Wow. Another great trip is in the books and I REALLY enjoyed Torrey Pines. The weather was partly cloudy and temperatures in the mid sixties. The course is absolutely beautiful and the venue is breathtaking. We flew out at 7:30 AM on Friday and arrived at 9 AM in San Diego. By the time we got our rental car (a Chrysler 300 instead of a Chrysler Pacifica SUV by the way. Now, why do we make reservations again? Perhaps only the car companies' know.) and over to the course it was about 10:30. Our tee time of 12:40 was too late to get in 18 holes and I'd tried to call and move us up, but to no avail. The guy on the line said, "Just get here early and let the starter know you'd like to get out ASAP. You'll have no problem as we've had so many cancellations because of the fires." Sure and pigs fly. We finally teed off at 12:30 after enjoying a nice breakfast in the Grille room and hitting balls at the practice range and putting. While I was on the putting green, a Japanese gentleman approached me nodding and bowing. I couldn't quite make out what he wanted and finally he pointed at my rear end and I had the paper safety seat from the rest room tucked into my pants and trailing behind me. I wasn't sure what the weather would be when I left home and had worn shorts covered by Reebok work out pants. Apparently, when I'd visited the men's room after a hearty breakfast, I'd brought the paper toilet seat cover with me and couldn't feel it as it was between my shorts and the exercise pants. Classy dude, eh?
The courses we played over the two days were tough, championship style courses and it makes me realize that my handicap is artificially low because of the level of courses that I regularly play and how well I know those courses. I shot 45+42=87 on Friday at Torrey Pines and finally figured out the speed of the greens on the back nine. I managed a birdie 3 on number ten and will watch the pros at the US Open to see how many can't match my score on that hole. The glider port off hole number three is interesting and you can see a picture of one of the human kites flying by on the tee at number 4. At one point there were about eight kites in the sky at one time flying by the beach off the cliffs next to that hole. How they keep from whacking into each other as they twist and turn in the air current is beyond me.
In the pictures above, the first picture is Mel and I. Mel is the husband of my personal lines renewal underwriter, Cora, and we have played golf together for 4 years. The second picture is of me and Boyd. Boyd is a 4 handicap and a regular in my golf group on weekends and in tournaments. Boyd is 67 years old and shot his age in a round this past May. Boyd also joined me at Pebble Beach in April. The third picture is of the course at Barona Creek in Lakeside. Barona Creek is at an Indian Casino outside San Diego and was the home to the Nike Tour Championship event in October. The course is beautiful.
We were supposed to have a foursome for the weekend, but one of Boyd's friends has a father who was just put into hospice and he had to bow out of the trip. He is a member at Barona Creek and set up the golf for us there. Unbeknownst to us, he had comped the $160 per round golf for us on Saturday, so that was a nice surprise as we arrived and were treated royally by the course. We had a 10:40 tee time and as our names were called and we were receiving instructions from the starter, one of the golf club managers approached the starter and drew him aside. I happened to overhear their conversation and the club manager told the starter that they had a VIP that wanted to get out earlier than his 11:50 tee time and to fit him in. It turns out that the "VIP" was the best friend of Oprah Winfrey's boyfriend. Hopefully, I am never that desperate that I have to use my status as the best friend of some nobody to get on a golf course.
Barona was in even better shape than Torrey, but it is located in a valley surrounded by rocky hills and is definitely second rate to the Torrey Pines venue. Again, i struggled early with a 45 on the front side, but pulled it together and had back-to-back birdies on the backside and shot 40 for an 85. Boyd, who shot 85 at Torrey, struggled to a 42 on the front, but played lights out on the back with a one under 35 for a 77. Mel shot 96 at Torrey and 91 at Barona.
I traveled with a 55 year old and a 67 year old and when I suggested that we go out to dinner in La Jolla on Friday night was shut down. Boyd didn't want to have to get back in the car and instead we opted to eat at the Sheraton. It turned out o be a good choice as we had their Prime Rib and scallops, a glass of wine, the Cajun corn chowder and a salad and paid $30 each. The hotel gave us a voucher for 50% off our dinner tab. We finished dinner at 9 PM and headed back to our rooms. Mel roomed with me and we watched the Kings-Cavaliers game on ESPN. I had to give up my tickets to the game to go to San Diego and wanted to enjoy the game. I was hooting and hollering and finally Mel rolled over and said, "Ken. I'm tired. Aren't you tired?" I was out with the party animals this weekend. I quietly watched the rest of the game and went to bed at 10:30. Wild times in San Diego.
I came home to rain and overflowing gutters. The rain was over by yesterday and I spent part of the day raking leaves and the other clearing the gutters. I have gutter guards over the entire length of my rain gutters, but small leaves and dirt still get into the gutters and mulch up and finally clog the downspouts. I hosed out the entire length of gutters and refitted the gutter guards and hopefully will be good for the rest of the rainy season. This last storm knocked down a lot of the leaves and it will take a final cold snap to knock out the remaining leaves. The city is good at collecting the leaves when I rake them and leave them in piles in the street.
Daniel was home this weekend and Darla's brother, Steve, was here from Hawaii, so the Westra clan had a Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday. I had to miss it because I was in San Diego, but the group had a great time. It was quite a storm on Saturday night and Darla and the boys had to traverse the route home from Paradise in a downpour. There was ground fog in Paradise and it was slow going coming home. They got home about 12:30 AM and I was fast asleep.
Darla has ordered a new laptop. She got in trouble at work for using her company laptop to conduct Silpada business. The lady in HR that handled the meeting is one of Darla's Silpada customer's, strangely enough. She has ordered a new HP laptop and is getting an employee discount through her friend, Missy, who works for HP.
Work awaits. it is Veteran's Day and the city of Sacramento is in Holiday mode as this is a government town and most of the population is off on a holiday. It took me about 25 minutes to drive the 18 miles to work today and the on ramps didn't even have the carpool lanes in operation today as the traffic was so light. I will close the office early today and send everyone home to their families mid afternoon. I hope you all are well. I'm off to Santa Cruz and Pasatiempo on Thursday for golf with one of my agents. My assistant, Dinda, had a premature granddaughter born on Friday with induced labor. Camille Elyse is only 2 lbs, 10 oz and has a rare vascular malformation. She is only given a 2% chance to live, so please pray for Dinda, her daughter Gina and little Camille. Ciao.
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