Sure, make fun of the title. Four days of blissful relaxation and now a return to the mundane, a malaise of uncompleted work and deadlines. I have one of my senior underwriters still out on medical leave and the work is piling up on my desk. Next will be the phone calls, asking where that account is that they sent in way back on Wednesday of last week. The business is received and entered by my receptionist and I'll be lucky to have the application on my desk by the time the calls start coming in.
The holiday was very nice, though low key. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the family last week in Paradise, so the actual holiday was alot of football, some snacks and a dinner of lasagna. I talked to Randy, who was home alone with Chris as Cake had flown to visit Jenny for the holiday. Chris is in the high school football playoffs in Texas and they had won their first round match-up at Texas Stadium last week and had a showdown again at Texas Stadium on Friday after Thanksgiving with the number 5 ranked team in the state. This team sports an offensive lineman who is the number one recruit in the state of Texas, who has signed a letter of intent with the Texas Longhorns. I talked to Randy and to Chris and it was hard to figure who was the most excited with the game coming up. Chris had played the week before and was given DeMarcus Ware's locker to use in the Cowboy's locker room. Pretty heady stuff for a 16 year old. I talked to Chris and Randy again yesterday and Chris' team slaughtered the number 5 ranked team 36-16 and will play in the round of 16 on Friday night at Abilene Christian University in Abilene against a highly ranked team from Lubbock. Randy will take the day off and travel with the team to Abilene for their playoff game. They have to win four more games and they will be champions of the state of Texas. Chris is still a Junior and will be in the starting lineup next year. He plays defensive end and subs for the two defensive end starters, who are both seniors and the one who plays his natural position is all league and heading to Division I football next year. Chris plays special teams and is one of the first players off the bench.
I also talked to Darryl and heard about his Thanksgiving with the family. They had the boys and Janelle and Aaron over. I talked to Dad and Shirley last night and they are suffering through a blizzard that has left over a foot of snow on the ground and had knocked out power to their area. I called at quarter of seven and the power had gone out at 6:15 PM. Shirley got on the phone and had to feel her way up the stairs to the phone in the bedroom. Vancouver has been hit with some early Winter weather as they also had a power failure on Monday of last week that lasted 15 hours. It was 78 degrees and sunny in Texas (Darryl was in shorts putting up his Christmas lights) and it was 20 degrees and snowing in Vancouver. Talk about polar opposites.
We had a good weekend of weather, although I had to endure a two hour frost delay at the golf course on Friday. We had an eight o'clock tee time and were finally allowed on the course at 9:15 AM for a reverse shotgun. I shot 41+41=82 on Friday while Boyd shot 42+36=78. I also played on Saturday and we got off at our tee time of 8:27 AM and I shot 43+43=86. Darla says that I must be bored shooting the same scores day after day. That coming from an athlete who plays several sports and sees the same 7-5 score in softball again and again, but it is a different game every time. Same with golf.
Jennifer and John came over on Friday afternoon and we went out to the Thunder Valley casino in Lincoln. We were going to play some machines for awhile and then have dinner at Samarai Fats, but the restaurant had been closed. They were in the middle of remodel and changing the name to a different restaurant, some Chinese outfit out of San Francisco. John is from Las Vegas and doesn't get too excited about casinos. The one thing he does is plays the Megabucks machine for $20 every time he is in a casino. He played $9 and won a $150 jackpot and called it a night. We ended up going out to a local favorite Italian food restaurant close to the house for dinner. Jennifer and John had both run in the race to Feed the Hungry the day before in Sacramento and were tired. They called it an evening pretty early and left to stay at Diane's house.
Darla and I went to the movies on Saturday night and saw the new Denzel Washington picture "Deja Vu". It is very well acted and a good film, but you have to suspend your beliefs in reality in order to enjoy the film. I'm not much for science fiction films, (I've never seen any of the Star wars films or Star Trek, etc) but Denzel is such a good actor it was very enjoyable and I recommend it.
We sat and watched football yesterday and Darla made some homemade peanut brittle and then fixed a Chinese chicken salad for dinner. It was a very relaxing four days off and we are now back in the throes of a work week.
The pool is moving along slowly. They have the steel structure completed and the electrical and plumbing is in. We are waiting on the city to approve the construction to date so we can gunite later this week. Once the gunite is done, I can relax. The rain over yesterday and today has left the hole a mud hole and we are supposed to have sun the rest of the week. The sky is clearing as I write this and the storm is moving off to the mountains. We received about a 1/4 of an inch of rain out of this last storm, so the ground should dry out pretty quickly. As I've said before, I can't get to the fence until January anyhow, so I'm not too concerned with getting the pool done anytime soon.
I received a call from my old neighbor, Todd, in Galt and his tenants are moving out. We both own rentals side by side in Galt. The fence between our homes is shot (it is sixteen years old) and we have to replace it. He called me I think hoping that I'd take care of getting a contractor out there and tell him what he owes me, but I turned it over to him. He will get a couple of estimates and let me know what I owe. The joy of home ownership. If I didn't have a quarter million dollars in equity in that house, I'd be ticked.
Well, folks, that is another chronicle in the life of Lyon. Be well, enjoy your families and thank the Lord above for the many blessings in your life. Ciao.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving
Another busyMonday gives rise to a Sunday post. I'm actually sitting in the living room posting this on the wireless internet using Darla's work lap top. I will be playing in one of my insurances agents' Turkey Week at Turkey Creek golf tournaments tomorrow. It will include some contractors, some insurance agency people and some insurance company personnel. In all, we have 23 players competing for a skin pot of $500. There will be side bets aplenty and so far the weather appears to be cooperating.
We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at Darla's parents house for our family Thanksgiving. The boys are with their Dad this year and Jennifer is running in a Thanksgiving Day run with her Mother. I think Diane is running the 10K race and Jen will run the 5K. We had a ball on Saturday. John brought up his gas propelled model car and we gave it a good run on the streets of Paradise. It will run up to 45 MPH and John had it really smoking. Jennifer ran it off the road and got it stuck under one of the neighbors' Porsches that was parked in the driveway. John had it going full bore and ran it full speed into a basketball pole and broke off one of the plastic headlights. The car is a model truck with a chassis that has shock absorbers and oversized rubber tires that can run over dirt, rocks and on the street. We ate turkey and ham and played Cranium and the Mexican Train game (dominoes) after dinner. We also were able to get a new family photo which you see above. You can click on any of the pictures above to see a full screen shot of the photo. Jennifer and John had thought about staying in Sacramento Saturday night, but they opted to make the drive home and have a full day at home before going back to work on Monday. I last talked to Jennifer about 11:30 on Saturday night and she and John were playing "twenty questions" somewhere outside of Dixon, California on the drive back to Walnut Creek.
We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at Darla's parents house for our family Thanksgiving. The boys are with their Dad this year and Jennifer is running in a Thanksgiving Day run with her Mother. I think Diane is running the 10K race and Jen will run the 5K. We had a ball on Saturday. John brought up his gas propelled model car and we gave it a good run on the streets of Paradise. It will run up to 45 MPH and John had it really smoking. Jennifer ran it off the road and got it stuck under one of the neighbors' Porsches that was parked in the driveway. John had it going full bore and ran it full speed into a basketball pole and broke off one of the plastic headlights. The car is a model truck with a chassis that has shock absorbers and oversized rubber tires that can run over dirt, rocks and on the street. We ate turkey and ham and played Cranium and the Mexican Train game (dominoes) after dinner. We also were able to get a new family photo which you see above. You can click on any of the pictures above to see a full screen shot of the photo. Jennifer and John had thought about staying in Sacramento Saturday night, but they opted to make the drive home and have a full day at home before going back to work on Monday. I last talked to Jennifer about 11:30 on Saturday night and she and John were playing "twenty questions" somewhere outside of Dixon, California on the drive back to Walnut Creek.
I did play golf on Saturday, but I was wedged into the first foursome (to make a fivesome) so that I could make it to Paradise in time for dinner. As it turned out, the turkey was ready early and they had to start without me. I turned up in time for seconds and to hear the closing prayer by Grandpa Andy as is tradition. I think Jennifer and John enjoyed being up with family and certainly enjoyed the food. Jennifer brought bread and sodas and was a big part of the preparations. I shot an 89 in foggy, wet conditions and I'm just hoping that I saved my best golf for tomorrow.
Work continues to blow along at a good pace. One of my underwriting assistants quit to take a managerial position with a competitor and Gail, my most Senior Underwriter, has left on a medical leave, her second in two years. Hopefully, this surgery fixed her recurring problems and we can put it behind us. She was in the hospital until Friday and is now home on bed rest. I'm not sure when I'll get her back.
The pool continues construction at a torrid pace as the electrical, pre-plumbing and the rebar are just about done. They still need to form the steps and we are set for an inspection tomorrow. They hope to gunite by Wednesday as they are adding gunite near the steps and the deep end swimout for a flagstone walkway between the stamped concrete and the pool. Our designer, Kevin, wants to be here on the day of the gunite to direct the pouring of those two walkways. Hopefully the inspection goes well as Kevin leaves for a week in Cancun on Thanksgiving. The backyard is beginning to take shape and I look forward to the new redwood fence which will dress up the yard even more.
Darla is off work this week and will do some projects around the house, cleaning out the closet in the spare bedroom and using that to store her Silpada inventory and show cases. She continues to do well and has her eye on a trip to Maui next year (for two) paid for by Silpada. She has a fine start on that goal and (if I have to) I will go along with her on the trip and sit by the pool and perhaps even play a round of golf.
Well, this is even shorter than normal, but I have steaks on the grill and a hungry family waiting in the other room. Give thanks to the Lord for he is Good. I give thanks for all of the things and people that HE has blessed me with. Happy thanksgiving and Go Cowboys. Ciao.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Pool Construction is under way
I will add some pictures to the blog, but this is a free service and the picture feature decided to have a small fit and refuses to work. It was a hectic week with the demo which I added earlier and then the actual dig on Friday. They ended up knocking down about twenty feet of fence which I've jerry-rigged back together for the time being. They finished the demo on Thursday and I was at work and listening to Darla describe the devastation over the phone ("You better get here, they just knocked down another fence post..oh, and there goes the fence!") Very comforting as I'm sitting at my desk trying to get some actual work done. I told Darla that I'd relieve her in the afternoon, but that I had an agency lunch that I had to attend. She called me at lunch about 12:50 and said that she had to leave, but the fence had been moved to the side and she was concerned about the neighbor's dogs. She called Dwight behind us and he'd put the dogs away. Darla claims that I can't handle the mess of construction, but she sounded pretty stressed out herself.
I finally did get home and they finished up about 2:30 and were on their merry way. They pulled the tree stumps out which is what caused a portion of the fence to fall. I spent the balance of the afternoon putting the fence back together. It was a jigsaw puzzle of broken crossbeams and broken fence boards. There wasn't any one section long enough to close the gap in the fence, so I had to put two broken fence sections together as one longer piece and nail that on to the existing fence. It took me about an hour, but what's there should hold us over until the construction is done.
Darla and I have decided to have a fence contractor come in and redo all of our perimeter fencing. As part of that job, I will have him extend the fence onto the side yard behind the shed and will pour a driveway for the jet ski. The boys and I will have to take out two eight-foot high shrubs that sit along the fence line next to the shed and also border our next door neighbor behind us. Those areas will now be part of an expanded backyard where we will store the ski. Currently we have the ski at Alicia's house, which is nice as it is stored in a garage, but it doesn't lend itself to spontaneity. I will also build a shelter for the ski that will sit over it and keep it out of the sun and rain. The driveway will be 10'x 20' and will be able to accomodate a car if we ever buy an old truck or a toy to drive on weekends.
It is getting exciting as we can now see how the backyard will look with the pool. I will have the fence guy build a retaining wall of 18" in height behind the pool which will hold the dirt behind our raised waterfall and will be a focal point of our planting behind the pool. The spa is gone and we won't replace it for a few years (or until I get a sizable bonus)and I will put in a sundeck on the spot that the spa sat. I will likely follow the theme of stamped concrete, but I'm considering having a deck of pavers put in. I have to replace the sidewalk that Dad and I poured when we put in the shed as it is being beat up by the Bobcat, so I will extend the deck to the shed and up to the driveway that we will pour on the side of the house. The driveway will follow to the street and the fence will have a double RV gate that will swing open to allow us to pull in the ski. The fence has to sit back off of the sidewalk by 24", which is code in Roseville. That will allow us to keep the basketball goal that we have cemented in on the side yard. The boys don't use it much anymore, but the neighborhood kids do.
I had a contractor come out on Friday and give me a quote on the fencing and driveway and his sum total was $16,400. I just about swallowed my tongue when he came out with that. I am having a redwood fence put in for $20.25 a linear foot, or $4,232 for the 209 linear feet of perimeter fence I'm having done. I figure that I can get the driveway poured for about $1700 and the deck and sidewalk should run about $2500. Where this guy got $16,400 for his job I don't know. He was charging $11,500 for the fence, which is about $55 a linear foot. I got a quote of $15.25 a linear foot for cedar, but want to upgrade to pressure treated redwood and metal posts set in concrete. The driveway was going to cost another $5,000 with this doofus. He was shocked that I didn't jump at his proposal.
The dig on Friday was actually pretty easy. I stayed home and was there when they laid out the template for the pool and we made a few minor changes, moving the steps for the shallow end closer to the slider and moving one of the two pool lights so that it wouldn't get shadows from the steps. I was very impressed with the bobcat operator. He's been doing it for about 14 years and he can spin that on a dime. He had about six inches of room between him and both the shed and side of the house and he was able to maneuver it by at a fairly high rate of speed. He was also able to pick up dirt in the pool shell and spin the bobcat around and drive it straight up the ramp and through the gate opening without slowing. He narrowly missed breaking the benderboard as he shot up and down the ramp. The actual dig only took about two hours. They spent three hours leveling the backyard, setting the template and then starting the dig.
I have a stump from a tree I had taken out that needs to be removed and it is right in the access for the pool electrical and plumbing. I talked to my tree company and they scheduled the stump grinding for December 6th. I called her back and said that I need it done Monday or Tuesday. I have calls in to three different tree companies to see if someone can get out here this week to grind down that stump. We can't pull it as it is right next to the existing concrete stamped deck and right next to the fence.
With all of the excitement of the pool dig, I was still able to get out and play golf this weekend. It rained overnight Friday and was still sprinkling on Saturday, but Bob Pando and I braved the elements and were one of a small handful of golfers at the course on Saturday. Boyd bailed due to the rain (if you are retired and play every day, why play in the rain?) Karl, from our life group, also bailed and Bob and I played 18 holes in about 3 and-a-half hours. The course was wet and my grips were soaked by the time we finished. I struggled to a 44+42=86 and Bob shot a very nice 43+40=83 which included three straight "chip ins" on the back nine. Bob played high school golf in San Jose and is one of the best chippers I have ever seen. He has soft hands and the ball just seems to float out of its lie and land softly on the green. He was chipping beautifully when he shot 74 last weekend.
We will celebrate Thansgiving with Darla's parents next Saturday. I have a tournament in the morning and have asked for the first tee time and will join the family in Paradise for turkey and ham and some thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour. Jennifer and John will join us. Jennifer hasn't seen Earl and Frances since she got home and the extended family hasn't met John either. It should be a nice day.
Well, I have a Home Office visitor in again tomorrow and that usually takes me off my game in the office. If they aren't addressing the staff, they usually take up residence in my office and want to "chat". I suppose with the twelve or fifteen managers that don't produce business, it would be a welcome diversion. For me, it just places me squarely behind the eight ball which I have been lining up since the start of the pool project. That is the main reason I'm updating the blog from home. I need to start right in with my sleeves rolled up at 7 AM tomorrow morning.
I hope that you are all well and that you give some real thought to what you have to Thank the Lord for this holiday season. For one, I thank HIM for all of you. Ciao.
I finally did get home and they finished up about 2:30 and were on their merry way. They pulled the tree stumps out which is what caused a portion of the fence to fall. I spent the balance of the afternoon putting the fence back together. It was a jigsaw puzzle of broken crossbeams and broken fence boards. There wasn't any one section long enough to close the gap in the fence, so I had to put two broken fence sections together as one longer piece and nail that on to the existing fence. It took me about an hour, but what's there should hold us over until the construction is done.
Darla and I have decided to have a fence contractor come in and redo all of our perimeter fencing. As part of that job, I will have him extend the fence onto the side yard behind the shed and will pour a driveway for the jet ski. The boys and I will have to take out two eight-foot high shrubs that sit along the fence line next to the shed and also border our next door neighbor behind us. Those areas will now be part of an expanded backyard where we will store the ski. Currently we have the ski at Alicia's house, which is nice as it is stored in a garage, but it doesn't lend itself to spontaneity. I will also build a shelter for the ski that will sit over it and keep it out of the sun and rain. The driveway will be 10'x 20' and will be able to accomodate a car if we ever buy an old truck or a toy to drive on weekends.
It is getting exciting as we can now see how the backyard will look with the pool. I will have the fence guy build a retaining wall of 18" in height behind the pool which will hold the dirt behind our raised waterfall and will be a focal point of our planting behind the pool. The spa is gone and we won't replace it for a few years (or until I get a sizable bonus)and I will put in a sundeck on the spot that the spa sat. I will likely follow the theme of stamped concrete, but I'm considering having a deck of pavers put in. I have to replace the sidewalk that Dad and I poured when we put in the shed as it is being beat up by the Bobcat, so I will extend the deck to the shed and up to the driveway that we will pour on the side of the house. The driveway will follow to the street and the fence will have a double RV gate that will swing open to allow us to pull in the ski. The fence has to sit back off of the sidewalk by 24", which is code in Roseville. That will allow us to keep the basketball goal that we have cemented in on the side yard. The boys don't use it much anymore, but the neighborhood kids do.
I had a contractor come out on Friday and give me a quote on the fencing and driveway and his sum total was $16,400. I just about swallowed my tongue when he came out with that. I am having a redwood fence put in for $20.25 a linear foot, or $4,232 for the 209 linear feet of perimeter fence I'm having done. I figure that I can get the driveway poured for about $1700 and the deck and sidewalk should run about $2500. Where this guy got $16,400 for his job I don't know. He was charging $11,500 for the fence, which is about $55 a linear foot. I got a quote of $15.25 a linear foot for cedar, but want to upgrade to pressure treated redwood and metal posts set in concrete. The driveway was going to cost another $5,000 with this doofus. He was shocked that I didn't jump at his proposal.
The dig on Friday was actually pretty easy. I stayed home and was there when they laid out the template for the pool and we made a few minor changes, moving the steps for the shallow end closer to the slider and moving one of the two pool lights so that it wouldn't get shadows from the steps. I was very impressed with the bobcat operator. He's been doing it for about 14 years and he can spin that on a dime. He had about six inches of room between him and both the shed and side of the house and he was able to maneuver it by at a fairly high rate of speed. He was also able to pick up dirt in the pool shell and spin the bobcat around and drive it straight up the ramp and through the gate opening without slowing. He narrowly missed breaking the benderboard as he shot up and down the ramp. The actual dig only took about two hours. They spent three hours leveling the backyard, setting the template and then starting the dig.
I have a stump from a tree I had taken out that needs to be removed and it is right in the access for the pool electrical and plumbing. I talked to my tree company and they scheduled the stump grinding for December 6th. I called her back and said that I need it done Monday or Tuesday. I have calls in to three different tree companies to see if someone can get out here this week to grind down that stump. We can't pull it as it is right next to the existing concrete stamped deck and right next to the fence.
With all of the excitement of the pool dig, I was still able to get out and play golf this weekend. It rained overnight Friday and was still sprinkling on Saturday, but Bob Pando and I braved the elements and were one of a small handful of golfers at the course on Saturday. Boyd bailed due to the rain (if you are retired and play every day, why play in the rain?) Karl, from our life group, also bailed and Bob and I played 18 holes in about 3 and-a-half hours. The course was wet and my grips were soaked by the time we finished. I struggled to a 44+42=86 and Bob shot a very nice 43+40=83 which included three straight "chip ins" on the back nine. Bob played high school golf in San Jose and is one of the best chippers I have ever seen. He has soft hands and the ball just seems to float out of its lie and land softly on the green. He was chipping beautifully when he shot 74 last weekend.
We will celebrate Thansgiving with Darla's parents next Saturday. I have a tournament in the morning and have asked for the first tee time and will join the family in Paradise for turkey and ham and some thanksgiving to our Lord and Saviour. Jennifer and John will join us. Jennifer hasn't seen Earl and Frances since she got home and the extended family hasn't met John either. It should be a nice day.
Well, I have a Home Office visitor in again tomorrow and that usually takes me off my game in the office. If they aren't addressing the staff, they usually take up residence in my office and want to "chat". I suppose with the twelve or fifteen managers that don't produce business, it would be a welcome diversion. For me, it just places me squarely behind the eight ball which I have been lining up since the start of the pool project. That is the main reason I'm updating the blog from home. I need to start right in with my sleeves rolled up at 7 AM tomorrow morning.
I hope that you are all well and that you give some real thought to what you have to Thank the Lord for this holiday season. For one, I thank HIM for all of you. Ciao.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Pool Demo Underway
Wow..one day in and I already have to up my dosage of Prozac. Just kidding, but what a mess. As Darla knows, I don't handle disorder and clutter well and right now the backyard is one dog short of a junkyard. They got here at 11:00 AM this morning and will be back tomorrow. They have yet to cut out the raised deck concrete and remove the rocks and gunite from the pond. They still also have to cut out and haul away all of the bushes and cut the tree stumps back to the ground level. Pray for me. Ciao.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Beautiful Autumn Weather
75 degrees, a cloudless blue sky, not a puff of wind in the air. What do we call weather like this? Golf weather, of course. The dew is still clinging to the branches and limbs of the trees and the grass is still slick and there are footprints on the parking lot where employees have cut across the median on their way to their office. I see several people carrying steaming cups of coffee as they blindly make their way in to work on a Monday. There is caution tape and orange cones surrounding what is left of a tree that fell during last week's storm in the corner of the parking lot. There was a tree service out here last week cutting up the trunk of the tree and what is left is mostly branches and cut up portions of the trunk. I still don't know where the tree fell, but our complex is a block long and consists of nine buildings, so it could have come from anywhere and just been moved to the front of the complex.
The storm last week was the first rain that we've seen this year and although less than an inch fell, it was nice to see the change of seasons. The storm came with some heavy winds that left trees down around the area and storm drains clogged from the downed leaves and tree limbs. It took me over an hour to get home last Wednesday as the power was out on a main street near the office and the traffic was backed up all around us. I ended up taking a short cut around the congestion, only to find the street backed up in water. I was able to navigate my way through the water slowly only to have a guy in a pickup truck shoot through the water on the other side of the road and swamp my Mustang with a wall of water that shot over my drivers door and over the other side of the car. These California drivers don't know how to drive in weather of any kind. The number of accidents on that Wednesday was almost comical.
Daniel started his football game on Friday night and played most of the first series before being yanked by his offensive line coach. The reason was, according to the coach, that Daniel "stood up" in the middle of one runnning play rather than drive blocking. His replacement played most of the game, but what is odd is that Daniel was yanked after his team had driven the ball from the 20 to the other team's 14 yard line. His replacement immediately whiffed on a block and his man sacked the quarterback for a ten yard losss. We did not score on that possession and lost the game 48-7. Daniel knew that his days were numbered as the starter when he lead the quarterback sneak in the last game where the QB followed Daniel's block into the end zone from the three yard line. When the team came off the field, the O. Line coach high fived the qb, the center and the tackle next to Daniel and walked right by Dan. As I said, I don't know how he got sideways with his coach, but he did. One more game and my high school football watching days will be over, at least until my grandsons play or my grandaughter is a cheerleader.
It was a perfect weekend for golf and I played Saturday at Diamond Oaks with Boyd and Bob Pando. Bob is in my Monday night life group and just joined the club. He shot a 92 in the last tournament and was so upset. His wife had to kick him in the pants and get him over himself. It was his last tournament in the Peoria flight (the flight for golfers who don't have an established handicap). He ended up taking second in the flight (they throw out three holes and figure your score off of that) and won $35.00. I managed to win my flight and only won $48.00. Bob established a handicap for November and it came in at 9.9 (I have a 10.4). Bob had a spectacular round on Saturday and shot 37+37=74. Boyd shot 79 and I managed a 42+39=81. It was a great weekend for golf and we were off the course by noon.
I was able to get the lawn cleaned up and mowed and David raked the leaves over to the side of the house. Daniel had lost his wallet last week. He had cash in it as well as his drivers license, ATM card and pictures of a girl that he likes who is now in Africa on a religious retreat. As David was raking leaves he came across a heavy object that turned out to be Daniel's wallet laying in the street, wet and dirty. Daniel parks his truck on the side of the house when he is with us and must have dropped it Monday night when he was moving back to our house from his Dad's. It lay there obscured by the leaves all week and during the storm Tuesday and Wednesday.
I managed to get the spa disconnected from the electrical and the outlet and light in the yard disconnected. The demolition crew will be in tomorrow to take out the spa, steps, cut down the trees and take out the pond and raised concrete decking. I'm taking the day off to be there to make sure it all goes as planned. Hopefully the dig will commence either late this week or early next week. Darla and I went in and picked out the tile and flagstone for the pool. We picked out a "three rivers" flagstone which is tan and rust colors and a dolphin blue colored waterline tile that will go nicely with the Tahoe Blue dark bottom of the pool.
Darla was really pushing for a trip to Canada this Thanksgiving, but with the pool construction and the side yard being closed by a plastic fence, I really don't want to be gone. She wants to get back to Canada soon as we haven't visited with Dad and Shirley in years (we tend to meet them in Vegas which we will do in March) and she wants to see Glad and Jerry. I've committed to a week in Canada next year in addition to our vacation to Hawaii(??). It is Daniel's senior year and we are allowing him to have input into where we go. He is looking at Bermuda and Tahiti, but hopefuully we end up in Mexico or Hawaii. I'm putting out the offer to Dad and Shirley to join us again this year. This may be our last Family Vacation with both boys off to college next year. We'll keep you informed on where we are going and when.
Well, this is short, but the troops are arriving and I have a visitor from Home Office here again today and I have to do payroll as well. We had our best month ever in October and I will be taking the troops to lunch on Wednesday. We wrote over $1,400,000 in premium and brought in over $160,000 to the bottom line. It was a great month. Ciao.
The storm last week was the first rain that we've seen this year and although less than an inch fell, it was nice to see the change of seasons. The storm came with some heavy winds that left trees down around the area and storm drains clogged from the downed leaves and tree limbs. It took me over an hour to get home last Wednesday as the power was out on a main street near the office and the traffic was backed up all around us. I ended up taking a short cut around the congestion, only to find the street backed up in water. I was able to navigate my way through the water slowly only to have a guy in a pickup truck shoot through the water on the other side of the road and swamp my Mustang with a wall of water that shot over my drivers door and over the other side of the car. These California drivers don't know how to drive in weather of any kind. The number of accidents on that Wednesday was almost comical.
Daniel started his football game on Friday night and played most of the first series before being yanked by his offensive line coach. The reason was, according to the coach, that Daniel "stood up" in the middle of one runnning play rather than drive blocking. His replacement played most of the game, but what is odd is that Daniel was yanked after his team had driven the ball from the 20 to the other team's 14 yard line. His replacement immediately whiffed on a block and his man sacked the quarterback for a ten yard losss. We did not score on that possession and lost the game 48-7. Daniel knew that his days were numbered as the starter when he lead the quarterback sneak in the last game where the QB followed Daniel's block into the end zone from the three yard line. When the team came off the field, the O. Line coach high fived the qb, the center and the tackle next to Daniel and walked right by Dan. As I said, I don't know how he got sideways with his coach, but he did. One more game and my high school football watching days will be over, at least until my grandsons play or my grandaughter is a cheerleader.
It was a perfect weekend for golf and I played Saturday at Diamond Oaks with Boyd and Bob Pando. Bob is in my Monday night life group and just joined the club. He shot a 92 in the last tournament and was so upset. His wife had to kick him in the pants and get him over himself. It was his last tournament in the Peoria flight (the flight for golfers who don't have an established handicap). He ended up taking second in the flight (they throw out three holes and figure your score off of that) and won $35.00. I managed to win my flight and only won $48.00. Bob established a handicap for November and it came in at 9.9 (I have a 10.4). Bob had a spectacular round on Saturday and shot 37+37=74. Boyd shot 79 and I managed a 42+39=81. It was a great weekend for golf and we were off the course by noon.
I was able to get the lawn cleaned up and mowed and David raked the leaves over to the side of the house. Daniel had lost his wallet last week. He had cash in it as well as his drivers license, ATM card and pictures of a girl that he likes who is now in Africa on a religious retreat. As David was raking leaves he came across a heavy object that turned out to be Daniel's wallet laying in the street, wet and dirty. Daniel parks his truck on the side of the house when he is with us and must have dropped it Monday night when he was moving back to our house from his Dad's. It lay there obscured by the leaves all week and during the storm Tuesday and Wednesday.
I managed to get the spa disconnected from the electrical and the outlet and light in the yard disconnected. The demolition crew will be in tomorrow to take out the spa, steps, cut down the trees and take out the pond and raised concrete decking. I'm taking the day off to be there to make sure it all goes as planned. Hopefully the dig will commence either late this week or early next week. Darla and I went in and picked out the tile and flagstone for the pool. We picked out a "three rivers" flagstone which is tan and rust colors and a dolphin blue colored waterline tile that will go nicely with the Tahoe Blue dark bottom of the pool.
Darla was really pushing for a trip to Canada this Thanksgiving, but with the pool construction and the side yard being closed by a plastic fence, I really don't want to be gone. She wants to get back to Canada soon as we haven't visited with Dad and Shirley in years (we tend to meet them in Vegas which we will do in March) and she wants to see Glad and Jerry. I've committed to a week in Canada next year in addition to our vacation to Hawaii(??). It is Daniel's senior year and we are allowing him to have input into where we go. He is looking at Bermuda and Tahiti, but hopefuully we end up in Mexico or Hawaii. I'm putting out the offer to Dad and Shirley to join us again this year. This may be our last Family Vacation with both boys off to college next year. We'll keep you informed on where we are going and when.
Well, this is short, but the troops are arriving and I have a visitor from Home Office here again today and I have to do payroll as well. We had our best month ever in October and I will be taking the troops to lunch on Wednesday. We wrote over $1,400,000 in premium and brought in over $160,000 to the bottom line. It was a great month. Ciao.
