Yep..it is raining in Northern California on May 22nd. I had kind of hoped that the rains of the early Spring would leave us with nothing but sun and fun now, but alas the great weatherman in the sky has decided that we need some continued drenching. So far the rains, which arrived yesterday and are expected to leave us tomorrow, have been light though constant. We should see half an inch out of this storm and I can turn off the sprinklers for a few days.
The early arrivers are a little peeved with me lately. I have dropped coffee from my diet, in fact the last cup of coffee that I had was with Dad and Shirley at the Seattle's Best coffeehouse in Las Vegas. I decided that I was drinking too much coffee and rather than reduce the intake, I'd just cut it off. I went through some initial withdrawal headaches, but feel great now. I've replaced the coffee with water which is much better for me. The coffee, which used to be hot and ready when the troops arrived, now goes wanting.
I did a pretty intense trimming of the bushes and trees in the backyard over the weekend. The rain that we had in March and April really brought out some dense green foliage and it was beginning to choke the gardens, so I trimmed back all of the bushes and plants to allow us to see the individual plants. I have an arborist coming out next Friday to trim the scrub oak in the front yard and to cut down the fruitless cherry tree on the side yard. The former owner liked to prance about sans clothing in the yard and wanted a tree to block the bedroom windows on the two story next to us. The problem is that we only have about 14 feet between the houses and the tree is growing onto both roofs.
Golf was an A+ this weekend. I shot 40 in my Thursday night league. We've played four nights and my scores are 42-40-40-40. Saturday Boyd, a 4 handicap dropped out and left me to play with Gary, a 25, Bob Hand a 22 and one of Bob's friends Howard, also a 22. I had visions of ineptitude creeping into my psyche, but shot one of my best rounds of the year at 37+38=75. Somehow I would have rather put that score together with Boyd in the group as I was up against a 91, 99 and 101 and paid $1.00 out in skins. How? Well, those handicaps allow two strokes on 15 holes combined and a par for them is a net eagle. I had two birdies, five bogies and eleven pars in my round. I've shot 74 twice at Diamond Oaks and now a 75, so my game which has been stuck at 83 and 84 is coming around. I actually have four games planned for this week ahead, so my game is rounding into shape at the right time.
I've included a couple of pictures from our evening with Anthony and Erin from Friday night. Anthony is the underwriter in the office who used to be my assistant and is now one of the top underwriters on my staff. Anthony and Erin are getting married on June 24th and Darla and I have been invited to the wedding. They have asked me to videotape the ceremony and we were getting together to discuss that and to have some private time to talk about things. They are both really busy with the wedding approaching and we finally carved out a night to spend together.
The pictures from that night were taken with Darla's new digital camera, a Canon Rebel XT. The Canon has lenses that are interchangeable with her Canon Rebel 35 MM SLR camera and we had been waiting for the price to come down on the digital. Finally, the price had dipped below $1000 late last year and I was able to get the camera for closer to $500 recently and pulled the trigger. Darla loves to take pictures and has been less than impressed with the quality of the digital cameras. I think the Canon will change her mind.
It was David and Darla's birthday last week coming on the heels of Mother's Day as they always do. May is an expensive month in the Lyon family and this May was no different. We went out to dinner at the Cliffhouse restaurant in Folsom, overlooking Lake Natoma. Darla's sister who was born on the same date, but five years later joined us as did Darla's parent's Earl and Francis. We had a great time and were able to celebrtate all of the birthdays at one fell swoop.
I was still struggling with the decision of who to work for as of Tuesday night and it was nice to have the benefit of Earl's wisdom. His advice was to pray on it and see if the answer was revealed to me by the next morning. Indeed, it was, as I woke with a calmness and a surety of my decision. I talked several times to Dad and he gave me the benefit of his business background and his own ideals, but it was the simple suggestion to pray about it that made the decision for me. Not that we hadn't been praying. I think the problem was I was doing all of the talking and not listening for an answer.
Darla and I attended a Christian Financial planning seminar yesterday afternoon at church. I have been wanting to update my will, but the attorney and financial planners who were at the seminar strongly suggest a living trust which will avoid probate. Darla and I will be meeting with a representative to put together a living trust for the family. The financial planners and attorneys will draw up all of the documents and help us retitle our home in the name of the trust and there is no charge for the service (it usually costs $2000-$5000). We only have to agree to set aside a percentage of our estate for the church. Given that probate costs are 6-8%, leaving 5% to the church is really a bargain and we would likely want to leave a charitable donation to the church anyhow. The trust is revocable, meaning we can change it at any time, but I need to get serious about providing for Darla and the family if something happens to me and there is no time like the present.
Well, on that thought of my own mortality, I leave you to your day. I just want to give praise to God for all of the blessings in my life. My hope is that He continues to bless you as well. Ciao.
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