Samantha the Monkey

Jennifer sent some pictures of Samantha in her Halloween costume. She is a monkey, but she's not too keen on the mask part. She'll get better as she gets older. Boy, she's a doll. I'd empty the whole dish of candy into her bag if she knocked on my door. Jennifer will spend part of Halloween with John so he can see Samantha and they hope to get some better pictures of her then. Happy Halloween!

Indian Summer...Again

Summer does not want to leave us as this weekend has seen temperatures approaching 90 degrees. I have to be prepared for cold weather as the trip to frigid Detroit, Michigan looms in about ten days. My blood is thin after this week of warm daytime highs. I'm sporting a bit of a sunburn after two days of golf this week and some time spent in the yard cleaning the pool yesterday.

We went to church today expecting to meet Anthony and Erin from work, but they failed to show up. I don't know what happened. I invited them as we had a guest speaker today, Ken Mansfield. Ken was an agnostic who was the American Head of Apple Records and was hired by the Beatles in the '60's to direct their album sales and entry into the US market. Ken was a big deal with Capitol Records, the VP of merchandising, when the Beatles came calling. He recognized the potential of the Beatles after visiting London and helped to create a new division with capitol that co branded smaller record labels like Apple. He immersed himself into the entire phenomenon that was the Beatles and slowly lost himself as his fame grew along with he Beatles. He eventually left Capitol to form his own label and after initial success with Waylon Jennings and James Taylor, his label eventually failed and he found himself not only out of work, but out of options. He was no longer a viable commodity within the corporate circle and finally packed up his things in LA and headed to Nashville. He did bring something with him to Nashville and it was the transcendental spiritualism that found him with a guru. He eventually met a young Christian woman who argued with him about "the way". Ken agreed that Christianity was a way, but not "the way". His girlfriend told him that she could not waste her life with someone who would not live in the Kingdom after life on Earth.

Ken found himself so far out of the industry that he eventually accepted a position with a small amphitheater in Nashville. When Whitney Houston came to the theater in 1987, he was a member of the AV crew and was called out by Whitney to fix some re verb on her mike. When he walked out, he saw three of his former cronies in the corporate world of the recording industry sitting in the front row drinking champagne and they just stared at him. It was the single most humiliating moment of his life and he knelt down that day and gave his life to the Lord. He had to be broke for the Lord to break him.

He went on to tell us of a story of an event that he attended at a mega church in San Diego several years ago and a woman stood during the Q&A portion of the event and told Ken that she was a member of a youth group at her church in 1969 and the youth pastor passed around a hat with a slip of names that he wanted the kids to pray for. The names were those of the Beatles, their spouses, members of the roadies, and the Beatles management. Many of her friends got Paul McCartney and John Lennon and other famous people. She picked out a name she had never heard of and began praying for that person. The name was Ken Mansfield. The woman went on to tell him that she prayed for him daily for seven years and then left home and went to Los Angeles, where she fell away from the church and began "sleeping with the enemy". Ken in the meantime had found Christ and he was proud that day to watch as that woman came forward to rededicate her life. It came full circle. Ken's book is "The Beatles, the Bible and Bodega Bay". He was very convicting and a very powerful speaker. He is, by the way, married to the woman who helped him change his life, the one he met in Nashville. One of Ken's credos is that EGO is not a word, it is an acronym and stands for Edge God Out.

I decided Friday night that the Mustang was getting dirty. I took it into the shop and had new front struts installed to smooth out the ride and the mechanics got some fingerprints and smudges on the hood and it was due a good wash. As I was out spraying off the car, some old man walking in the park started yelling at me. I heard him, but thought he was yelling at some kids playing soccer. He finally got my attention. He was wearing Bermuda shorts and sandals with white socks and told me that I couldn't wash my car, it was "against the law in Roseville." I told him that there was an open hose law and that your garden hose had to have a nozzle on it so it wouldn't run down the street. "You're wrong and you could get fined," he said. I thanked him for his opinion, called him a Democrat and told him to go vote for Barack Hussein Obama and leave me alone. We need to be prepared for government taking over our lives if the Democrats win and it looks more and more likely that they will. God help me.

I went to Modesto on Thursday and Lorraine only had two appointments set up, so I knocked off at three and went over to Creekside Golf Course. I had played Dryden in Modesto, but not Creekside. I joined up with two other guys and proceeded to have my best round of the year, shooting 37+37=74, I was on fire and hitting every green. It was great to see it all come together for one day at least. I wasn't able to carry that over to the tournament on Saturday as I shot 43+40=83 and took fourth in my flight.

Jennifer and John continue in my prayers and especially Samantha, who has just started taking her first steps. Jennifer has moved into an apartment with a girlfriend and has Samantha one week on and one week off. Something happened between the two of them and there is a serious disconnect right now. Pray for some Heavenly guidance for both of them as they navigate the bumpy path of separation. Pray also for Samantha that she stay healthy and content during this period while her Mommy and Daddy try to sort things out.

Our two year-old dishwasher is having problems. Darla asked me to look at it last Sunday because the door was hard to shut. I opened it and the right side dropped about four inches. It turns out that the spot weld for the hinge on the right side worked loose from the tub. It is a GE Profile Dishwasher and cost close to $900. We had GE out on Wednesday and they took one look and said they couldn't fix it. The repairman contacted GE and they in turn got in touch with us and offered to replace the unit with a New GE Profile Dishwasher. The new one retails for $1,200 and should be installed this week. The only thing we are out is the $99 service call fee, which I'm sure I could argue. The point is, though, the dishwasher was out of warranty and GE is stepping up to replace it. The repairman said that he has seen several other spot welds not hold, so this is not an isolated incident.

Darla and I went out to Home Depot last night and bought a new chandelier and a new matching light for our entry hall. I plan to install them next Saturday. They are antique brass fixtures with etched glass holders and globes. Darla has been slowly upgrading our fixtures and appliances and things look good around here.

Well, it looks like the weather is supposed to turn cooler this week and we have a chance of rain by next weekend. I'm supposed to play golf Wednesday with Boyd, Darren and Bob at Lincoln Hills. Darren has a pass for four players with cart that runs out at year end, so we are happy to help him use it up. Perhaps the weather will clear up by Sunday when the club holds the Past President event. I will write more next week. Take care. Ciao.

SURPRISES

I came to find out this week how deceptive both my wife and my staff can be. The annual Big I Day Insurance Convention was held at the Sacramento Convention Center on Tuesday. Our office hosted a booth as we do every year and had our brochures and goodies there for the agents to pick up and visit with us. I sent some of my staff there Tuesday morning to man the booth and I showed up with a few other underwriters for the lunch and we worked the booth in the afternoon. The secretary of the Insurance Brokers and Agents had called me on the Friday before and offered to give my office an assigned table at the event. The tables are for 12 and you generally have to buy 12 tickets to get a table. I was a little surprised as we only had eight tickets, but accepted the offer. When the time came for the group to give out the Associate member of the Year Award, the speaker began introducing the winner by saying, "This member likes three sports 'Golf, Golf and Golf'. He enjoys vacationing in Hawaii and Mexico where he likes to play Golf." I thought, "Wow, this guy is a man among men. I'd like him." The speaker went on to say, "He has two sons that attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University and a daughter in Las Vegas, Nevada and the apple of his eye is his granddaughter, Samantha Paige who is 9 months old." It dawned on me at that point and I looked up to see my entire staff grinning at me like my pants were on backwards. it was a complete surprise and I walked up to the podium to accept the award in front of 1500 of my closest friends. It was a very nice honor and they continue to insist that the call I took earlier in the week asking me to join the board of directors of the Association was just a coincidence. Yeah, sure. We happened to have one of the Managers from Detroit in town for the conference and ended up going to dinner with the gentleman who won the Agent of the Year award that night. Darla was in the crowd seated at the back of the room with the father and wife of the agent winner. She took some pictures, but was at the very back of the room and you can't see anything on her film. Again, it was a nice honor and I look forward to working with the group next year. I've got a feeling that I will be asked to chair the annual golf tournament next year, which will be no problem.

The weather is very nice this weekend, in the mid eighties yesterday and should hit 78 degrees today, perfect Fall weather. I played golf Monday in the Pro-President NCPGA event at Del Paso Country Club. I shot an 80 and my pro, Scott, shot 75. We ended up in a tie for 66 and our undoing was a double-bogey 5 on a par three on the backside where both Scott and I had 5. We ended up one stroke out of the money, with the winning team at 58 splitting $1,300. I got a nice PGA golf shirt and some good memories. It was nice to shoot good golf in such an important event. I played yesterday with the guys and shot 82 at Woodcreek after starting one under after four holes. I won $11 on my two birdies and was happy. I played with Darren, a friend who had played most of the Summer with us, but dropped out about two months ago. He had borrowed my power washer and returned it yesterday with a dozen balls and a bottle of 2006 Ponte Merlot from the Temecula Valley here in California. He called it interest for the time he held onto my power washer.

I ended up using the power washer with some CLR and power washing the tile and river rock on the pool. It didn't do a perfect job. I need to get some ScaleAway and use a wire brush to clean up the area around the waterfalls, which get kind of heavy with buildup.

Jennifer and John have split up at least temporarily in Vegas. They are working through some issues and I hope for Samantha's sake that they end up back together. John is a very gentle soul and a great father. They are both excellent parents, but hopefully their decision not to marry doesn't cost them both their family. Samantha is doing great. John sent us a video of Sam pushing her toy box around. It is on wheels and she would get behind it and push until she hit a wall and then walk around the box and start pushing from the other side. She is so incredibly cute and smart and it is only a matter of time before she is walking. Her one year birthday comes up in December.

This is a bit short this week, but I have chores to do, so I will bid you adieu for now. Ciao.

Windy Weekend

Downed fences, branches, tree limbs, leaves and a pool full of dirt, leaves, roof tiles, dust and assorted other debris is all that is left of the wind that blew in on Thursday and slowly diminished today. We had sustained winds of 15-25 MPH with gusts up to 50 MPH in certain areas. Our fence being new withstood the onslaught, but living across from a park with 100s of trees left me picking up a mess of leaves and branches yesterday and today. The pool is slowly being cleared up as the equipment makes its way around the sides and bottom of the pool. I spent about an hour skimming and cleaning the pool today and then trimmed the bushes around the pool and cleaned up the front yard. The place looks good, but the whole town has had a good blow this weekend. Darla and I went to church today and one of the metal sheds that the church uses to store various odds and ends had blown up off it's foundation and was lying twisted and broken next to its pad. The only good that came from this is that many of our neighbor's tacky Halloween trimmings of ghosts and goblins and stuffed scarecrows didn't survive the weather.

The economy is a real concern as the stock market continues it's slide into obscurity and home ownership is threatened even further by dropping house prices pushing many so far upside down in their homes that they can't see the bottom from below the surface where they now reside. Luckily Darla and I bought our home in 1999 so we are still sitting on equity in our home, but it has shrunk to minuscule proportions. Many are losing millions in the stock market and retirees are being sorely tested and the soon to retire see that date pushed further back from their original goals. I am a buyer in this market and have closed out the cash position in my IRA and 401 Ks with new purchases of blue chip, battered stocks this last week. There are some bargains in the stock market, unfortunately that includes many positions that I hold and have held for years. I got out of financial stocks about six months ago, but I'm testing the waters again with some financial index mutual funds. it is hard to call a bottom in this market, but with oil dropping and home prices beginning to bottom out, we are close.

So what do you do in troubled times? Well, go golfing, of course. I played Yocha-de-he in the Capay Valley at Cache Creek Indian Casino on Saturday. The wind was whipping and we all struggled on the 6907 yard course. I managed to keep calamity at bay and shot 47+42=89, which is high, but I beat two of the pros from our course, one who shot 90 and the other 92. Scott, our head pro managed his game beautifully in the wind and shot 76. Boyd (a 6 handicap) shot 85 and my 89 was tied for 4th low gross in the tournament. Scott placed me with Rick, Neil and Tim, who all shot well over 100. I would be very happy to go back on a less windy day and have a shot at the course. The set-up is gorgeous, with the first tee sitting on a hill with a view of the valley below and the fairway 120 feet below us. You get a good look at most of the course layout from the first tee and it is breathtaking. I struggled on the front nine as I was trying to steer the ball and play a low cut. I decided to play my normal set up on the back and just swing easy (The old credo "when it's breezy, swing easy" is true). If the wind was in my face or blowing left to right, I'd aim the ball on the left side and let my normal fade play a bit wider.

We had a ball and I even managed to win $60 on a dime machine playing poker when I hit four deuces before we teed off. I bought Boyd breakfast as he drove up from Roseville.

It is Daniel's 19th birthday today and Darla is feeling his absence a bit more keenly. She napped and when she woke up, she said, "Whew I was tired, labor makes me tired." I looked at her strangely, but remembered it was her son's birthday today. David got in a bike accident last week and dislocated his shoulder. He was riding back to his apartment and the chain slipped on his bike and he went over the handlebars and landed on his shoulder. He is sore and has to take the bus now because he can't ride until the separation heals. Daniel's girlfriend had her apartment broken into and she and all of her roommates lost their laptops. They were so freaked out, they moved from that apartment to another because they didn't feel safe.

Randy and Cake are in Vegas this week and I'm not sure if they got together with Jennifer yet. Hopefully they will be able to see little Samantha and perhaps have dinner with Jennifer.

I will play in the Pro-President tournament tomorrow with Scott our head pro. The NCPGA tournament is being held at Del Paso Country, the oldest and most prestigious of the local country clubs. It was shut down two years ago for 11 months and completely redesigned. I played it in it's old configuration and look forward to giving it a go in it's new design/ Scott's game is definitely on. I was waiting to hit my third shot on one of the par fives on Saturday and Scott's drive came rolling in behind us. He must have hit it 345 yards downwind.

Work continues at a frenetic pace. Our October is shaping up to be quite good and I held my meeting with the Modesto staff. I'll be a fixture in their office for awhile as we try to steady the bumps in the office and get back on track.

Well, that's it for this week. I hope all are well. Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians and to all the Americans, God bless in these trying political times. An actual quote from Barrack Hussein Obama: "This is the greatest country in the world. Vote for me and Joe Biden and help us change it." A quote from the great John Wayne: "Life is hard. It's even harder if you're stupid". Think about it. Ciao.

Awesome trip to Oregon

Yep, it was an absolutely perfect trip to Bandon. The town of Bandon is named after Bandon, Ireland and is a perfect venue for a links golf course. The term "links" refers to a merging of the land and the ocean and the many "links-style" courses popping up in places like Colorado and Arizona are a complete misnomer. The courses include many moguls and short cut fairways that run up and onto a green allowing you to virtually putt the ball from 60 yards off the green. The uniqueness of Bandon is in the fact that there are 3 championship courses located within the resort that can be played. We played all three courses, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We left for Bandon on Sunday afternoon, finally meeting up with the RV at about 2:30 in the afternoon. One of the guys, a single Dad was running late as he was coming back from another golf trip to Las Vegas and his plane was late. We picked him up at his house about 3:00 PM and were off to Bandon. The motor home was large and spacious with a big kitchen area and living area as well as a large bedroom. We watched football on the way and the reception slowly got worse the farther we got away from Sacramento. With Dallas having lost a winnable game, the reception was just fine for me. We stopped in Yreka for gas and dinner (a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken and beer). We stopped again in Ashland for a driver change and pressed on to Bandon, arriving about midnight. Boyd and I shared a hotel room at the Bandon Inn that night, two of the guys hooked up with friends (caddies) who live in Bandon and the other three stayed the night in the motor home. Boyd had a heck of a time sleeping as I am out as soon as my head hits the pillow and my snoring kept him awake until about 2 AM. He took a book and sat in the bathroom to read and get himself tired enough to sleep and could still hear me even with the fan on.

We awoke about 8 AM and after showering walked into the little fishing village of Bandon, known for their fishing, cranberry farming and now golf. The gang called about 8:40 and wanted to come to the room to shower and we said for $10 a man, we'd have no problem (J/K). We got over to the resort about 10:00 AM for our 11:20 tee time. The resort is absolutey immaculate with Scottish style architecture and a great shuttle system that will take you between the courses, the driving range and the various restaurants on the site. We played Bandon Trails, the newest of the three courses, with a fourth under construction and expected to be completed in 2010. Bandon Trails is probably the hardest of the three courses and the least picturesque. It is located in the hills above the other two ocean courses and is very narrow, hilly and covered in moguls. The caddies would often point out the spot to hit the ball and we'd comply, getting comments like"perfect shot" from the caddies only to find our ball hit the side of a mogul and shot dead right or left into a trap. I shot 88 on Monday and felt like I was just hanging on. Boyd shot 83 and the best score was a 78 by Harry.

Tuesday we played Bandon Dunes, the oldest and most famous of the three courses, It is a little more open and though rated higher than Bandon Trails on slope, plays much more fair. I shot 40+41=81 to beat Harry, who had an 87. Boyd shot 79.

Wednesday we played Pacific Dunes, the prettiest course of the three with about ten holes that are on the water or open to views of the ocean. I struggled a little bit with "lip-outs" on at least 4 holes and had an 84 for the day.

The trip overall was great. The weather each day was in the low 70's with morning coastal fog burning off by about 11 AM. Perfect conditions for golf. Boyd was in bed by 9 PM on Monday night and wanted to fall asleep before me. I ended up going to sleep about 9:30 as well. The food at the resort was inexpensive and very good, but one of our party had a bad experience on Tuesday night. We met at McKee's Tap Room for dinner. Boyd and I had the fish and chips ($15), which were excellent, but John ordered the special of New York steak and fried oysters for $40. The steak was about an inch thick and curling up on both ends. The oysters looked under-cooked with the batter falling off the shellfish. He took two bites and sent it back, asking instead for the meatloaf special. Meanwhile we all ate our dinners. His dinner took over twenty minutes and we filled his head with visions of the kitchen staff rolling his meat on the floor and doing other unmentionables to the sauce and John looked a little green. He finally called the waitress over and canceled his dinner order. When the bill came, he had a $40 charge for the steak and was outraged. He called over the manager who bent over backwards to make him happy, finally sending two orders of potstickers to the Bunker Bar, where we gathered to play bar dice and drink some adult libations. We ended up hooking up with our caddy friends (who used to belong to the Roseville Golf Club) and playing Texas Hold'em. Randy texted me from Toronto as I was playing dice.

We also met the caddies and a few of their brethren and played a ten man game of "stymie" golf on the par three course after our round on Tuesday. The idea is to win the hole outright with a birdie, but the rules are that all balls remain on the green and the furthest from the hole goes first. It is a distinct disadvantage to be closest to the hole as each player will block the hole with his ball. We played ten holes before finally getting a winner who won $90. It was interesting. Boyd won on hole 9, but couldn't validate his win by at least tying on the next hole.

It was a great trip and we got home Wednesday night about 1:45 AM. I had to work the next day, but Darla woke up and was chatty. We ended up talking until I finally told her at 2:30 that I had to get some sleep. Darla had repainted the living room from the yellow that she had painted it several years ago to a chocolate brown on two walls and maroon on two walls. It looks good and I could smell the paint when I walked into the house. I'll be off to the Manager's meeting in Detroit in early November and I suspect the office will probably get a new coat of paint. I picked an Ice Blue color for it several years ago and Darla has never been very thrilled with it. She is definitely a color person.

The office did well in September, beating our budget and we celebrated on Friday with a taco bar from Rubio's Mexican restaurant. It was very well done with chips, rice, guacamole, black beans, refried beans, salsa, lettuce, steak, chicken and soft flour and corn tortillas. The cost was about $10 a person and the food was excellent. We had a huge amount of leftvers and I brought a tupperware of chicken home as Darla was gone on Friday night at a conference in San Francisco with her Silpada jewelry business. We actually had burritos last night that Darla made up using the last of the meat.

I did play golf Saturday at Diamond Oaks and had my best round in while with a 40+38=78, winning $9.00 in skin money from my friends. My game feels really smooth right now and we are off to Yocha-de-he on Saturday with four of the pros from Diamond and 16 golfers. Yocha-de-hee is on an Indian casino in the Capay Valley outside Woodland. The course is a Troon course designed by Brad Bell and should be a challenge. We will stay on afterward and play some games of luck at the casino before driving home.

Well, this was all golf and more golf, but so is my life at the moment. I hope all are well. Ciao.