Presidents Day 2006

It is another holiday in 2006 that finds me at work and being productive while the balance of Sacramento sleeps in and enjoys their day off from work. Today dawned with a bright blue sky and not a cloud in evidence, but it is COLD. A front from Canada rolled in last Thursday and continues to hold sway on our weather. We awoke to frost on the lawn and rooftops and steam is now rising from what is left of the frost now that the sun has come out to burn off the silvery pest. It will be a tremendous day, though a high of only 59 degrees after an overnight low of 33.

The weather that pushed in over the weekend threatened my golf game, but despite a few drops of rain on Saturday I was able to play the two day tournament with little distress. I did wear a golf shirt over a long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of Reebok sweat pants both days. It was the two-day zone qualifier for a chance to advance to Spyglass Hill in Carmel/Pebble Beach. Boyd and I played well, but a tournament like this requires luck as well as skill and we had several putts that lipped out and stopped on the edge of the cup, that if they had dropped would have propelled us to the win. As it is, we finished 4th out of 18 teams with a 64+63=127. The winners had 59+61=120 and 59+65=124. I shot very consistent golf with 37+44=81 and 39+42=81. If I had played better on the back nine we might have had a chance. Boyd shot 78 on Saturday and 73 yesterday, so we both brought our A games. It just wasn't to be. We had one team that shot 57 on Saturday and they are both mediocre golfers. They have been known to have some problems with basic math and the Board decided to place them with one of our tougher "rules" teams on Sunday and they struggled to a 77, perhaps the biggest two day swing in scoring in memory. We also lost one of our members on Saturday night. He played in the tournament on Saturday and died at home of a massive heart attack after dinner. Skip Orr was 62 and his wife called to tell us how much the golf group meant to her husband. The golf group will dedicate a plaque and tree in his honor somewhere on the course. Skip was a former President of the Roseville Golf Club.

Darla and I will have our new bedroom furniture delivered this week on Wednesday. I put our old furniture on Craig's List, a local E-Bay of sorts, although you specify a price and the buyers can look at the goods online and contact you. I had no clue that this process existed, much less that it was so popular. I had about ten calls and twenty e-mails within minutes of posting the ad. We are selling our old dresser and armoire, as well as a futon that was in the study. Our old bed is being moved into the study, which will become a guest bedroom and we had to move out the futon which was frankly too big for that room with the desk in it anyway. One couple called Darla and insisted that they come to see the futon on Thursday night. I work late and dragged home at six-thirty to find out that we had these people coming. We had the futon listed at $150 on Craig's List. The couple showed up in a Ford Taurus and had a sob story about their mother who was coming home to live with them after being in a rest home for six months following a stroke. They came and looked at the futon and laid it flat and measured how far it sat from the wall. They hemmed and hawed and finally offered us $100. Darla said no, but that we'd take $125. The guy said that they'd spent so much getting the mom home that he could only afford $100. Darla finally gave in and decided to show some Christian charity. I helped them take the futon apart and literally cram it into their Taurus. He laid the back seats flat and we placed the slats into the trunk and then had to fold up the mattress like a taco and push and pull and slam the door shut. They thanked us and drove off with their treasure like the Beverly Hillbillies. The next morning I went back onto Craig's List to check our ads and saw a new ad for our futon being sold by the couple who bought it and they were asking $150. Those sons of ... Who knows if there was a sick Mom or it was just a scam, but shame on them and shame on us. I'm now jaded. If your Mom is sick and you need some cheap furniture, go see the Salvation Army and tell them your sob story, I'm not buying it. We have someone coming tonight to buy the dresser and armoire for $150. I probably priced them too low, but who knew?

I haven't given an update on Jason Ramos for awhile. Jason is Jenn's friend who is in the hospital with throat cancer. Jason turns 26 this week and will celebrate his birthday in the hospital. His cancer is under control, but the size of the tumor damaged his vocal cords and he has a hole in his throat that needs to be closed with surgery. They are now expecting that he will be in the hospital for another four to six months.. Please continue to pray for this courageous young man and for his parents, who lost his twin to a suicide last year and have watched Jason suffer so much over the last few months.

I will be up in Redding late this week for a marketing visit to my Redding agents. Work continues to thrive. We made a nice profit in January and February is going along nicely as well. I'm having a very good month in spite of having lost a couple of large renewals this month. I'm leading the office in both premium and net income this month, which is what the powers that be want. I am in conflict with home office right now on a new contract that they wanted us to sign. We sign a bonus contract that pays us based on our production. The contract has read in the past that we could not take any of the business that we put on the books for a period of one year after we left. I had no problem with that wording. Unfortunately, they changed the wording this year to include not contacting any of our agents for one year after we leave. I disagree with that wording and feel that it is "restraint of trade". I have agreed to sign the old contract or simply line out the wording that I disagree with. I have put the ball in their court and have yet to hear where it will finally settle.

Well, that is the news that's fit to share with all of you. Work awaits. I am sending the troops home early today as most of our agent and almost all of our companies are closed today. Put the LORD at the front of your day and the living will be easy. Ciao.