Just a Quickie Today

I don't have a lot of time today as I was out last Thursday and Friday and I have to pick up a branch visitor at the airport at nine o'clock. Most of my home office visitors rent a car and drive over to the office, but this visitor is a 23 year-old woman named Katrina, who is the home office marketing advisor for the company. She is the daughter of our Phoenix Branch Manager and cut her teeth setting up the marketing department in Phoenix. She has devised marketing folders and advertising calendars for Phoenix and done a great job. She is taking that experience on the road now as part of the Home Office marketing team and will be coaching each office in the proper protocols of marketing and what to discuss when in front of an agency.

The world did manage to cave in with my absence last week. My Personal lines underwriter had given notice and I allowed her to stay on and get her desk cleaned up prior to leaving. She is moving over to the retail side of the business and will not be a competitor to us, so I saw no harm in that. Her former assistant had been promoted to an underwriter position late last year and Mary had a difficult time with the transition. She was very unhappy and finally found a job with Nationwide. Well, Darla and I went off on our marketing foray in Mendocino county last week and Mary decided to tell some of her agents about her reservations regarding her replacement and Renee found out about it and confronted her. The shit hit the fan as they say and there was a full fledged cat fight in the office. What a mess. Mary ended up walking out and not returning. It was chaos and I obviously can't leave without all hell breaking loose. Perhaps I learned a lesson that when an employee gives a two week notice, that they are essentially terminated at that very moment?

Darla and I had a great time and it was a nice drive around Clearlake and over to the Mendocino county area. One of my agent's has an assistant whose mother is the groundskeeper at Fetzer vineyards in Hopland, California. Fetzer is a commercial vineyard that makes decent wines, although in a production setting. The vineyard has world class gardens and the gardener, Faye, won a gardening award in London last year that had never been won by an American before. We had an appointment to tour the gardens at Fetzer with Kaye on Friday morning at eleven, but it rained. We will take the tour in May when I drive back over for an annual golf tournament in Eureka. I will make a point to schedule and keep the appointment. Darla and I stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Ukiah and it was a brand new hotel located near the airport in Ukiah. The airport is basically a paved stretch of land for small commuter planes to land on.

I did not manage to golf this weekend, although I had a tee time on Saturday. I awoke at 7:30 and was showering when Boyd called. Although it had stopped raining, Boyd looked at the weather channel and there was a huge storm heading our way. We decided to skip the golf lest we get caught out on the course in a severe rainstorm. Well, the rain managed to skirt to the north of us and it was dry all day and I moped around the house, cleaning the pond and repairing a light fixture and buying a new floor lamp with Darla. I was mad that I decided to skip the golf, especially given that Boyd is retired and golfs everyday. For him, it was a day without golf, for me, it was a week without golf. I do have a tournament (the Super Bowl tournament) on Saturday.

It is a full week for me with visitors in at work and poker Friday night at my house. It's Super Bowl weekend and we will just make it a party with poker, golf and football.

David just bought the car stereo for his car yesterday. It is a Pioneer system that allows him to control his MP3 player through the stereo. He still needs to buy a subwoofer and a set of front speakers for the truck. David is unbelievably methodical in buying anything, so getting this was a big deal.

Well, I have to run to the airport. I hope all are well. Stay close to the Lord and he will keep you from harm.