We are in the middle of a major winter storm in Northern California with the requisite howling wind, downed power poles, spin out accidents and even a penguin sighting in Roseville. There were numerous reports on the morning drive of a penguin wandering around near the traffic lanes of one of the major freeways. It turned out to be a black and white duck (which is a penguin isn't it?). Daniel and I spent Saturday installing some much needed drainage in the backyard of the house and trenching for irrigation lines.
We rented a 250 pound Ditch Witch trencher from NationsRent and it made the job so much easier. The problem was the trencher kept getting stuck in the mud and we had to wrestle the machine up and out of the mud. It made some nice straight trenches and if they don't all collapse in the rain, the sprinklers will be much easier to install. We got the 3 inch drainage pipe installed and hooked up to the pipe that was already in the backyard near the shed. Hopefully it works well..we will certainly get a good look at the results after this storm. I got the sprinklers started and finally succumbed to the darkness and a sore back about six PM on Saturday. David helped us after he got back from work in the afternoon. I am tremendously sore still after taking a day off yesterday and resting my aching back. I didn't pull it out of alignment like I often do and I haven't had any back spasms, so hopefully the pain will subside and I can get back to normal in a few days. If not, I'll be off to see Harry and get a Bowen Treatment.
I actually hurt the sciatica because I can feel it down my legs as I walk. I am much better today and can see the pain subsiding, so I can do it all over again next weekend. I will just be laying pipe and doing some residual trenching in the raised landscaping bed above the pool. The problem with my back really came from wrestling the Ditch Witch with Daniel. We got the machine so muddy that we hauled it out into the street and I sprayed it off with my power washer. The guy at the rental place said he'd never seen the machine turned back in so clean before.
I did not play any golf this weekend, but did get out on Wednesday afternoon and play with one of our retailers and a marketing Vice President from one of our companies. We played at the Empire Ranch golf course which borders Diane's home in Folsom. I shot 44+39=83 and managed three birdies to go with some uglier play. I was actually on in two on one of the par fives on the front side and then three putted for par. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the challenge of playing a four handicapper. He is from Philly and hasn't played much golf this winter, so struggled to a 86. Gail in my office also played and had a nice 86. She grew up on a country club in Marin and has a nice game. We played with a retailer who is about a 15 handicap and he shot 90. I did manage to get my golf fix for the week and get the irrigation started in the back yard.
I titled this blog Trivial Thoughts and Recollections and I have been musing lately as I approach 50. I remember when I was about ten going to a 50th birthday celebration for my Uncle Norm in Vancouver. I remember being amazed that this man was about to turn half a century old. It was amazing to me as a kid. My Dad was thirty and seemed so much younger than Norm (of course he was). Norm was a golfer and I had the privilege of playing a few rounds with him as a young adult. He had a metronomic swing and although he hit the ball only about 180 yards, it was right down the middle. Norm has now passed away and Dad turns 70 next month. Amazing to look back on. Norm was married to my Mom's oldest sister, Irene, and Irene was a feisty, fun loving lady. Norm was a bookish, quiet man with a droll sense of humor. Irene liked cocktails and Norm liked chocolate milk. You wonder how couples get together and Norm and Irene were polar opposites. Irene unfortunately smoked like a smoke bomb and was the first of Mom's siblings to pass away. Norm lived for twenty-five years after Irene and spent his final years in a resort area golfing and enjoying his twilight years.
I have to admit that I'm a little miffed at my nephews and nieces. They have all decided to skip the 70th birthday celebration for Dad. All of them have good excuses for not coming, but I think the focus somehow went off of Dad and on to them and their busy lives. When I heard about this celebration, I was definitely on board and we planned to bring the boys and Jennifer and John wanted to come. Jennifer missed the last Vegas blowout and was looking forward to seeing all of her cousins. Jenny was the last one to bail on this and none of Darryl's kids will be there. Chris is coming. I told Jennifer to call her cousins and give them grief for being so centered on themselves and not on Dad's birthday celebration. It's too bad. I will party hearty for them. We have tickets to Eric Clapton on Saturday (Cheryl's birthday) and will play golf on Friday (Dad's birthday). Fun stuff in store.
I have set up the golf. It is pricey in Vegas on a weekend (Friday is considered a weekend). The cost is $89 per player and includes the cart. If you need to rent clubs, call the course at 702-646-3003. We have 9:39 AM and 9:46 AM on March 9th at Las Vegas Golf Club on Washington Avenue in Vegas. The website is : http://www.americangolf.com/coursedetails.cfm?courseid=35.
Well, it is payroll week and I have to get the electronic payroll done by nine AM in order to get all of these souls paid. Be well and live in the Lord on a daily basis. Ciao.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
President's Day 2007
And, of course, I am at work while my bride sleeps the morning away. I know Jennifer has the day off and the boys are out of school (although David will be at work today because there is no school). The traffic was very light this morning. I slept in a little and even made a a stop at Home Depot on the way in to work. I still got here before 8:00 AM.
I spent part of the weekend working on cutting up the ten foot swinging gate that the fence guys built on the side of the house. I put in another set of hinges and moved the latch to the middle of the two gates. I cut the gate into two sections and rebuilt the frame of the gates into a box style. The gates are still a little weak in that there is nothing to anchor the gates where they come together. Once the driveway is poured I can install two metal pins that will seat into the ground to give the gates support. In the meantime, I stopped this morning and bought two 5 inch long half inch diameter bolts and nuts with washers and I will bolt the two gates to each other until the driveway is poured. I already drilled two 3/4 inch holes in the two gate boxes (where they come together) and have bailing wire holding the fence together. Right now, if you lean out on the gates they will open. Once the driveway is poured and the pins are placed in the concrete, the gate won't push open. It was alot of work, because I had to complete disassemble the fence boards, rebuild the gate supports and then reinstall the fence boards.
The neighbors all came over to look at the pool when I had the fence down and one of the neighbors has a boyfriend who is a contractor. He looked at the gate that I was building and kind of shook his head. Later in the day, they drove up after a late lunch and he said, "Are you still working on that gate?" I strongly considered giving him the one finger salute, but in the spirit of neighborly relations, I just ignored him.
Jennifer was in town this weekend and we had dinner together on Saturday night. Darla and I took her out to Black Angus and we had Prime Rib while Jennifer enjoyed King Crab legs. We then ended up back home and watched movies on DVD. Jennifer has the latest Ben Affleck movie, "Man about town" and we then started watching "Running with Scissors" and it was a horrifically bad film that made sleep seem a much better alternative to wasting time watching that yawner.
Sunday we were up and off to church. one of the guys that we sit with every Sunday, Ken Campbell, is a burn victim and he told his story on Sunday. Ken was involved in a car accident in 1983 where his girlfriend and her brother were killed and Ken was left with burns over 70% of his body. He was not expected to live. Ken was at the bottom of an offramp waiting for the light to turn green. A gasoline tanker truck pulled up on his right and stopped, but the diesel truck behind the tanker did not stop and plowed into the tanker igniting the 5000 gallons of gasoline. The blast blew out the windows in Ken's car and his girlfriend was 90% burned and Ken 70%. Ken was in his senior year at Northwestern Dental school and his life changed in an instant.
Ken was not supposed to live, but God had other plans for his life and he escaped amputation of his fingers and he worked with physical therapists to walk again and finally to run. (Ken was a marathoner in high school as well as a track star.) Ken was determined not only to walk, but to eventually compete in the Iron Man Marathon in Hawaii and he did so in 1987 at the age of 30 and was featured in both Sports Illustrated and on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Ken is a dentist in Loomis and was the Chairman of the Republican party in Placer County until last year when he stepped down. His story is amazing and one that I did not know until yesterday. When he finished his sermon he came down and gave Jennifer a hug. We were sitting in front of his family and he was obviously emotional.
I did play golf this weekend and shot a 42+40=82. It was one of those rounds that could have been much better, but I stunk up two holes with a double bogey and then a triple bogey with a ball that hit the green in regulation, but then we couldn't find when we got to the green. It was pretty hot coming in, but we should have been able to find it. I had to trudge back to the spot where I hit it and hit another shot (my fourth into the par 4 and then I took three to get in from there). I should have had a 78 or 79, but c'est la vie. I did have closest to the pin on my final hole and won $21 in skin money, so it was a good day. Boyd was in a different group and had an elevated heart rate and left after eight holes. I had left him an e-mail and he didn't respond to me. I called him this morning to make sure he was okay and he was on the golf course, so he's fine. He said he ran yesterday and it was probably more of an anxiety issue than a heart related problem.
I will close the office early today as most of our agents are off and the phone hasn't rang at all so far. Our office is currently in second place in the race for the $500 per employee first quarter contest. Our office was up 25%, but Livingston is up 60%. The second place office gets $300 per employee. We are having a solid February and feel good about our chances.
You have all seen the actual comments on claim forms from Insurance companies. Some of them are hilarious, but this is my all time favorite: "The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth." Sort of says it all.
Well, that is it for now. Dad: Darla and I will give you a call tonight to make sure everything is set for Vegas. Be well and walk in the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
I spent part of the weekend working on cutting up the ten foot swinging gate that the fence guys built on the side of the house. I put in another set of hinges and moved the latch to the middle of the two gates. I cut the gate into two sections and rebuilt the frame of the gates into a box style. The gates are still a little weak in that there is nothing to anchor the gates where they come together. Once the driveway is poured I can install two metal pins that will seat into the ground to give the gates support. In the meantime, I stopped this morning and bought two 5 inch long half inch diameter bolts and nuts with washers and I will bolt the two gates to each other until the driveway is poured. I already drilled two 3/4 inch holes in the two gate boxes (where they come together) and have bailing wire holding the fence together. Right now, if you lean out on the gates they will open. Once the driveway is poured and the pins are placed in the concrete, the gate won't push open. It was alot of work, because I had to complete disassemble the fence boards, rebuild the gate supports and then reinstall the fence boards.
The neighbors all came over to look at the pool when I had the fence down and one of the neighbors has a boyfriend who is a contractor. He looked at the gate that I was building and kind of shook his head. Later in the day, they drove up after a late lunch and he said, "Are you still working on that gate?" I strongly considered giving him the one finger salute, but in the spirit of neighborly relations, I just ignored him.
Jennifer was in town this weekend and we had dinner together on Saturday night. Darla and I took her out to Black Angus and we had Prime Rib while Jennifer enjoyed King Crab legs. We then ended up back home and watched movies on DVD. Jennifer has the latest Ben Affleck movie, "Man about town" and we then started watching "Running with Scissors" and it was a horrifically bad film that made sleep seem a much better alternative to wasting time watching that yawner.
Sunday we were up and off to church. one of the guys that we sit with every Sunday, Ken Campbell, is a burn victim and he told his story on Sunday. Ken was involved in a car accident in 1983 where his girlfriend and her brother were killed and Ken was left with burns over 70% of his body. He was not expected to live. Ken was at the bottom of an offramp waiting for the light to turn green. A gasoline tanker truck pulled up on his right and stopped, but the diesel truck behind the tanker did not stop and plowed into the tanker igniting the 5000 gallons of gasoline. The blast blew out the windows in Ken's car and his girlfriend was 90% burned and Ken 70%. Ken was in his senior year at Northwestern Dental school and his life changed in an instant.
Ken was not supposed to live, but God had other plans for his life and he escaped amputation of his fingers and he worked with physical therapists to walk again and finally to run. (Ken was a marathoner in high school as well as a track star.) Ken was determined not only to walk, but to eventually compete in the Iron Man Marathon in Hawaii and he did so in 1987 at the age of 30 and was featured in both Sports Illustrated and on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Ken is a dentist in Loomis and was the Chairman of the Republican party in Placer County until last year when he stepped down. His story is amazing and one that I did not know until yesterday. When he finished his sermon he came down and gave Jennifer a hug. We were sitting in front of his family and he was obviously emotional.
I did play golf this weekend and shot a 42+40=82. It was one of those rounds that could have been much better, but I stunk up two holes with a double bogey and then a triple bogey with a ball that hit the green in regulation, but then we couldn't find when we got to the green. It was pretty hot coming in, but we should have been able to find it. I had to trudge back to the spot where I hit it and hit another shot (my fourth into the par 4 and then I took three to get in from there). I should have had a 78 or 79, but c'est la vie. I did have closest to the pin on my final hole and won $21 in skin money, so it was a good day. Boyd was in a different group and had an elevated heart rate and left after eight holes. I had left him an e-mail and he didn't respond to me. I called him this morning to make sure he was okay and he was on the golf course, so he's fine. He said he ran yesterday and it was probably more of an anxiety issue than a heart related problem.
I will close the office early today as most of our agents are off and the phone hasn't rang at all so far. Our office is currently in second place in the race for the $500 per employee first quarter contest. Our office was up 25%, but Livingston is up 60%. The second place office gets $300 per employee. We are having a solid February and feel good about our chances.
You have all seen the actual comments on claim forms from Insurance companies. Some of them are hilarious, but this is my all time favorite: "The indirect cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth." Sort of says it all.
Well, that is it for now. Dad: Darla and I will give you a call tonight to make sure everything is set for Vegas. Be well and walk in the footsteps of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Ciao.
Monday, February 12, 2007
A Calm following the Storm
Yes..it was quite a storm over the weekend. The rains moved in midweek last week, but the brunt of the storm hit on Friday and Saturday and brought us about three inches of rain and we are up to about 60% of our normal rainfall. We are supposed to get another weak storm system today and tomorrow and it will then clear up and I'll be back to golf on Saturday of next week.Given the rain, my plans to work on the irrigation in the back yard were put on hold. Darla had returned my ski lodge lino tiles and bought "more appropriate" flooring for the bathroom. I had to disassemble the toilet and tank to place the flooring around the toilet. The job of installing the flooring went pretty fast (you can see that it is a small area (about 38 square feet) and I didn't have to do alot of prep work as the tiles installed right over the linoleum that was there. I only had to cut the lino off the wall where the installer curved the linoleum up and tacked it to the wall as a border. I cut that out and installed baseboards in its place. The hard part of the job turned out to be the toilet. My plan was to reinstall the existing toilet with a new wax ring and be done with it. Oh, the plans of mice and men.
There are four areas that can leak on a toilet. The water supply line on the wall, the inlet to the tank, the seal between the tank and the bowl and the bowl itself where it attached to the sewer line at the base of the floor. I managed in one afternoon to have all four areas leak and never at the same time. I reinstalled the toilet turned on the water supply and the tank was leaking. I again bailed out water from the tank and reinstalled the tank correctly. After refilling the tank, I flushed it and water began running out of the base of the bowl. I quickly realized, after bailing water from both the tank and the bowl, that I'd installed the wax seal upside down. (I have an office job for a reason, folks.) I got that righted and reinstalled the tank and bowl only to have the water inlet to the tank leaking. I bailed the tank for a fourth time and repaired the inlet. The tank seemed a little wobbly and I decided to tighten the bolts on the tank and turned the wrench one final turn and the tank cracked in about ten places. Now thank God for Prozac or the bathroom could have looked like a war zone. I called Darla who was coming home from a show and asked her to get a replacement tank. She was of course none too thrilled to have that errand thrust on her, but being a loving wife agreed to stop at Home Depot (we own their stock) and get a new tank.
Unbenownst to me, the tanks come in both three bolt and two bolt setups and the tank she got was a three bolt. We ate dinner and Darla and I drove back to the Depot to get a different tank. The tanks cost about $57 and the bowls the same. I talked to a Home Depot plumbing guy and he suggested that I replace both the tank and bowl as the holes in the toilet would likely not lineup with the tank. I bit the bullet, but stayed with a round toilet rather than an elongated as the wood toilet seat we have is round. Nice plan.
I decided to rest and watch a movie and tackle the toilet replacement after church on Sunday.
The sermon this week was an interview with Jerry Manuel, a Sacramento sports legend who played and starred in baseball, basketball and football. Jerry was the manager of the year with the Chicago White Sox in 2000 and is now a bench coach with the New York Mets. Our church is affiliated with a Christian College, William Jessup University (formerly San Jose Bible College). The Jessups bought land in Rocklin and moved the University to our area in 2004. Bryce Jessup is the Dean at William Jessup and is a member of our church's leadership council. Bryce knows Jerry as a strong local Christian and invited him to come out to William Jessup to assist him in getting a baseball program up and running. Jerry helped with the planning of the new baseball and sports complex at William Jessup and agreed to help with recruiting. When Bryce asked Jerry to give him some names for possible managers for the team, Jerry offered to run the program. It was announced on Sunday morning that Jerry is leaving professional baseball after 31 years and will be the manager of the William Jessup baseball team. This is the second high profile Christian athlete to leave professional sports to coach at William Jessup. Ruthie Bolton-Holyfield is the coach of the women's basketball team. Both of these Christian athletes said that the opportunity to continue to coach in the game they love while touching young lives for Christ was the reason they agreed to accept the job.
After church, Darla was off to another jewelry party and I tackled the job of installing a new toilet. After bailing the tank for a fifth time and the bowl for a fourth time, I removed the old fixture and began installing the new one, quickly realizing that the old toilet seat had bolts that were corroded and reusing that seat was not going to be an option. As I moved the water supply line for the umpteenth time, the flexible metal tubing broke caused a leak at the valve. I quickly shut off water to the house and headed downtown to the Ace Hardware for some replacement parts. I bought a new water valve and some flexible tubing as well as a new toilet seat for the toilet. I went to Ace because they have "hands down" the best informational help in the hardware business. The Ace employee (all of these guys are in their 50's-70's and are hardware geeks) asked me what length of flexible tubing I needed. I had no idea what size so bought the 12 inch.
The rest of the install went well, but the 12 inch tubing was too long and caused a kink in the line, so back I went to Ace to replace it with an eight inch pipe. The job is done as you can see by the picture, but the two hour job took a full day and left me with sore knees and really sore inner thighs. The squatting and kneeling left me feeling like a middle aged man after the job. I laid down on the couch and watched the Tivo recording of the final round of the Pebble Beach AT&T Pro Am and looked forward to basking in the sunshine on that course in April. By the way, you can double click on the bathroom picture above to see a closeup of my handiwork.
I talked to Jen this morning to share the news that her cousin, Jesse, is engaged and she told me that John is flying home on the 22nd from Afghanistan and will be there for the Vegas reunion. See the picture of Jesse and his fiancee Lorie above. Lorie, why are you covering your face? You're a pretty girl and Jesse won't always be broke.
Well, that's it for now. Today is payroll and I have to get the online time sheets approved to get these employees paid. I had to terminate my broker last week, which is never easy. I think I've had to fire too many people in my days as a manager. It is never easy. Ciao.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Some rain will dampen our area this week
Funny post header? Well, we just finished the driest January in history in Sacramento when we had an official reading of just .45" of rain. Right now since July 1st we have received 4.46" of rain and our average to date is 11.56". Global warming? Well, with all of the frost we've had, I'd argue against that, but el nino is definitely making herself known locally. It looks like we'll get rain on Wednesday and a better chance for hard rain over the weekend. I had planned to put Daniel and David to work on helping me put in the irrigation and drainage in the backyard, but I'm sure I can find some indoor projects for them as well. Darla did exchange the ski lodge faux wood flooring that I bought for the master bathroom and has some lino tiles that need to be installed. Our bathroom is about 75% carpeted, but we have a strip of linoleum that runs from the toilet along the tub and over to the shower enclosure. It is only about 30 square feet of floor area and If the rain comes in as promised, we will get to that project. I did NOT arrange for any golf next weekend as I wanted to work on the sprinklers.
I did spend three days in Phoenix and Scottsdale last week and it was a fast and furious few days. Pete and I flew in on Tuesday afternoon and stayed at the Gainey Suites Resort. The resort price this time of year is $479 for a two bedroom condo and we got the Scottsdale Insurance Company rate of $265. The rooms were nice and had special beds that are made for the resort by Sealy Posturepedic. You can actually arrange to have a bed made for you at the bargain price of $1,995 (shipping included!). Darla and I actually bought the Sealy Posturepedic Four Seasons bed when we replaced our mattress last year. It is like sleeping on a cloud..
We played golf on Wednesday at Eagle Mountain Resort in Fountain Valley (just outside of Scottsdale). The resort is first class with mountainous terrain and beautiful vistas from all over the course. There are million dollar home sites surrounding the course and I saw more "infinity" style pools than I've ever seen before. The problem we had is that this is one of the first times I've ever left Sacramento for Phoenix and had the weather colder in AZ than at home. We were stuck in a high pressure zone with temperatures in the upper sixties and Scottsdale had rain, wind and temperatures in the upper forties and low fifties. The weather was cloudy when we got to the course, but on the first tee Pete turned to me and said, "Ken, I think it's starting to rain." Pete was wrong, actually it had started to hail and we got a good downpour of hail for about five minutes. The front nine was actually fairly benign in terms of weather, it was just COLD. I shot 40 on the front side with rental clubs, but struggled to a 46 on the back side as the rain and wind moved in and made a mess of things. There were golfers packing up and heading in, including the foursome behind us who all had on shorts (probably guys from the east coast in for the PGA tournament and heard that AZ weather was great in January). We stayed the course and finished, partly because we are bullheaded and partly because I knew that Emery had paid $175 for the golf and another $60 for the rental clubs. It was being expensed through Scottsdale Insurance, but we were warriors and stayed the course. We were so cold when we finished playing that it hurt to wash my hands, it felt like my hands felt as a kid after a snowball fight, the warm water stung my hands as I started to thaw out. Emery took us to dinner at a local fine food establishment, where Pete ordered chicken livers and asked if they could deep fry them. This is my top producer in the office putting on his Okey bib and scarfing on liver. Thankfully, Emery knows him. We ate with Emery, his wife and college aged son. We had Emery and Steve (who also worked at Republic Western) over to the resort for Happy Hour, where they served drinks and appetizers. It was a great day.
Thursday, we were up early and headed in to the BW Arizona office and met with Dan Slawson, the Underwriting Manager and a member of the Burns and Wilcox Million Dollar Club. That club has an exclusive membership of five in the company and it is Pete's expressed goal to get there within three years. Our million dollar producers make about $250,000 a year in total compensation. Pete and Dan had a long conversation and Dan told Pete how he grew his book and how he directs a team of three assistants. Pete took copious notes and really engaged Dan in a pretty intense question and answer session.
From there we were off to the Colony Insurance offices to meet with our underwriting team. Scottsdale Insurance is our number one carrier and we had grown from $2,480,000 in '05 to $3,145,000 in '06. Our goal this year is $3.5 million. Colony is even more excited about our growth as we grew from $785,000 in 2005 to $1,575,675 in 2006. Our contract business grew from $533,000 to $1,056,500 in that same time period, so they really threw on the dog for us at Colony. We were taken into the General Manager's office and he fawned over us for awhile and then we sat in two VPs offices and went over the figures. It was great. Our underwriter, Synda Sallee, then took Pete and I to the FBR Open in Scottsdale where we spent the day watching the likes of Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, JB Holmes and Camillo Villegas play. We spent about two hours sitting in the bleachers of the 16th hole and it is the biggest party in golf. The coeds from ASU show up in force and I had never seen so much silicone and so many high heels on a golf course in my life. Why they go I have no idea, but they hoop and holler and drink and carouse like nobody's business. Many of the golfers DON'T like the party as it is loud and pretty obnoxious, but others of the pros, run up and down the fairway ropes slapping high fives and exhorting the crowd to even more noise. You can hear the roars all over the course.
We also walked the course and followed a few foursomes. We followed JB Holmes for awhile. JB is one of the longest drivers on tour and routinely hits the ball 320 yards. On one 418 yard par four, JB hit his drive to about 56 yard in ( a 362 yard drive). He then airmailed his lob wedge over the green where he hit an older woman in the shoulder and the ball bounced high off her up onto a hill behind the green. JB walked up and said, "Where is the lady that got hit?" She sheepishly raised her hand and he said with a smile, "Perhaps next time you could knock the ball forward TOWARD the green, eh?" The gallery got a kick out of that and the lady turned several shades of red.
Pete and I did fly back Thursday night and we were in the office on Friday. The flight was delayed about forty five minutes because an inbound plane from Cancun was delayed and we got home about 11:00 PM. It was nice to get caught up on Friday and able to hit the ground running today.
The Pebble Beach trip hit a snag this week when we realized that Darla would be in Mexico during the week that we were supposed to go to Pebble. The trip has been changed so that we arrive at the resort on Easter and play Pebble Monday at 10:30 and Spanish Bay on Tuesday at 8:40 AM. I really look forward to that.
Jennifer was in town this weekend and I got to see the offending tattoo that she was so concerned about. It is something that people of her generation do. I don't get it, but I turn 50 this year. I did explain to her that as she begins to get tattoos that are visible (she has one on her left bicep that is a "1/4 wrap tattoo" It wraps around her arm) she will begin to suffer some discrimination. I explained to her that I work in a very conservative industry and would not hire someone with a large visible tattoo. Insurance agencies are still owned and run by gray haired men and I have to be careful that my staff is not offensive to the men that ultimately pay the bills. Jennifer didn't like the tone of the conversation, but I think she needs to hear that from someone who hires people. I would deny it to the death, but I would choose someone without a tattoo over someone with a large visible tattoo. It is certainly silent discrimination, but it occurs all the time. I certainly have staff with small tattoos on their legs or arm, but the key word there is small. Jenn, keep the tattoos off your face and neck and hands. I love you unconditionally, but I just wouldn't hire you. Stay in a blue collar industry where you work installing the networking systems and you'll be fine.
The big tattoo that she has includes two hearts one with "Mom" and one with "Dad" in the middle of depictions of fire and wind and calamity all around them. This portrays her center in the storm of her life. It's very nice, but I would have liked it better if there was one heart in the middle and it said "Jesus".
That is it for this week. The Vegas reunion is right around the corner. Dad, send us the itinerary. Jennifer and John arrive on March 3rd and leave on the 11th. We will get there on March 8th and leave on the 12th. Ciao.
I did spend three days in Phoenix and Scottsdale last week and it was a fast and furious few days. Pete and I flew in on Tuesday afternoon and stayed at the Gainey Suites Resort. The resort price this time of year is $479 for a two bedroom condo and we got the Scottsdale Insurance Company rate of $265. The rooms were nice and had special beds that are made for the resort by Sealy Posturepedic. You can actually arrange to have a bed made for you at the bargain price of $1,995 (shipping included!). Darla and I actually bought the Sealy Posturepedic Four Seasons bed when we replaced our mattress last year. It is like sleeping on a cloud..
We played golf on Wednesday at Eagle Mountain Resort in Fountain Valley (just outside of Scottsdale). The resort is first class with mountainous terrain and beautiful vistas from all over the course. There are million dollar home sites surrounding the course and I saw more "infinity" style pools than I've ever seen before. The problem we had is that this is one of the first times I've ever left Sacramento for Phoenix and had the weather colder in AZ than at home. We were stuck in a high pressure zone with temperatures in the upper sixties and Scottsdale had rain, wind and temperatures in the upper forties and low fifties. The weather was cloudy when we got to the course, but on the first tee Pete turned to me and said, "Ken, I think it's starting to rain." Pete was wrong, actually it had started to hail and we got a good downpour of hail for about five minutes. The front nine was actually fairly benign in terms of weather, it was just COLD. I shot 40 on the front side with rental clubs, but struggled to a 46 on the back side as the rain and wind moved in and made a mess of things. There were golfers packing up and heading in, including the foursome behind us who all had on shorts (probably guys from the east coast in for the PGA tournament and heard that AZ weather was great in January). We stayed the course and finished, partly because we are bullheaded and partly because I knew that Emery had paid $175 for the golf and another $60 for the rental clubs. It was being expensed through Scottsdale Insurance, but we were warriors and stayed the course. We were so cold when we finished playing that it hurt to wash my hands, it felt like my hands felt as a kid after a snowball fight, the warm water stung my hands as I started to thaw out. Emery took us to dinner at a local fine food establishment, where Pete ordered chicken livers and asked if they could deep fry them. This is my top producer in the office putting on his Okey bib and scarfing on liver. Thankfully, Emery knows him. We ate with Emery, his wife and college aged son. We had Emery and Steve (who also worked at Republic Western) over to the resort for Happy Hour, where they served drinks and appetizers. It was a great day.
Thursday, we were up early and headed in to the BW Arizona office and met with Dan Slawson, the Underwriting Manager and a member of the Burns and Wilcox Million Dollar Club. That club has an exclusive membership of five in the company and it is Pete's expressed goal to get there within three years. Our million dollar producers make about $250,000 a year in total compensation. Pete and Dan had a long conversation and Dan told Pete how he grew his book and how he directs a team of three assistants. Pete took copious notes and really engaged Dan in a pretty intense question and answer session.
From there we were off to the Colony Insurance offices to meet with our underwriting team. Scottsdale Insurance is our number one carrier and we had grown from $2,480,000 in '05 to $3,145,000 in '06. Our goal this year is $3.5 million. Colony is even more excited about our growth as we grew from $785,000 in 2005 to $1,575,675 in 2006. Our contract business grew from $533,000 to $1,056,500 in that same time period, so they really threw on the dog for us at Colony. We were taken into the General Manager's office and he fawned over us for awhile and then we sat in two VPs offices and went over the figures. It was great. Our underwriter, Synda Sallee, then took Pete and I to the FBR Open in Scottsdale where we spent the day watching the likes of Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, JB Holmes and Camillo Villegas play. We spent about two hours sitting in the bleachers of the 16th hole and it is the biggest party in golf. The coeds from ASU show up in force and I had never seen so much silicone and so many high heels on a golf course in my life. Why they go I have no idea, but they hoop and holler and drink and carouse like nobody's business. Many of the golfers DON'T like the party as it is loud and pretty obnoxious, but others of the pros, run up and down the fairway ropes slapping high fives and exhorting the crowd to even more noise. You can hear the roars all over the course.
We also walked the course and followed a few foursomes. We followed JB Holmes for awhile. JB is one of the longest drivers on tour and routinely hits the ball 320 yards. On one 418 yard par four, JB hit his drive to about 56 yard in ( a 362 yard drive). He then airmailed his lob wedge over the green where he hit an older woman in the shoulder and the ball bounced high off her up onto a hill behind the green. JB walked up and said, "Where is the lady that got hit?" She sheepishly raised her hand and he said with a smile, "Perhaps next time you could knock the ball forward TOWARD the green, eh?" The gallery got a kick out of that and the lady turned several shades of red.
Pete and I did fly back Thursday night and we were in the office on Friday. The flight was delayed about forty five minutes because an inbound plane from Cancun was delayed and we got home about 11:00 PM. It was nice to get caught up on Friday and able to hit the ground running today.
The Pebble Beach trip hit a snag this week when we realized that Darla would be in Mexico during the week that we were supposed to go to Pebble. The trip has been changed so that we arrive at the resort on Easter and play Pebble Monday at 10:30 and Spanish Bay on Tuesday at 8:40 AM. I really look forward to that.
Jennifer was in town this weekend and I got to see the offending tattoo that she was so concerned about. It is something that people of her generation do. I don't get it, but I turn 50 this year. I did explain to her that as she begins to get tattoos that are visible (she has one on her left bicep that is a "1/4 wrap tattoo" It wraps around her arm) she will begin to suffer some discrimination. I explained to her that I work in a very conservative industry and would not hire someone with a large visible tattoo. Insurance agencies are still owned and run by gray haired men and I have to be careful that my staff is not offensive to the men that ultimately pay the bills. Jennifer didn't like the tone of the conversation, but I think she needs to hear that from someone who hires people. I would deny it to the death, but I would choose someone without a tattoo over someone with a large visible tattoo. It is certainly silent discrimination, but it occurs all the time. I certainly have staff with small tattoos on their legs or arm, but the key word there is small. Jenn, keep the tattoos off your face and neck and hands. I love you unconditionally, but I just wouldn't hire you. Stay in a blue collar industry where you work installing the networking systems and you'll be fine.
The big tattoo that she has includes two hearts one with "Mom" and one with "Dad" in the middle of depictions of fire and wind and calamity all around them. This portrays her center in the storm of her life. It's very nice, but I would have liked it better if there was one heart in the middle and it said "Jesus".
That is it for this week. The Vegas reunion is right around the corner. Dad, send us the itinerary. Jennifer and John arrive on March 3rd and leave on the 11th. We will get there on March 8th and leave on the 12th. Ciao.
