Boxing Day for Americans

A couple of wild and crazy guys.

The holidays have come and we are in the dead week between Christmas and New Years. I was supposed to be at work today plugging along like the mass of Americans, but alas, my back decided to go the way of Clinton's presidency and completely give out on me. I have an appointment with a Bowen practitioner at 3:15 today (Harry is on vacation until January 8th) and should be fine thereafter. I actually played golf on Saturday, shooting 39+43=82 on a cold and bright Winter day. I returned home about 2 PM and decided to fill in a portion of the trench that continues to exist next to the pool. The dirt that was pulled out is piled up and is nothing short of a mud bog when it rains. Well, the heavy dirt clods did their trick on my back and I felt the muscle pull about twenty minutes into the job.

I did quite a number on myself and I'm hunched over like Quasimodo as I make my way from one chair to another. I woke up Sunday morning and tried to go to the bathroom, but my back spasmed as I limped into the bathroom and I went down on the floor like a heap. Everytime I so much as moved, my back would sieze up and I'd go through about fifteen seconds of painful cramping. Darla heard me (it was about 6:00 AM) and came in to see if I was okay. She stepped over me and used the toilet as I lay in agony listening to the tinkle of what I desperately needed to do. Darla asked if she could help me and I told her to go back to bed. Shortly thereafter I heard the soft sounds of sleep emanating from the bedroom as I lay curled in the fetal position afraid to move. It took me the better part of two hours to drag myself from the bathroom back to the bed, inching ever closer like a seal on a beach. I couldn't lift myself to a kneeling position as the cramps hit hard and fast and left me with tears in my eyes. I managed to pull myself up on the bed and laid there for another hour before the call of nature forced me to get up and deal with the stabs of pain as I moved ever so slowly step by step into the bathroom. A shower seemed to help me and I lumbered from the bathroom out to our La-Z-Boy recliner where I stayed for the day. Darla brought me food on a tray and I ate reclining in the chair.

Monday (Christmas morning) brought another bout of back spasms as I attempted to get up from bed and it took me about an hour to slowly move from the middle of the bed to the side and then up and onto my feet. A shower helped me to loosen up a little and I made the trip out to the La-Z-Boy. The boys showed up about 11:30 and Jen and John followed about noon. We opened gifts and had a few laughs as the wrappings piled up around us. The boys bought me a Craftsman wrench and ratchet set with over 100 pieces. They know my Barbie tools are wholly inadequate and continued on the tool theme from 2005 when they got me a roller cabinet and a rechargeable drill/screwdriver from Craftsman. Jenn bought me a wireless speaker system for use out by the pool as well as slippers and a shirt. My office gave me two $100 American Express gift cards that I used toward a new 20" LCD TV for our bedroom. It is a Samsung HDTV and replaces an off brand 13" color tv that was inadequate for anything. Darla and I got Jennifer some workout clothes and a pizza kit with baking stone and serving plates, some other clothes, a picture frame with a photo of Jenn and John from Thanksgiving and a Smoothie Maker. The boys got matching shirts from Dad and Shirley in Canada (as seen in the photo above). It was a great Christmas.

On our family gift exchange, Randy got me something from Home Depot that is supposed to arrive today and Darryl (or Cheryl I forget) got Darla a new Brighton watch. Darla loves Brighton, so good choice. I got Darryl and Randy both rechargeable work lights and a dozen Nike golf balls. It is a fun tradition and one that Jennifer wants to get into next year.

The picture of Jennifer with the round item is from a game called "catch phrase" where you play in teams and have to guess words or phrases. The word calculator is also a timer that beeps and finally goes off with a buzzer. It's like hot potato and the team holding the calculator when it buzzes loses a point to the other team. It was alot of fun and a lot of laughs. Unfortunately you can pass on words or we would have had the fun of watching Darla's Dad act out "breastfeeding". Oh well.

With my bad back came a postponement of a meeting with an attorney on a lawsuit brought against my Modesto office employees by their former employer. We were supposed to meet at eleven today, but moved that to Thursday at eleven. The suit is claiming breach of contract on a non-compete agreement that they signed with Nancy Dean at Richter Robb. I worked briefly for Nancy out of my house between Republic Western and Burns and Wilcox. Non compete agreements are largely unenforceable in California as it is a "right to work" state and unless an employer compensates an employee to not compete during the term of the agreement (in this case two years after leaving her employ), then courts will throw them out. Our lawyers reviewed their non-compete agreements when we hired them and told them to stay away from her agents and renewals for a one year term and then all bets were off. Nancy's business has plummeted from a high of $38 million to about $16 million in 2006 and she blames us. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as she called Lorraine after having them served and told her that she would soon own her house. Our owner is an attorney and plays hard ball and I pity Miss Nancy Dean. I don't think she knows what Hell she is buying herself. My guess is we will own her agency when this is all over.

The fence job is finished in the back yard and the two-day job (their estimate) ended up taking them almost two weeks and they still have to remove all of the old fencing and boards from the yard. Their job was good, but far from perfect as there are small misteps along the way, including a gate that rubs the ground and a portion of the retaining wall that was built without posts cemented in the ground, but just wood blocked up against the fence behind. One or two of the posts are loose in the cement as they built onto them before the posts were completely set in the ground. The auto gate on the side of the house needs to have a wheel installed after I have the driveway poured for the jet ski. These guys are very new at doing this kind of work and both work for others and do this on the side. The cost at $3600 was about 40% cheaper than the fence contractors. The job looks really good, but I will have to tighten a few things up before I bring in topsoil. Daniel spent this morning removing another plant and some ground cover from the side of the house in anticipation of the fence guys being here today to build the trash enclosure on the side of the house. So far at 2 PM the guys haven't shown up. Not a surprise.

Well, that is it for another week as I must rest before my Bowen treatment in an hour. Happy New Year to all. Ciao.

Just a couple of things

I am really bad at empathy, so I turn to my family and friends. Darla's cat, Jake, has developed a distended stomach likely caused by some form of cancer.Darla had it into the vet the other day and it cost me $375 to have a "cat" scan and x-rays. Darla has been struggling with the news and is determined to keep the cat through the Christmas holiday. The cat, who has always been FAT, has developed a stomach that looks like he's swallowed a football. Again, Darla needs some comfort and consoling over her cat, so help me out. (I just want to go play catch with it in the front yard.)

My company has finally sent out a press bulletin on my promotion and our industry Insurance Journal publication picked it up today. Here is the link:

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/west/2006/12/20/75291.htm.

I hope all are well. Happy "Holy"Days and Merry "Christ"Mas. Ciao

Christmas is Coming

The picture was taken at the Burns and Wilcox Holiday Party perhaps by someone who really likes banisters and Christmas trees. We had a ball on Saturday night working our way through a case of water, a case of soda, a case of diet soda, 14 bottles of wine (including three 750 ML bottles), two cases of beer, three bottles of champagne, two bottle of apple cider, a 20 pound turkey, two hams, potatoes, stuffing, bread, four Marie Callender pies, M&Ms and plenty of laughs and good times to go around.

We had the party at Dinda's house in Carmichael (Dinda is Pete's Assistant Underwriter) and Dinda hired two Hispanic ladies to help out. I only mention ethnicity as Darla was rolling in laughter at the carving job that one of the ladies made on the turkey. She cut the dark sections into six inch slabs of meat with the bone and muscle still hanging on the meat. She then cut the white meat into six inch slabs of meat and put it on the table to be served. I grabbed the electric knife and carved the white meat slabs into slices of turkey that we are used to seeing here in America. Neither of us have ever seen someone butcher a turkey quite like this lady managed to do. It was hilarious, but the few guests who ate the dark meat were clearly puzzled by the presentation. Darla cooked the turkey and Cora cooked the hams. both of them made mashed potatoes and Cora also brought garlic bread and Darla made dressing. Because we handled the meal ourselves this year (last year I bought the food prepared by Boston Market), I was able to buy each of the employees a $20 gift card to the Elephant Bar restaurant and stay pretty close to my budget for the soiree of $35 per employee. As I said, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it is always nice to see my employees away from work and interacting with their families.

The pool hasn't had any new work done on it in the last week. We went through a period of rainy weather that slowed the progress and then the fence contractor finally agreed to come out and start the job. They showed up on Friday and demo'ed the old fence, opening up our yard to the neighbors to the side and to the rear. It sure opened up the size of the yard, but I have to admit, I do enjoy the privacy that a fence allows and I look forward to them finishing the job. The fence guys are two partners who are licensed, but work for others and do this on the side. They are doing 200 feet of linear fencing with three gates, including an auto gate on the side yard and 24' of retaining wall behind the raised waterfalls of the pool for $3,600. This price includes the tear down and haul off of the old fence. The price at $16 a linear foot for redwood (6" dog eared boards) is excellent. I had several fence contractors bid the job at $27.50 lf to $33.50 lf). Of course working with a team that also works elsewhere leaves me waiting for the job to be done. They were supposed to be out at early light on Saturday, but showed up at 2 PM and worked until 5:30 finishing in the dark. Again yesterday they showed up at 1 PM and worked until almost 6:30, finishing in the dark under construction lights. They are supposed to be there early today with the main contractor showing up after noon to handle the nailing of the boards. The other partner sets the posts and does the demo. They have finished one side of the yard and have yet to do the backside behind the pool and over to the side yard. All of the gates will be done last.

I paid Daniel $100 to remove the two eight foot high bushes on the side yard. He had to cut them down using a chain saw and then pull the roots. Darla's Dad, Earl, came down from Paradise to help Daniel and got more than he bargained for. The roots were so compacted in the ground and crisscrossed over one another that it took them about an hour to cut down the bushes and haul them to the dump and another four hours to pull the stumps. One of the stumps was estimated to weigh close to three hundred pounds with the dirt still attached to it. Earl was heard to say something to the extent of "Why couldn't Ken get a professional to do this?". Frankly I could have and if they had left the roots in place because it was too tough to remove, I would have had a tree service come out and grind up the roots. The real reason is that I'm trying to get Daniel up off his keester and earning some money. His father, in all of his earthly wisdom, doesn't want Daniel to have a job yet because he wants more time to spend with him. Does the word "Control Freak" mean anything to you? Unfortunately, Daniel gets off school at 2:30 and comes home and lays his 6'2" frame down on his bed and he lays there watching TV or playing on his computer for three hours until dinner and then gets up to eat and lays down after that exertion until it's time to go to bed. He is growing, perhaps not in terms of social interaction and in the art of being a productive member of society, but in the size of his pants. Daniel is a very social kid and he'd love having a job. Unfortunately, his father has never looked at the needs of his children. Enough about that.

I did manage a game of golf this weekend after two weeks of inactivity because of the rain. I shot 41+43=84 in a double bogey filled round of ineptitude. I finished with a net of 72, but was hitting the ball really crisply. My putting was horrible and my short game was on the verge of a complete meltdown. Other than that, it was a great day of golf.

Well, as occurs every other week, it is my day to approve payroll and I have to get that done first thing in the morning, so that paychecks can be tendered on Wednesday. I hope all are well. I will write again next Tuesday after Christmas. We will have Jennifer and John over for Christmas dinner (prime rib) as well as Darla's parents and sister. Be well and have joy in the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.

One wet and windy weekend in the books

Yep, the pool is slowly filling with water. Unfortunately, the plaster has not yet been done. We received about an inch and a half of rain from this storm, the first real rainfall of the season. The rain came in on Friday afternoon and evening and we had a real gully washer by about 10 PM on Friday. I awoke Saturday morning to a fence that was leaning precariously into my yard at the spot where the demolition crews knocked out one of the fence posts and significantly loosened two others. I made a run to Home Depot where I bought two eight foot 2x4's and three t-bar posts. I nailed one of the eight foot studs to the fence and then used two of the T bars to wedge the section of fencing back up. I used the other T Bar to strengthen the weakest of the two fence posts and the fence is back up and holding. The fence contractor will not be able to get out here until January so it will need to hold until then.

Our backyard is a muddy mess with all of the dirt from the trenches now piles of mud and water. Buddy can no longer use the backyard for his business as he has far too much fun slogging about in the mud. His paws dig in about six inches and he tracks the mud back into the house. Darla had an open house on Saturday and let Buddy out back to do his thing and then let him back in without checking his feet and he tracked mud all over our bedroom. I got home from making myself scarce during her party ( I was supposed to be golfing in the last tournament of the year, but it was postponed) and Darla handed me a rag and some carpet cleaner and set me to work cleaning up after the mutt. It finally came clean (after all it is only mud), but it was a chore. I have a new spot rug cleaner coming soon, so we will be able to clean these messes more readily.

I had won the golf tournament for the manager's meeting in Detroit, finishing in first place and also capturing a closest to the pin and the long drive. We have a new Rewards website for our agents and I was granted 5600 points on the website. I bought a new cart bag from Nike and a dinner certificate at Olive Garden with my points and also a small portable steam cleaner for the carpets. It is a steam cleaner that is meant to get out spots in the carpet and we can really use it now that the weather has turned for the worst. We are all pretty good at taking off our shoes in the house, but it is hard to get visitors to do the same and the dog has no sense of neatness and doesn't even wipe his feet before coming in the house. We try to do it for him, but he has so much energy, often it feels like wrestling an octopus.

Darla was out of town Friday night at a show in Monterey and I stole off to the Thunder Valley Casino for dinner and a shot at the nickle machines. I never made it to dinner as the machines quickly ate up my $40 and I was down to single bills. I put one in the machine and quickly hit four aces for a 2000 coin payout ($100). I got on a streak and hit four aces four times in the next two hours, once with a 2 for a 4000 coin payout. In all, I left the casino at 11 PM with $433 in my pocket. I called Darla, who was in Monterey with her best friend, Joni, for a Silpada party. They were already in bed and Darla was not too thrilled that I'd been out galavanting all night until she heard that I'd won close to $400. I slept in Saturday morning as it was pouring when I left the casino and I knew the golf tournament would be delayed. We have tee times set up for next Sunday as a rain makeup date and we wouldn't play on a sloppy course. I finally strolled out of bed at 8:30 to find Darla sitting in the living room putting an order into her lap top computer. She had arisen at 4:30 and drove the 3 1/2 hours home. Joni had a commitment at her church in Marin at 8 AM and Darla decided to drive home early as well.

Darla and I went to a Christmas party with her foster care agency Saturday night. The event was held in South Sacramento in some decrepid community center. Each of the foster families brought a dish and the agency provided some really awful pizza from a place called Fat Tony's. After trying the pizza, it is a good bet that Tony didn't get fat eating his own pizza. The agency administrator (Steve) is a New Yorker with little sense of propriety. He was the master of ceremonies and at one point was giving out DVDs to the families and said to one of the Dads not to open the movie at the table as it was X-rated. He also made a big point of acknowledging on microphone the people who showed up after 6:30 (the party started at 6:00 PM). One family showed up after 7 PM and the mother was showing Steve what she'd brought to share. He took one look under the tin foil and said, "That's nice. We've all eaten already. You can just wrap it back up and take it home." Nice guy. He also talked briefly to me and then said to one of the guys at the table: "Oh, that's Darla's husband. I didn't know who the hell that was!" What a peach. Darla has had several run ins with him over the years and had me listen to one of his voice mails to her. It was a voice mail yelling at her for not having her cellphone on when he needed to reach her. He said that she needed to be available 24-7 for when he needed to reach her. Understand that this is a part time position where Darla is a social worker for one foster child with the agency. I told her that if my boss talked to me that way, I'd punch him in the nose. During the evening he gave away a "Bullseye" award to the social worker that had more run ins with him during the year than any other. Half the room raised their hand when he asked who thought they'd won the award. Apparently, this schmuck revels in his pugnaciousness.

Well, Chris' football team finally met their match in the Texas High School football playoffs. They played again at Texas Stadium on Saturday and lost to Southlake Carroll 34-7. Their team gave up five turnovers and were outplayed and outcoached in the game. Southlake Carroll is a team from the same town and their stadium can be seen from Colleyville's stadium. Interesting that they each ended up in the round of eight in the Texas state championship game. Southlake Carroll is the defending state champions and a powerhouse team. Congratulations to Chris and his teamates for a great run in the playoffs. He will remember it and relive it his entire life.

We have our annual holiday party on Saturday. The company has allowed us $35 per employee this year and I have $665 to spend on the party. I should be able to buy dinner, booze and a gift for everyone with that kitty.

Well, work awaits on a dreary Monday morning. I have several salary reviews to do and a Manager's report as well as a slew of new business to quote. I hope all are well and busy keeping Christ in Christ-mas. Happy Holy Days and Saviour's Greetings to all.

Tile and Flagstone are done on the Pool

In truth I have asked the pool contractor to come back and extend the flagstone walkway to the existing stamped concrete deck at the deep end of the pool. It is a construction zone back there and you can't see it, but the stamped concrete is still there under all of the dirt in the foreground of the picture. You can see how the flagstone walkway connects with the deck in the shallow area. Unfortunately, the contractor was in Cancun when the gunite was poured and wasn't there to supervise the walkway extensions and they messed it up. He promised to get it fixed. I have to leave the trenches uncovered until the city inspects the lines, so the dirt stays for now. Darla and I are very happy with the color of the flagstone. It has reds and tans and grays and blues throughout the stone and the blue tile really brings out the blues and grays. Because we did not have any deck poured with the pool, the pool is essentially an island with the two walkways being the connecting points to the pool. I will have another stamped concrete deck poured behind the shallow area for a sun deck. We are certainly blessed with this project going on in our yard. Ciao.

The Holiday Spirit is in the air

One holiday party down, several still to come.

We had our annual Roseville Golf Club Christmas party on Saturday night at Sunrise Golf Club. As incoming Vice-President, I will be responsible for the soiree next year, so I was taking mental notes this time around. The party went off very well and the food, as usual, was spectacular with prime rib and chicken as the offerings.

The prime rib was excellent, but we did have a problem with one of the guests who cut too large of a piece of his meat and had his airway blocked. I looked up to see Neil, our incoming President, pounding on the back of Keith Erickson and then begin lifting him up. I quickly realized that Neil was trying to do the Heimlich on Keith. The problem is that Neil is about 160 pounds and Keith is about 225 pounds. Keith ended up passing out and Neil dropped him onto the ground where the offending piece of meat dislodged. There is a doctor in our group who was able to comfort Keith and help him reassimilate to actually breathing in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide. Keith remained on the floor in a sitting position for about ten minutes and finally stood up and took a bow. Luckily we were able to revive him as it would have put a damper on the party to lose a guest. Incidentally, the founder of Burns and Wilcox, Herb Kaufman died from a piece of meat that lodged in his airway in Denver during a visit with the Colorado Branch Manager. When Keith turned blue, it was a scary moment.

Bob Hand, who is in our party, jumped up and lead a helping "hand" to the proceedings (bad pun, I know). Bob is a social worker trained in the Heimlich and was quick to respond. Unfortunately, he was attempting the Heimlich after the meat was already out. This was pointed out to him and he quickly laid Keith back down on the ground.

Darla and I hosted two new couples to the Christmas party this year and also sat with Bob and Debbie and Mel and Cora, who were making their second tour of the Christmas party. We had a fun night, although we slept through church on Sunday morning. Darla ended up with sore feet and hips from her night of dancing.

I played golf on Friday in the annual pre-Christmas party outing and had a horrific round. I shot 45+48=93 at Timber Creek in Roseville. The round started good with a par and a birdie, but quickly went downhill. Luckily my birdie (net eagle) was good for a skin and $16 from the pot. I had a golf tournament on Saturday and was hoping that I saved all of my good shots for that round.

Saturday, we had a frost delay and finally got off on a a reverse shotgun at 9:45 AM. I managed a 41+40=81 and won the tournament, so I got the bad golf out of my system on Friday and came through on Saturday. I even managed to get on one of the par fives in two and had a 30 foot putt for eagle that rolled up to the left side of the cup but wouldn't drop. I had two birdies in my round and will happily spend the $100 first prize in the pro shop.

The boys managed to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic and put up the tree and string lights on the house on Saturday while I was golfing. We had our two couple friends meet us at the house on Saturday night before leaving for the party, so it was nice to have the decorations up.

The pool was gunited on Wednesday last week and I have been feverishly pouring water on it ever since to help it cure. The contractor suggested that I put a sprinkler in the bottom of the pool and run it for fifteen minutes three times a day. There were three problems with that suggestion. First, the sprinkler wouldn't reach the entire structure of the pool. Second, the sprinkler had to go in the middle of the pool and was quickly under water as our pool is a game pool with the deepest part of the pool in the center. Finally, the only way to get down into the pool was by use of the steps that were not yet completely set up and I broke off the edges of the third and fourth steps as I went down into the pool. They will have to repair that this week before the tile and flagstone is put on. The steps will have step tile along the edges of each step. The pool is coming right along and I will add pictures of the progress on my next posting.

Chris, Randy's son, has reached the round of eight in the Texas State high school football playoffs. His team has already beat the number four ranked team in the state and now take on the number four ranked team in the nation and the number two ranked team in the state (The number one seed has already been eliminated). They play Southlake Carroll on Saturday a team that already beat them earlier this year, but CHHS (Chris' team) lost their qb to a concussion early in that game. Southlake Carroll lost their qb in the last game to a concussion as well. Southlake Carroll played and beat Odessa Permian, the five time state champion and the team profiled in the movie Friday Night Lights with Billy Bob Thornton. Good luck, Chris, we are all pulling for you.

Well, that is it. I have to do payroll and I was out of the office on Friday, so I'm already behind the eight ball. Be well, relax and enjoy the Christ-mas season.