Hot Days and cool, clear nights..we must be in Sacramento!!

Yep. It is starting to get almost cold overnight. We sleep with the window open on the bedroom and find myself cold in the middle of the night and cuddling up in the blankets a bit more. I drove into the office this morning with the headlights on (that's actually on in the Mustang, not another reference to the cold). That is depressing. I also noticed that it was almost completely dark by 7:45 PM last night. The pool temperature has plunged from a high in the nineties to just over 80 degrees. It is still nice, but I'm sure as the nights stay cool and the daytime temperatures start to drop, the pool will soon be done for the year and we will look forward to Spring again.



Darla took Daniel down to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this weekend and got him set up in his off campus apartment. They drove down Friday afternoon and stayed in San Luis Obispo Friday and Saturday night. The hotel had problems with the air conditioner in their room and instead of blowing cold air, the heater was on and the room was about 100 degrees when they checked in. The maintenance people came in and "fixed" the unit, installed an industrial sized fan in the room and the gang went out to dinner while the unit cooled down. They got back in the evening and the air conditioner had not been fixed properly and was still blowing hot air. They finally shut off the unit, opened the door and windows and ran the fan. They had trouble sleeping as the walls and floor were so hot and the fan so loud. The hotel dropped their price from $189 a night to $109 to compensate Darla and moved them to a new room on Saturday. It didn't make up for the discomfort, but they all slept well Saturday night in air conditioned comfort. I understand they even had COLOR TV in the room. Wow.



Alicia went down with Darla on the trip as our club had our club championship this weekend. Darla's parents, Earl and Frances, were in San Luis Obispo with their fifth wheel and they all met Saturday afternoon and went to dinner that night.



Sunday was a nightmare at the off campus facility, Mustang Village, as all of the incoming freshmen were checking into the facility. They opened at 8:00 AM and there was a line outside the door at 6:30 AM. Darla and Daniel got there about 8:30 and had an hour and a half wait to get his keys and then it was a nightmare of cars and trucks moving everyone in. She said she was glad I wasn't there and nobody is happier about that than me. Daniel met two of his roommates and one of the guys is about 6'3 and 250 pounds, a clone of Daniel according to Darla. This kid ( I don't know his name) has always been the biggest kid in his school and he was thrilled to meet Daniel. The other roommate is 6'4" and probably played quarterback in high school. The three of them made quite an imposing trio. Their fourth roommate hadn't checked in, but is a surfer type with long blond hair.



I had to keep myself occupied, so played plenty of golf while Darla was gone. I played Thursday with an agent at Whitney Oaks, which is a penal golf course designed by Johnny Miller. I humbled myself in fighting through that round of golf with a 45+41=86. It was what I needed going in to the qualifier on Saturday at DO. This was my first year playing in the scratch qualifier and I really didn't want to qualify, I just wanted to get in a practice round. I went four over in the first three holes and then relaxed and shot a 42+37=79 and almost qualified as there were 8 qualifiers and the highest score taken was 77. I was moved back into my own flight and flighted as the number 2 golfer in the flight (out of eight). That meant I took on the number 7 golfer, who happens to be my tax accountant and he was coming off three months inactivity with a broken ankle. What I didn't realize is that he still has the cast on his leg and played with crutches and a walking boot. It was a no win for me as he hadn't played a round of golf in three months and I was expected to beat him soundly. I shot 42 on the front to his 45 and was only up one hole ( I had to give him two strokes and we played match play.) He was sinking 25 foot putts like they were tap ins and he had me worried. I settled down after a talk with myself and shot 38 on the back for an 80 and beat him on the 14th hole 5 and 4. He tired on the back side and shot 46 for a 91. He told me thank you for beating him as he was so tired, he couldn't make two more rounds next week. He hobbled around the course and we had to hold his crutches and get his ball out of the cup. The way he played on the front side, it was like playing the Bionic man or something. As it was, I was needled for taking so long to put away a gimp, imagine if I'd lost. So I am on to the second round and play a guy who was in our foursome and also dispatched his opponent 5&4 on the 14th. He shot 42+38=80 as well so it should be a good match on Saturday. Ben is my opponent and he joined the club the same year I did and has been on the board with me. Bob Pando won his match and is in the hunt for the title of Club Champion in the scratch flight. Boyd lost 1 up on the final hole. Steve Matthews is in my flight and alive for the title. If we both win our matches on Saturday, we will play for the title on Sunday.



My webmaster quit on me last week. I have changed the By Laws of the club to eliminate salaries and make all compensation green fees only. I strongly believe that a volunteer club should not be paying it's board members a salary for their volunteer work. I reworked the By Laws to require the Board members to be at a fixed number of tournaments each year and the club will pay their green fees for those tournaments. The net savings to the club is about $600 a year and the board members who were not salaried will be given a Rose Card that gets them two free rounds of golf and a 10% savings on green fees and food in the restaurant. The webmaster was not at the board meetings where I discussed my proposal and it was agreed to by the board. He went off at the meeting where the proposal was brought before the board for a formal vote. He was particularly upset with me for not calling him to tell him about the By Law change and springing it on him at the meeting. He chewed me out during the meeting to the point that several board members attacked him for missing so many meetings. The proposal passed 13-0, but it didn't stop him from grabbing me in the parking lot and continuing to harangue me. I finally shut him down and went home. He sent the board a message the next day stepping down at the end of the year.



I immediately sent an e-mail to the club soliciting volunteers to work the web next year. I have three great candidates, including the current webmaster for the Department of Justice in Sacramento. I will interview each of them, but will likely pick him. The current webmaster will train him for the rest of the year and the new webmaster will take over in 2008. He will get six green fees during the year as compensation for his work on the board (a $240 stipend).



This week, I will be up in Redding tomorrow for the Shasta I Day golf event. Back in the office Wednesday and then off Thursday and Friday in Monterey for the Monterey Bay Insurance Agents Golf Event. Next weekend is two days of golf in the finals of the club championship. I will be traversing the state this week and will see a good number of our agents in these two events. Darla will go to Monterey with me and we are staying at a nice bed and breakfast in Pacific Grove Thursday night. The Victorian mansion was built in 1889 and we will be staying in one of the Victorian rooms with feather beds and antiques. It will be a blast. The website is http://www.centrellainn.com/.



We start our new Life Group tonight with Bob and Vicki Pando. It will be a mostly social gathering tonight as we get to know the new members of our group and set some guidelines for our group going forward. It will be nice to get back into the Word and being part of a life group after the break this Summer. It's also nice to have football back. I hope you are all well. Jennifer is fat and happy. Check out her blog at the link to the right of this entry. Dad and Shirley should be getting back from their trip this week and we look forward to seeing the family in Austin at the end of this month. Ciao.