Indian Summer

I knew that we would see an Indian Summer in Sacramento and it has arrived. It is as inevitable as the falling of leaves and the march of seasons in Northern California. After the snow and cold of Detroit, this weekend saw high, thin clouds and a temperature of 85 degrees. I'm sporting a bit of a sunburn after Saturday working in the yard and Sunday on the links.

Saturday I mowed the lawn and raked and vacuumed leaves, drained the pond for the last time and put away the backyard furniture in preparation for the pool construction. I stopped at the pool company on Tuesday and signed the contract to have the pool built. We have to do over $2000 of demo on the backyard having the spa and steps removed, the pond dug out and the rocks removed, trees and shrubs cut down and removed and the raised stamped concrete deck cut out and removed. I have to have the stump of one tree that I had removed earlier ground up as they have to run the electrical along a path right over the stump. I've included a picture of the backyard as it looked a few years ago. The trees have all grown up and this time of year is a disaster of downed leaves and debris from the trees. The pond is constantly covered in leaves and other debris and it will be nice to clear this out and start over with palms and agapanthas and other "pool friendly" plantings. They should start on the demolition either late this week or early next week as the plans are being approved by the city of Roseville now.

Sunday was an excellent day of golf as we had over 100 players competing in the Past President's tournament. We had a 7:30 shotgun start and it was a tad cold and wet on the ground. I had a very good day of golf and stayed away from the dreaded double-bogey or worse and ended up shooting a stellar 39+39=78 to take first place in my flight with a net of 66. One of my buddies shot a 76 to take low gross and actually beat me with a net of 65, but you can't take both ends of the Gross and Net divisions, so I will also get first place money. My driver is really beginning to be a consistent and positive part of my game as I am not only hitting it long, but also in the fairway consistently and when you get into Fall and some early morning dampness and downed leaves, the fairway is even more of a friend than normally.

I played poker on Friday night with the guys and won $18. There were five players and only two winners as my friend, Steve, cleaned up with over $100 in winnings for the night. He also played okay on Sunday at golf in my foursome, shooting an 85, but cleaning up on skins with over $78 in winnings. What a weekend for him.

Daniel continues to ride the bench on his football team and it is hard to watch him prowl the sidelines especially when they are losing. His team is now 4-3 with three games to go. Hopefully they do not make the playoffs and he can move on to a job. Dan somehow managed to get himself sideways with his position coach and he is buried on the bench.

Darla continues to thrive with her Silpada business and she now has four consultants under her and she continues to be a leader in sales for her region. She enjoys the challenge and will be in Monterey this weekend for a show on Friday night.

This coming Saturday we had planned to go into the Bay Area and see Jennifer's new apartment and take she and John to dinner. It turns out that they are coming to Sacramento to attend a race on Sunday that her Mom is doing, so we will take them to dinner here in town.

I was able to get out of Jury Duty last week. My plan was to ask out due to my job, but the jury commissioner told me that work related excuses had to be heard by the judge. I hung around the jury room until we were all called into the courtroom. The judge came out and told us that there was a glitch in the courtroom electrical and that we were all dismissed with the court's thanks and that would complete our service for the year. Nice.

Well, work awaits. I've had to be called away three times as I was writing this to deal with different issues. I have to get payroll out as my staff doesn't show up everyday for giggles. They expect a paycheck, so off I go. Be well and keep the Lord as the center of your life and you will never be unbalanced. Ciao.