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.
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