Bumming on the first full work week of 2006

It is indeed the first full work week of the year. Things have started a little slow for me, but Pete in the office is following up a strong December with a great January. Anthony continues to write a lot of new business and the sky is blue here in the Sacramento office of Burns and Wilcox.

The weather is actually also blue skies and should be a nice Winter Day in Sacramento with highs in the low 60's and plenty of sunshine. We have a brief rainstorm coming in tomorrow and Wednesday and will be back to nice weather after that.

I did not play golf this weekend. Our club had the annual Captain and Crew scramble tournament and I just don't like to spend four and a half hours on a golf course and not post my own score. When I was on the golf club board I tried to get them to change the tournament to a 2 best ball format, still having A, B, C & D players in a team, but playing our own ball and posting the two best net scores. The group was sold on the scramble format. It is one of the most popular tournaments of the year and the higher handicap guys love it. Not me. I have golf set up for this weekend and will play in my first tournament of the year the following weekend when we play Rio La Paz, a course outside of Sacrmaneto in a little town called Nicolaus, near Yuba City.

I don't know if I mentioned before that David had a car accident in December. He rear ended another car on a rain slicked roadway. Apparently, he was moving pretty fast as his airbags deployed, and with a 1994 Mustang, the airbags deploying is tantamount to totaling the car. The cost to replace the airbags is $3,000 and the car's retail value is about $3500. The guy that he hit was not at all concerned with the damage to his older Honda, which was slight and we haven't heard from him. I was going to have David eat the loss, but Darla checked with Geico and because David has been driving for two years without an accident or moving violation, he can turn in the accident, they'll pay for it and our premium will actually go down because he is now 18 and Darla and I no longer have any liability when he is driving.

Darla finally had Geico come out to the house and pick up the car last week. A tow truck driver picked up the car and was to take it to Golden State Collision Center, about five minutes from our house. That was Tuesday. When Darla hadn't heard anything by Friday morning, she called Geico. They hadn't heard from the Collision Center and when they called, said the car wasn't there. Darla was a little panicked when she talked to me and I told her to change the claim to a theft..that our car was stolen by the Insurance Company!! They made a call to the tow company and found out that the doofus who picked up the car, dropped it in the parking lot at the collision center and didn't tell anyone. Genius. We should find out today what amount we will get for totaling the car. David is looking for new cars now as he is driving his Grandmother's Cadillac.

Jennifer is back in Korea, although they lost her luggage. I haven't talked to her since last week when she arrived, but I assume the luggage showed up the nbext day. She said it is freezing in Korea. Jen, we found your sunglasses at our house. Let us know where to send them or we'll hold them until you get back in March. She said her MP3 player was a nice companion on the 12-hour flight back to Korea.

Darla and I are planning a trip to Las Vegas for my birthday. We actually have some friends in Las Vegas that weekend for Nascar weekend in Las Vegas. I agreed to go with the provision that I don't have to go anywhere near the rednecks or the track. I'll play golf, blackjack, slots, etc, but I don't do NASCAR. We'll also be in Vegas in 2007 for my 50th and Dad's 70th birthdays.

Darla and I were able to get another dump run in this weekend. We were putting the Christmas gear away and decided to clear out the attic. I threw away old draperies and pictures, boxes, junk that had piled up over the years. I got back from the dump run (and the truck was jammed by the way) and noticed that I had neglected to haul the old garage door opener, which still sits on the side of the house. Oh well.

Darla is home today (she works out of the house two days a week) and we are having DirecTV out today to install the HDTV antenna and install a new HDTV receiver and TIVO. I am moving from the 80's to '06 in one fell swoop. We are really enjoying the new big screen DLP TV and will enjoy it even more with HDTV hooked up.

Well, I am off to a new week and all of the work that that entails. I hope all are hale and hearty and walking in the shadow of the LORD. Ciao.