Off to Detroit...Again

I will be on a jet plane come Wednesday morning at 6:00 AM and the country will have a new President to be sworn in once again on Darryl's birthday in 2009. I fly to Phoenix, eat breakfast and change planes to Detroit. On the way back they have changed my flight to United and I will fly to Denver, change planes and arrive back in Sacramento Saturday night at about 8:45 PM. This will be my first year at the Branch manager's meeting as a full Branch manager. The office is doing well in a down market,. Our numbers are off on the bottom line about $100,000, but we actually have about 8% more policies this year than last and my staff has shrunk by three people. How we stay ahead of it is any one's guess. Certainly, the advent of Image right and the paperless system has made us much more efficient, but we still have to set up the policies and type them and I've been making due with one less typist. Service has slipped in terms of the length of time it takes to produce a policy and I finally have a new typist. Bonnie has worked for the Modesto office since I hired her, but she has transferred to my staff and will begin typing policies in the next week.

Darla and I got the new lights put in this weekend and I have to admit they look great. The old ones were polished brass and looked dated. the new ones are antique brass with a silver highlight and just look new and modern. It was a bit of a chore to put the hall light in, but once I figured out how to install that one, the chandelier was a snap. I kept getting the chain too long on the hallway light and it was hanging down into the armoire. I finally cut it back to just two links and it sits just right/ The chandelier is a bit higher than our other one, but that one was always in the way when we were talking at the table and I wanted to install this one higher. The lamps are brighter, so the effect is the same.

I played golf with Bob, Boyd and Darren on Thursday at Lincoln Hills and put my new Callaway FT-3 Fusion driver in play for the first time. My drives were consistently long and in the fairway and I shot (what else?) 44+39=83. I began to get a good feel for the driver on the back nine and hoped to carry that over to the tournament today. Well, finally, it all came together for me. I started with a birdie on number one and shot 37 on the front side. Mind you, I was playing golf with the current two time defending club champion and Boyd, a past two time club champion. I beat them on the front as Boyd had 39 and Jay had 40. I started to stutter on the backside with a bogey-par-bogey-bogey start, but found my gear and put up a string of pars followed by a birdie on 17 before bogeying the number one handicap 18th hole for a 39 on the back and a 76 for the round. Boyd shot 38 on the back and Jay had a a 38 and I beat them both gross. I didn't hang around to see where I finished. I may have had field low gross, but I'm sure I took low gross in my flight. I would have won the trophy for the Past Presidents, but I am not considered a past President until next year. My only regret was that I didn't sign up for skins today as I got there late and didn't have time to stop and get some cash. Both of my birdies were on stroke holes and were net eagles. My handicap dropped back to a 9.7 as of November 1st, but this tournament was played with October handicaps as they changed on Saturday.

I was surprised that we even got a chance to play golf today as we have had a storm that rolled in Thursday night hit our area and we have had over two inches of rain since then. We had almost an inch and a quarter just yesterday. Diamond Oaks generally floods, but the creeks were mostly empty prior to the storm and the course soaked up the water pretty good. The bunkers were wet and had puddles in them and some of the fairways had small puddles in areas, but overall the course was in great shape and the greens were soft. I was pin hunting all day and it served me well.

Samantha ended up with a touch of bronchitis this week and had to stay home from day care on Thursday. Jennifer kept her home on Friday and didn't get to spend Halloween with john, so no new pictures of Sam the Monkey, but I'm sure we'll get more.

The trip to Vancouver for Shirley's birthday celebration will be here before we know it. One of Shirley's grandsons plays competitive hockey and has a big tournament that weekend and will be gone out of the Province. Her son, Cameron, will also be on that trip and won't be able to be there. It would be nice if her daughter-in-law was able to take him, but I think Cam is living vicariously through his son's accomplishments.

Here is a photo of Dad and Shirley as they dressed up for Halloween for a party they attended. Dad wanted to let Jennifer know that he's still hip or hadn't broken a hip or something. Wild and Crazy stuff. I'll blog more next week. Stay well and Be Happy. Ciao.