I think I will join the BLOG and take a week off in sunny Puerto Vallarta next week. It is a bit rainy there this time of year, but low 90's with plenty of sunshine as well. We are going with our friends, Bob and Debbie Hand. Bob and I will golf a couple of times and the ladies will shop. Bob and I plan to play early in the day before the expensive shops open for the day..we aren't completely out of our minds. Darla and I met Bob and Debbie for dinner last night on our way home from Almanor. We met in Lincoln at one of Darla's and my favorite restaurants, Buonarotti's. It is an Italian restaurante and serves excellent fare. I had a flat iron steak that melted in my mouth and Darla had scampi and pasta. It was a nice stop after two and a half hours on the road. We visited with Bob and Debbie and laid out some tentative plans for our trip. They fly in on Sunday and Darla and I arrive Saturday afternoon.
You can see I added a picture of my former assistant, Anthony, in the jalapeno bobbing contest last weekend. It amazes me what twenty-somethings will do for our entertainment at these parties.
It was a great, though jam packed weekend. Darla left friday afternoon for Almanor and I stayed behind to play golf on Saturday. Darla and I sort of had our wires crossed on the weekend plans and I had already set up a golf game for Saturday when she told me that she'd booked a cabin for the weekend at Almanor. We arm wrestled over that one and finally agreed that she would drive up Friday with her sister and I'd join them after golf on Saturday afternoon. Of course, that left me with a free Friday night. I decided to take $120 to Thunder Valley in Lincoln, have some dinner and see what kind of luck was in store for me. I play nickle slots (video poker) and I sat down when I arrived and got a royal spanking. I lost $80 in about 55 minutes. I limped away from the machine and went over to the Gordito Burrito in the food court and washed away my sorrows with a large iced tea and a small shredded beef burrito. I resurrected my self esteem and filled my gullet and headed back to the same machine. Luck had reversed it's course and in the span of about two and a half hours I turned 400 nickles into over 6000 ($300). In that span I hit two straight flushes (one dealt to me), three four-of-a kind aces, two with a 2-3 or 4 kicker for a 2000 coin win on a 5 coin bet. It was magic and I left the casino with $200 in winnings.
Saturday morning I played golf with Boyd, Bob Pando and Bob Hand. Boyd had just returned from his golfing trip to Scotland where he'd played five times in six days, including stints on Royal St. Andrews and Prestwick (the sight of Tiger's recent victory at the British Open). A reporter from the Sacramento Bee interviewed Boyd and another of the travelers on Thursday in the paper and when Boyd started to tell his stories, I stopped him and told him that I'd read all about it already. I shot pedestrian golf on Saturday with a 42+43=85 that included three double bogeys. My chipping needs work and I'll concentrate on that in practice for awhile until I can straighten it out. Boyd and I won the skin money Saturday.
I left for Almanor right after golf and arrived about 4 PM. I barely got settled in the cabin and was whisked off to visit some friends at another resort. We went over by boat and part of the allure of the visit for Darla and Alicia was to show their parents an RV park where they might set up their 5th wheel next Summer. Darla and I took the gang out to pizza on Saturday night in Westwood, one of the dinky little resort towns nearby. Westwood was a company town back in the thirties with a large sawmill. The homes were all built by the mill and are small two bedroom homes that all look alike. The mill burned down in the late forties and the town is like a time warp with the small homes all still standing and small businesses catering to the retirees and resort workers that live in the town. It is a town that is all but dead in the Winter months as the resorts all close down for the Winter and the economy dries up until Spring.
We went to church Sunday morning and then returned home for barbecue hamburgers. We got about two hours in the sun and then packed up for our trip back home and dinner with the Hands. It was a hectic weekend that will make my lounge chair by the pool in PV feel so much better next Sunday.
Gary and I have made it into the finals for our twilight golf league this Thursday night. We will take on a team that I really don't like for first place. The team is made up of two retired guys and one of them is a crotchedy old man who is older mentally than his birth certificate reads. I had a confrontation with him a couple of weeks ago when I arrived late for my tee time. I have a standing agreement with my partner that if I'm running late, I'll call him and he can let another group go ahead of us. I made my call as I didn't get out of work until 4 PM and we had the 4:40 tee time. I drove to the course and puttered around getting my bag together and finally walked in to pay about 4:40. Gary came running in and said, "Hurry up, we're on the tee." I said, "Give me a second Gary." He said, "Take your time I'll tell the other group to go." That meant to me that he'd have the foursome behind us tee off. But no, in Gary's mind, that meant he'd tell the twosome playing against us to tee off. I paid and went back out to my car to get a water I'd left in the console. Gary came flying out in his cart and said, "C'mon, everybody is waiting for US!" I jumped in the cart with him and here was Bob Tucker standing like an old goat with his arm crossed across his chest next to the tee. "About damn time, you idiot!", he said. I jumped out of the cart and walked over to him. "Did you say something to me?" He turned his head and walked away. I followed him. "Listen, pal, if you've got something to say to me, say it." He was beet red and mumbled something about me being a rude sob. I said (and God forgive me), "Listen, Grampa, I've got a job with twenty people depending on me for their jobs. I'm not a retired old bastard who has this golf league as his sole point of excitement for the week!" I let Gary have it big time. I told him to never set me up like that again. If I'm running late, I don't need to jump out of my car and run to the tee. So, it should be interesting to play the old goat this week. I just hope I can kick his scrawny butt.
I talked to Randy last night. He just celebrated his 46th birthday last week. We will all be together next March or April for a family reunion and a celbration of Dad's 70th birthday and my 50th. It will be great to see every one again and Jennifer will get to join us this time around.
Well, that's it for TWO weeks. I will be back refreshed and restored with pictures and stories about my vacation. Until then, stay grounded in the Lord and he will set your path before you. Ciao.
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