Spring Arrives This Week

Actually, you could have fooled me as we have had a week of temperatures in the low to upper 80's and the grasses, plants, trees and bushes are all in full bloom. I finished the sprinkler project in the back yard and we are now ready for a concrete flatwork contractor to pour the driveway on the side of the house and the sidewalk and patio by the shed behind the pool. I will also order 5 yards of topsoil and two yards of compost to add to the flowerbeds and the raised planter behind the pool. Once all of that is accomplished, Darla and I will hit the nurseries to find our trees and plants for the backyard. We have scoured the Garden Books and have a good idea of our decorating plan. Darla wants a tulip tree and I will add a couple of sego palms, some Lily of the Nile, some lavender, photinia, ground cover and small shrubs. We will have a lot of purples and reds in the backyard and it will be fun to see the plan take shape. We also want to put in a shade screen room by the shed that will hold our glass table and chairs and will provide a place to get out of the sun.

I was washing my car last night and it dawned on me that I had finished laying all of the pipe and sprinklers in the yard, but had not tested the system at all. I went out and ran the sprinklers, made a few adjustments on spray and changed a head or two, but it is all working according to plan.

That reminds me of a joke where an older couple (50 years old or so) are sitting in their living room. They both suffer from the onset of Alzheimer's and struggle with basic short term memory. Being old, they eat dinner at 4:00 PM. It is about 8:00 PM and the husband says to the wife, "You know what sounds really good to me right now is some bacon and eggs." The wife dutifully heads off to the kitchen and the sound of banging pots and pans drifts out to the living room. She is gone about twenty minutes and finally emerges carrying a tray with two bowls of Rocky Road ice cream. The husband slowly shakes his head and says, "Honey, you are really getting forgetful. I told you I wanted a scoop of chocolate mint."

Daniel made a dump run last week and got rid of a lot of the extra plants, cement, broken sprinkler pipe, the old toilet from our bathroom, etc. All of the junk that had piled up and we were ready to send to the dump. I needed him to get it out of the side yard, so we could get the cement work done.

Darla and I had our taxes prepared last week and we absolutely got hammered. Darla has three jobs, but in only one of her jobs is taxes withheld from her check. We are making more money than we ever have and seem to have less of it at any one time. Why is that? We are setting up a plan to have Darla pay quarterly estimates next year so that we don't have the same problem next year.

I played golf in the beautiful weather this weekend. It was about 88 degrees on Saturday with a light wind. The Roseville Golf Club is in the middle of a three day tournament that started while we were in Vegas. I set up a tee time at Woodcreek for Saturday and played with Bob Hand, Mel and one of Mel's friends from work. I shot a nice 41+39=80. I was thrilled with the round and had 9 bogeys and 9 pars on the par 71 track. My goal whenever I play golf is to avoid a double bogey or worse and let the pars and birdies come where they may. Woodcreek is a championship course with a higher rating than Diamond Oaks, so it was good to perform. I also collected the most skin money and was home by 1:30 PM after eating lunch at the course. I will play in a Cobra sponsored tournament next Saturday at Diamond Oaks and will be at Pebble Beach in three weeks living the dream of playing one of the world's most famous golf courses.

Jennifer is on her way right now to San Francisco with John for foot surgery. Her surgery is scheduled for 10:30 and they will go into her foot with a two inch incision and shave the bone, insert some pins and straighten her big toe. She has a bunion that is causing her toes to turn inward and this surgery will correct that problem. I talked to her last night and she was beginning to get a little nervous about the surgery. She said she was excited, but is concerned about the long (six week) recovery. The doctor prescribed Vicodin for the pain and her foot will be numb for about eight hours after the surgery. She will be on crutches and have to have her foot elevated during most of that recovery.

Jennifer and John are buying a new car. They looked and shopped and finally decided on a Scion. If you are like me, your knowledge of Scion begins and ends with that "box" car they came out with a few years ago. It is still one of their models, but Scion is owned by Toyota and is a more affordable version of the Toyota. She and John are looking at a TC and I saw one on the road the other day. They are very nice and look like a tight, well built car. Jennifer's Mom owes Jennifer some money and will help her finance the car and make the first year of payments for her. John and Jennifer will double up on payments during that time and pay the car off early. Check out the Scion TC at: http://www.scion.com/showroom/tc/gallery/. Now, doesn't that car look like a Jennifer car?

The office continues to excel this year and we are up 55% on the year and still in the running for the $500 per employee prize for the first quarter. We just added a much needed insurance market (Burlington) to our quiver, we are preferred agent for Colony and we have a 5% running loss ratio with our largest carrier, Scottsdale. Things are really looking up at work.

Well, that is it for another week. I hope you are all well and living a life that is in concert with our Lord and Saviour. Ciao.