side at the back of the green. I played in the two-man scramble with Boyd Robertson and we shot a 71, net 68. It was a fun tournament, but they had some killer pin placements and several holes with the tees at the furthest point on the tee box. I left right after we played as it was a six hour round of golf and I knew that Jennifer and John were at the house waiting. I don't know how we did overall, but I'll find out this week. Boyd and I put $10 in the hat and we took on the two pros who had to play scratch. Hopefully, our 68 got us in the money, but who knows.

Hopefully, the demolition will start this weekend in our backyard. I say hopefully as I finally got a copy of the bid specs for the job and it says they will removes two birch trees (we have three), remove miscellaneous bushes and plants (we have four other small trees to remove), as well as the pond, raised concrete deck and the spa and steps. I will contact them this week and have them change the scope of work as I don't want to get into a situation where they are asking for more money when the crew gets there. I look forward to the work finally commencing. I don't do well with a mess and we will have a slight mess in the backyard for about six weeks.

I'm having a good month at work, leading the office in both premium volume and net retained (which is the important figure). I'm having some problems with the brokerage unit that we established this Summer and I'm working on a plan to improve it or remove it. I can't afford to bleed money there when we are looking at improving our bottom line.

I have a Home Office person in tomorrow and he will be here right in the middle of our Halloween party. The office wants to dress up for the holiday and although I hate Halloween and everything it stands for and won't participate in the frivolity, I've agreed to let them dress up. Greg Ludwig, the home office rep, will be here and get to see the goings on and be here for the potluck.

Well, that's it for now. As our pastor said yesterday, "Jesus was rejected and died on the cross for our sins in our place, so that we could be accepted into the kingdom of heaven through his sacrifice." Turn your eyes to heaven and care more about how you stack up in the eyes of the Lord, rather than in the eyes of man. Ciao.

Indian Summer

I knew that we would see an Indian Summer in Sacramento and it has arrived. It is as inevitable as the falling of leaves and the march of seasons in Northern California. After the snow and cold of Detroit, this weekend saw high, thin clouds and a temperature of 85 degrees. I'm sporting a bit of a sunburn after Saturday working in the yard and Sunday on the links.

Saturday I mowed the lawn and raked and vacuumed leaves, drained the pond for the last time and put away the backyard furniture in preparation for the pool construction. I stopped at the pool company on Tuesday and signed the contract to have the pool built. We have to do over $2000 of demo on the backyard having the spa and steps removed, the pond dug out and the rocks removed, trees and shrubs cut down and removed and the raised stamped concrete deck cut out and removed. I have to have the stump of one tree that I had removed earlier ground up as they have to run the electrical along a path right over the stump. I've included a picture of the backyard as it looked a few years ago. The trees have all grown up and this time of year is a disaster of downed leaves and debris from the trees. The pond is constantly covered in leaves and other debris and it will be nice to clear this out and start over with palms and agapanthas and other "pool friendly" plantings. They should start on the demolition either late this week or early next week as the plans are being approved by the city of Roseville now.

Sunday was an excellent day of golf as we had over 100 players competing in the Past President's tournament. We had a 7:30 shotgun start and it was a tad cold and wet on the ground. I had a very good day of golf and stayed away from the dreaded double-bogey or worse and ended up shooting a stellar 39+39=78 to take first place in my flight with a net of 66. One of my buddies shot a 76 to take low gross and actually beat me with a net of 65, but you can't take both ends of the Gross and Net divisions, so I will also get first place money. My driver is really beginning to be a consistent and positive part of my game as I am not only hitting it long, but also in the fairway consistently and when you get into Fall and some early morning dampness and downed leaves, the fairway is even more of a friend than normally.

I played poker on Friday night with the guys and won $18. There were five players and only two winners as my friend, Steve, cleaned up with over $100 in winnings for the night. He also played okay on Sunday at golf in my foursome, shooting an 85, but cleaning up on skins with over $78 in winnings. What a weekend for him.

Daniel continues to ride the bench on his football team and it is hard to watch him prowl the sidelines especially when they are losing. His team is now 4-3 with three games to go. Hopefully they do not make the playoffs and he can move on to a job. Dan somehow managed to get himself sideways with his position coach and he is buried on the bench.

Darla continues to thrive with her Silpada business and she now has four consultants under her and she continues to be a leader in sales for her region. She enjoys the challenge and will be in Monterey this weekend for a show on Friday night.

This coming Saturday we had planned to go into the Bay Area and see Jennifer's new apartment and take she and John to dinner. It turns out that they are coming to Sacramento to attend a race on Sunday that her Mom is doing, so we will take them to dinner here in town.

I was able to get out of Jury Duty last week. My plan was to ask out due to my job, but the jury commissioner told me that work related excuses had to be heard by the judge. I hung around the jury room until we were all called into the courtroom. The judge came out and told us that there was a glitch in the courtroom electrical and that we were all dismissed with the court's thanks and that would complete our service for the year. Nice.

Well, work awaits. I've had to be called away three times as I was writing this to deal with different issues. I have to get payroll out as my staff doesn't show up everyday for giggles. They expect a paycheck, so off I go. Be well and keep the Lord as the center of your life and you will never be unbalanced. Ciao.

Branch Manager At Last

I have returned from Detroit and finally have my legs back under me again. It was an exhausting trip, coupled with a seminar before I left last Tuesday. I left for Detroit on Wednesday morning and flew through Las Vegas. Our flight out of Vegas was delayed for thirty minutes and it turned out that Detroit was down to two runways for incoming flights and the delays in Detroit were up to two hours. My flight was supposed to arrive at 8:00 PM and finally touched down at 9:15 PM. The car service was not there as the flight was taken off the board at one point and the car service assumed it was cancelled. They were able to divert one of their Escalades from the Northwest terminal and they came over to pick me up. I arrived with golf clubs and a new heavy pea coat style overcoat, which was an anomaly, but both of the items came in handy.

We awoke Thursday morning to snow. Big, fat flakes were raining down on metro Detroit and the temperatures were in the thirties. These meetings are brutal for those of us coming in from the west coast as they start at seven-thirty, which jet lag be damned is 4:30 AM my time. Limos met us at the Ritz Carlton in Deerborn and whisked us through the gathering snow to the home office in Farmington Hills. We had a full day on Thursday including meetings all day with various department heads. After a trade show put on by the various home office departments at 6:00 PM, we were whisked away by bus to a restaurant for dinner and drinks. We finally arrived back at the Ritz at 10:00 PM, tired and ready for bed.

The Ritz was a nice bonus this year. Wayne Gretzky and his Phoenix Coyote NHL hockey team were at the hotel when we arrived on Wednesday and the Buffalo Bills arrived on Saturday and had a team breakfast next door to our team breakfast on Sunday. The accomodations and food were truly five star and the service was exemplary.

Friday we were up at 7:00 AM for breakfast and meetings all day. I had been tabbed on Thursday night to sit at Alan Kaufman's table on Friday morning for breakfast. The Advertising Department, which runs the meetings, tries to allocate a spot for all of the managers at Alan's table for at least one of the meals that we have.

The meetings were called to order with a recognition of all of the staff anniversaries from five years up to 40 years. Alan then called me up and promoted me to Branch Manager and went through the chronology of how long I'd been running the branch and how we'd turned profitable last year and were moving forward as a profitable part of the team. I received a very warm and appreciated ovation from the managers that I've sat in meetings with for now my third Managers meeting and my first as a Manager. It was long overdue and truly appreciated by me.

Saturday was a half day session followed by golf in the afternoon. The weather had moderated into windy and a high of 48 degrees and a wind chill factor of 38 degrees. The pro shop had winter gloves on sale for $15 and I bought a pair (Winter golf gloves come with both gloves for the right and left hand). I don't much like playing in a coat, much less gloves, but the weather was COLD and it made sense to stay warm. I had a truly good day on the links and our team took first place and I had both a closest to the pin award and the long drive to clean up on prizes. Many of the golfers complained about the bitter cold, but the course was in impeccable shape and the greens were beautiful.

We went from the golf course to Bucca Di Beppo in Livonia for dinner where we watched the Detroit Tigers eliminate the Oakland A's in four games and qualify for the World Series.

Sunday was another half day session and my one-on-one with Alan Kaufman. The meeting went well and Alan congratulated me on my promotion. He is still concerned about our low ROI (return on investment) and wants me to focus on increasing that number in 2007. With the number of staff that I have, the only way to do this is to either increase our premium income or to reduce staff. Obviously, I would prefer to increase our premium writings. I am looking to reduce overhead in 2007 by beginning to deliver our policies electronically. Right now my annual expense for postage is over $30,000 and if I can get the agencies to accept electronic delivery of policies, I can likely reduce that bill by half.

I flew home at 5:30 out of Detroit and through Phoenix. My flight out of Phoenix was again delayed and I finally arrived at the Sacramento airport at 9:45 PM and after collecting my luggage arrived home at almost 11:00 PM (2:00 AM Detroit time). I took Monday off as a mental health day and planned to be back in the office this morning. Well, lo and behold, I got called into Jury Duty and have to report to the jury commissioner in Auburn at 8;30 AM this morning. I will see if I can get out of the commitment this week due to work hardship as I haven't set foot in my office in a week. I truly enjoy Jury Duty, but the timing this time is abysmal.

Jennifer was here when I arrived home as her shipment of personal items from the military was finally being delivered. Jennifer had joined Das Net so quickly upon her return from Kuwait and her out processing from the Army that she had not had a chance to get her shipment from Kuwait. It arrived after she left for Korea and the Army put it into storage for her until she got back. Now that she has a place in Walnut Creek, she arranged to have the items shipped here. She had 12 boxes of stuff and wanted to go through it, put some in storage in our attic and give some to Goodwill. She spent at least three hours going through the boxes and culling out the clothes and shoes she wanted to keep and those that she would donate to charity. I took that time to go through my closet and ended up with two lawn bags of clothes to donate as well. Jennifer and I went over to the Cancer society thrift store and donated two boxes of her stuffed animals and clothes to the cause. Darla and I are up to three bags of clothes and Darla will add to the donation as she goes through her closet as well. We have a truck coming next Monday for the donations.

I was able to have breakfast and lunch with Darla and Jenn yesterday and get caught up on what is going on in their lives.

Darla and I will attend a funeral tonight for the husband one of Darla's good friends. Her husband just turned 50 and died last week of congestive heart failure. He'd been in the hospital after two heart attacks and died two hours after being released from the hospital. He turned 50 while he was in the hospital. Sandy, his wife, is devastated and Darla is improving my diet and is intent on keeping me alive.

Darla and I have decided to have Premier Pools build our new backyard pool. Their designer and construction supervisor was excellent. A big part of the dig for us is the excavation and demolition of our existing concrete and koi pond prior to the work starting. The guy we met from Aquatique Pools would not lift a hand to help us in the process, whereas Kevin bent over backward and got both a tree service and a concrete cutter lined up to clear the backyard. Kevin going the extra mile bought him the job. We had thought about contracting this ourselves, but I'm sold on the theory of having a project manager control the process, pull the permits and get the job done. Premier has all of their own subs save for gunite, so the argument that I could get the same work done myself is bogus. The cost savings would have been about $7,500, but the job likely would not have been handled as well and I don't need to buy headaches right now in my life.

Well, I need to get off to Jury Duty now, so I will add more next week. Jennifer's blog is now on a new site. It is www.jswanonline.com. Check it out.

Columbus Day

A holiday for some, but just a nice driving day for me. The roads were next to empty as the state and municipal workers have the day off. Darla also has the day off, but was up as usual at 5:40 AM and off to the gym to work out with her friend, Missy. I rolled out of bed about 6:15AM and was in the office by 7:10 AM with two pieces of sourdough toast and a cup of ice water.

I had a nice weekend, starting with missing the high school football game on Friday night. It was the homecoming game and there wasn't a parking spot anywhere near the school. I finally decided to drive into the parking lot to let Darla out, but lo and behold a spot opened as we were driving in. I decided to stay and we grabbed our stadium seats and coats and then looked up to see a line of about 200 people waiting to buy tickets. I gave Darla a kiss and a hug and drove home. Daniel is not playing this year. He has the size and the strength to play, but doesn't have the heart. He played two plays at the end of a blowout win 44-20 and Darla had left by the time he did get in. The stands were packed and I personally get tired of all the tough 16-18 year-olds who strut around like God's gift to the world and then get in their cars and drive home to Mommy and Daddy's house. I've never been a big fan of teenagers and sure enjoy my relationship with Jennifer more now after she finally grew up.

Saturday I played golf in our invitational. For $65, we had breakfast, a cart, golf, prizes and a barbecued tri-tip lunch with ranch beans, salad and bread. I played in the two-man scamble with Bob Pando, a friend from our life group. Bob is joining the club and we managed to win our flight with a 70 and won $78.00. Bob, of course, thinks the club is great and plans to win every tournament from here on out.

I played golf with some agents on Thursday and struggled to a 44+42=86. Brian, one of my golfing buddy agents shot a 39+37=76, but I parred the last hole of the day to win 23 skins on that hole (25 in total) and I won $18.50 to his $20.50. The other two players dropped the $39 that it cost to pay us off. I left my six iron on the course and for the third time in the last three years it was not turned in. What do people get out of keeping a club from someone's golf set? Thank God for Club Scouters as for $59, they replace the club.

We finally made it back to church this week after being AWOL for trips and golf the last couple of weeks. It was Missions Sunday and a missionary from Chile spoke. He grew up in a dysfunctional family in Oregon and his two alcoholic parents actually had a hat made for him at the county fair when he was 5 that read, "Mistake", as he was an unplanned pregnancy. He found God after a life of drugs and booze and turned his life over to God. He just celebrated his thirtieth year in the missions field and has two sons and a daughter who also do missionary work. Amazing.

The weather is absolutely crisp and beautiful this time of year. It heated up to 87 degrees on Sunday and we should have taken the jet ski out for a last run. I need to get it into Yamaha and have it winterized. We'd hoped to have it on the water one last time, but Fall hit fairly quickly and we are still waiting for a little Indian Summer. It is supposed to be in the 80's all of this week.

I leave for the Branch Managers meeting on Wednesday. This will be my third Branch Managers meeting and my first as a Branch Manager. I've heard that my promotion is on the agenda this year and, frankly, it's about damn time. The meeting is being moved this year from the Westin in Farmington Hills to The Ritz Carlton in Deerborn, Michigan. I'm hoping that this is a real first class affair. The Westin has been nice, but the food was subpar last year and they had problems keeping our rooms clean. I got out of meeetings at 4:00 PM and came back to my room and it hadn't been cleaned. We spend a LOT of money on these annual meetings and the hotel should be catering to US, not dumping on us.

This year will be a little different as we will start the meeting at the home office on Thursday and finish the meeting with the golf tournament and dinner on Saturday afternoon/evening. My office has gone from losing $500,000 the year that I took over to making about $140,000 in profit this year. I just finished the budget for 2007 and we have a goal in 2007 of making just south of $800,000. If we hit that, my bonus will be a nice chunk of change.

On top of the Branch Manager's meeting, we also have the annual Sacramento Insurance Day tomorrow at the Community Center in Sacramento. We have a display booth again this year as we do every year. My assistant is already panicking as she will have to pick up the slack this week while I'm gone.

I went out and bought a new suit for the meeting on Saturday and also got a new dress shirt and a couple of ties. I don't wear dress clothes at work as our dress code is slacks and collared shirts, no ties or jacket. This is a good excuse to improve my wardrobe. I also bought a new overcoat that is a cahmere blend pea coat style overcoat. I've had the London Fog style overcoat for years and it was time to upgrade. Finally, I bought a new pair of black oxford dress shoes.

It was actually an expensive weekend as I took Darla out to Home Depot and we picked out a new dishwasher (the quiet style) and a new side-by-side refrigerator. Our fridge has been on it's last legs for a while and the milk is barely lasting until expiration and the seal around the door is losing it's seal. We will move the fridge to the garage and have them take the garage fridge away. Darla never loiked that one in spite of the fact that it was FREE. I will also replace the seal on the refrigerator we are moving to the garage.

We are still working on getting quotes for the backyard pool. Daniel saw the plans and was complaining that it is a game pool. 3 1/2' depth to 5 1/2' depth back to 4' depth. He complained that there is nowhere in the pool that he could stand and be covered by water. I told him two things. One, you don't stand in a pool and Two, I'm planning this pool for Darla and I and our grandchildren, not for a 17 year-old who will hopefully be out of the house in two years!!

Well, that is it for this week. Pray for me as I enter the danger zone in Detroit. Hopefully, my trip will go better than last year. Be well. Ciao.

Back from a short Golfing vacation

It was a quick run up to the foothills, but we had a blast. I got off work early on Friday and Darla and I met Bob and Debbie Hand and we drove up together to Angel's Camp above Jackson and below Sonora in the Sierra Nevada foothills. We considered stopping in Sutter Creek on the way up for dinner, but Angels Camp is only about 30 minutes southeast of Sutter Creek, so we pushed on to the Greenhorn Country Club and the Trendwest facility that borders the tenth hole. Ed Powell and his wife Janette are Trendwest members and invited us to stay with them in a three-bedroom condo. We got checked in and asked for a good Italian restaurant and were pointed to Main Street in Angel's Camp and a small ristorante with good food and a great wine cellar. We met up with Greg Wanee who was bunking on the couch in the condo and drove over to the main downtown area. When we walked into the restaurant we saw four other golfers from the club and their wives (including Ed and Janette), so we all visited in the alcove of the restaurant near their table as our table was getting prepped. It was funny with all of the choices in town that we ended up at the same restaurant.

The facility was first class with a penthouse bedroom and two bedrooms on the main floor, each with their own bathroom. Bob and I flipped for the bedroom with the queen bed and I lost out and Darla and I were relegated to the bedroom with two twin beds. We quickly rearranged the furniture and pushed the two beds together. The disadvantage of our bedroom was the two beds and the fact that our bathroom was open to the main hallway and used by Greg and Boyd who drove up on Saturday and spent Saturday night with us as well.

Saturday we played Greenhorn and it is a first rate golf course and a tough test of golf. I played exceedingly well on the front nine, shooting a smooth 40, but lost my mind on the back nine and went double-bogey, double-bogey, quadruple-bogey to start 8 over after three holes and finished with a blemish of 52 on the back for a 92. My free fall down that flight of stairs cost me winnings as I tied for sixth low net out of twenty golfers and lost a tie breaker which is the back nine score. I was disappointed, but was driven to enjoy myself that night as we were hosting a barbecue for the thirty people on the trip at our condo and I was on barbecue duty. We had a few beers and drove back to the condo.

Poor Bob received a phone call on the course that his aunt had died. She was a spinster and Bob was her closest relative and the executor of her estate. He considered going home as he had to call relatives and set up the funeral and mortuary services, but I convinced him that there was nothing he could do that couldn't wait until Monday. I did drive him back to the condo right after we finished so he could start on calling relatives.

Darla was still out with the girls shopping when I got back and Ed, Greg and I put on swimsuits and headed to the spa. Bob joined us shortly and seemed relieved to have some of the phone calls out of the way. I fired up the barbecue at about six o'clock and the girls fixed snacks and margaritas and we had about eight bottles of wine and beer and a good time. I fixed five tri-tips and about eight pounds of chicken quarters on the grill and we ate three salads, bread and fresh fruit for dinner. It was awesome.

Darla and I snuck out of the party about nine o'clock and went over to the spa to relax and get caught up on each other's days. It was nice to visit with everyone and yet to have a quiet moment together as well. We headed back to the condo at ten and the party had already broken up and the folks were heading to bed. We had made plans to meet at seven-thirty the next morning for breakfast in town and then drive the thirty miles to Valley Springs to play La Contenta golf course. Darla and the girls were going to sleep in and take a slow drive back to Sacramento, stopping for lunch along the way.

We were up about six-thirty Sunday and visiting with the gang. Bob and Debbie were slow to arise and finally at 7:20 we knocked on their door and they were still asleep. Bob quickly jumped up and showered and met us about 7:40 at the car. Somehow the breakfast plans had not trickled down to them and he knew we didn't tee off until 10:50 AM so was in no hurry to get going. We had breakfast with six of the golfers and then drove on to La Contenta, arriving about 9:30 after a leisurely breakfast.

I played a little better on Sunday, shooting 44+43=87, but still not really on my game. My score was good enough to win $25 and $16 in skin money and I left town with a new hat and golf glove. We had a great time and Darla and the girls enjoyed their shopping and lunches together, so it was fun for one and all.

I talked to Jennifer last night when we returned and she and John are doing great. I teased her about not keeping up with her blog and she said, "what are you talking about, Dad? I 've updated it three times." I had given up checking her blog as she hadn't added anything to it since she left Korea. But check out the link at the bottom of the page as she is back to blogging.

I also talked to Dad and Shirley last night. They have picked the dates for the trip to Vegas for the Lyon family reunion and celebration of Dad's 70th and my 50th. It will be the week of March 5th-11th. Darla and I will likely drive down on Wednesday night, staying over in Bakersfield and then driving on to Vegas on Thursday morning. This time around we will have all of Darryl's kids, Randy's kids and our children. Jennifer is planning on coming with John and I will set up golf for Friday. It will be fun. Shirley kidded us about traveling so much, but forgot that they had just arrived home from Vegas after their week long trip to California in September.

Now that we have the date set for that trip I can book my tee time and stay at Pebble Beach in April. I will play Pebble Beach in my 50th year of life.

Well, the gang is arriving and my door is constantly being darkened, so I better attend to the staff. We had a good audit last week from a home office Vice President, who was in town for three days and I'm off to the Manager's meetin in a week from Wednesday. Stay well. Ciao.

Another weekend in the books

Autumn has arrived and with it, a sore throat and runny nose. Darla had suffered with a similar malady just a week or so ago and now it has hit me. I never handle the change of seasons well and the problem is I'm warm when we go to bed and freezing in the morning. I had been leaving the fan on over the bed and the window cracked open, but closed the window and shut down the fan last week as I was waking up cold in the morning. I guess I didn't do that soon enough as I sat amid a growing stack of used kleenexes yesterday and watched football. The outside temperature was still in the mid and upper eighties, so I can't blame the weather. I am stuffed up with a runny nose (if that is even possile) and have a sore throat. I'm drinking alot of water and living on Nyquil right now.

Darla and I are off to the last golf trip of the season this coming weekend, when we will join 23 other golfers and their significant others for a trip up to Angel's Camp to play the Greenhorn Country Club on Saturday and then on to Valley Springs to play La Contenta on Sunday. I have never played Greenhorn and we will stay in a three bedroom condo at the resort with two other couples and two stragglers, Boyd Robertson and Greg Wanee, who will leave their wives behind. We will have a big barbecue on Saturday night, play cards and party. I told Darla that I'd take her out to dinner on Friday night in Angel's Camp. Angel's Camp is in Tuolumne County and is the site of the annual Frog Jumping Jubilee that Mark Twain wrote about so many years ago. Twain (Samuel Clemmons) grew up in this area and was a newspaperman for the local paper.

Darla and I had Daniel's football banquet (dinner dance) on Saturday night. This is the annual fundraiser for the football team with silent auctions, live auctions and a chance for the 40 something woment in the crowd to strut their middle-aged stuff and embarass their 16 year old football players or cheerleaders. It is always fun for Darla and I to watch these siliconed wonders with their low cut tops and low self esteem try to act twenty again. It is pathetic in reality and we always go home firm in our resolve to be ourselves, tight waistlines and all. I always manage to buy some bargain at this event. Last year, I got a $100 gift certificate to La Provence restaurant for $90 and this year I got a $100 gift card to Fat's (a local chain of six fine dining Chinese restaurants) for $85. When you are trying to feed the six footers in our house, you need all the help you can get.

Daniel continues to prowl the sidelines at his games being little used and much forgotten. He did get into his second game when they were in a blowout 46-6 and he played most of the second half. They squeaked by in this last game 42-36 and Dan did not see the field.

I played golf this weekend and shot a 43+40=83 at Diamond Oaks. I had the reservation for two weeks and had trouble getting anyone to come out and play this weekend. The club had an elite event on Saturday for the members who pay an extra $60 for the Diamond membership, so many of the guys were otherwise disposed. I finally got my old partner, Dave Armijo to join me and we played as a twosome. Dave shot about a 93 and I had a birdie on 17 to help me keep my handicap in tact. I look forward to the coming weekend and two days of golf in the foothills.

Darla and I have been struggling with the boys' lethargy at home. Both of their rooms are nightmares of clothes and junk strewn all over the room. I have an agreement with them that I won't bitch about the condition of their rooms during the week if they keep their door shut so I don't have to see it (or smell it) AND that they have the room clean, vacuumed and dusted by Sunday night when they leave. They have been pretty good with the first rule, but have completely lost interest in the second rule. They like to come back on Monday afternoon and cram everything back away in ten minutes and call it a week. Their bathroom is atrocious, rarely if ever cleaned, the mirrors are filthy and the tub and shower a nightmare. I had a small fit yesterday and told them to have their rooms clean by Sunday night and they both blew me off and didn't get it done. Daniel has some puppy dog crush on an older gal who has graduated from college and is leaving today or tomorrow for a year in Africa doing missionary work. They had dinner last night and he spent all day worrying over a going away gift and the card he was going to give her. He was so distracted and smitten that he got even dopier than usual and couldn't concentrate on anything. I was really mad last night and told Darla she needs to deal with this situation because I am at my wit's end. She doesn't understand how I can yearn for the day that they are both out on their own and soiling their own homes instead of mine. Neither of them do chores around the house anymore. Last week I was trimming trees and working on the outside of the house. Darla had fixed a roast and came out to say both boys were hungry and could I hurry up and come inside. Did either of the boys come out and offer to help me? God forbid that they do anything to help out around the house. I'm very frustrated with this and really crave the weeks that they are out of the house.

Well pray for me as I suffer through this family problem. It will really take Darla and I having a united front to deal with this. Daniel thinks that his football practice is everything and he should be able to come home and lay in his sty of a room and watch cartoons on television and demand dinner at a certain time and David is just as bad as he gets home from work or school and can't see outside of himself. Personal accountability has always been a missing element with these kids. I can't seem to get them to see how selfish they are and how you have to pitch in to be a part of a family. I happily do the lawn every week, but when I'm raking leaves or trimming plants it would be a pure joy to have one of them ask if they could help me. Usually they walk by and try not to make eye contact with me lest I corral them into helping. It's tremendously frustrating to me. Neither one of them has been bitten by the "work ethic" bug and it won't serve them well as they go on in life.

Jennifer and John got moved into an apartment in Walnut Creek this weekend. They picked up the trailer on Saturday while I was golfing and took it to Walnut Creek and loaded up their new apartment. I am not in favor of them living together, but that is my conservative bias. Jennifer is 26 and makes her own decisions and I understand that. I won't let them stay in my house together and the same rules will apply to the boys as they get older. Jen and John have about a 15 minute commute to work and their apartment includes a gym membership. She is happy and I'm happy for her. Living out of a suitcase gets old and even if the apartment sits empty for months on end, at least they'll have a place to call home when they get back. So far, there are no plans for her to return overseas any time soon.

Well, that's it. Sorry to go on a rant, but that is what the blog is for. Sometimes I just need to sort out my emotions on electronic paper. Take care. Ciao.